Click here started its virtual book tour journey on October 1 to November 15, 2014, and I do not expect to make a profit.

A profit would be nice, but as you read this post, you will discover that traditional publishers usually don’t expect a profit—if there is any—until long after the book tour—if there is one—because old fashioned book tours are rare and expensive.

Just in case you think every traditionally published author gets a book tour from a publisher, think again.

In March 2010, the Los Angeles Times reported, as the business of publishing changes, book tours increasingly look like bad risks. “In 99.9% of cases," says Peter Miller, director of publicity at Bloomsbury USA, "you can't justify the costs through regular book sales."

Traditional book tours are expensive, because authors usually fly from city to city between states or countries and the cost can runs into the thousands.

For instance, Click here, by car, and concluded that the direct cost of a six month book tour would run $12,345, and he would have to sell 2,465 books to break even.

In addition, Click here—in 2006—said, "There are 5,500 adult trade fiction titles published every year, and a tiny percentage of those books' authors get sent on tour… Assuming that an average 10-city tour costs, say $25,000 (toting up airfare, hotels, escorts and co-op advertising), most book tours are far from cost-effective in terms of the number of copies sold at signings."

How is a virtual book tour different and why is that important?

I’m inviting you to read on and discover how much this virtual tour has cost me in dollars and time, and we will start with the publicist, who arranged the 20+, Book Blog tour and charged $534.35.

You might think that’s expensive, but consider the $12,345 and/or $25,000+ mentioned above for the cost of a traditional book tour.

Next, there’s the cost of the complementary books sent to the book bloggers who agreed to be the hosts of Crazy is Normal’s virtual book tour.

This is where I stop to deal with potential critics who will claim sending out free books is like buying a review, but that kind of thinking is wrong because the traditional book publishing industry has done it for decades—long before POD, e-books and Amazon came alone. Traditional Publishers have always sent out hundreds of free copies of new books, for instance, to book stores, magazines, newspapers, and other authors hoping that this would result in positive reviews and media attention.

To send out complimentary copies for this virtual tour cost $28.93 for eight e-books and $103.69 for fourteen paperbacks for a total of $132.62, and that included the postage for the paperbacks that I ordered directly from Amazon for the e-books and Create Space for the paperbacks. Create Space allows authors to mail directly from the printing plant and placing the order was easy.

Then there was $180 to promote Crazy is Normal during the virtual tour with e-mail blasts from Bargain Booksy (Oct. 5), The Fussy Librarian (Oct. 7), eReaderNews Today (Oct. 17), Book Gorilla (Oct. 20), Kboards (Oct. 25), and Indie Book Promo (starting Nov. 8). I might add more before the tour ends. If so, I’ll update.

The great thing about a virtual tour (I’ve been on several and one local-traditional tour in 2008), the author doesn’t have to leave home and that saves a lot of time and money.

In addition, I also supplied nine excerpts for the book, wrote four guest posts and answered questions for five interviews that will appear during the tour. I didn’t keep track of the time, but if each one took an hour, on average, that’s 17-hours, well spent.

I’m also using Twitter during the Tour to announce each stop, and here are the Tweets I’m using several times a day. I’ll be back to add new ones as they appear.

The publicist I use to organize and arrange a book blog tour is Teddy Rose and Bill Pope, Virtual Author Book Tours.com at
Click here

Day 1 of Bk-Blog Tour
1st Review Click hereoLittleTime
Click here 
Click here

Day 2 of Bk-Blog Tour
1st Guest Post .InspireToRead
I worked with 6,000+ students
Click here
Click here

Day 3 of Bk-Blog Tour
2nd Guest Post Click here
Click here
Click here 

Day 5 of Bk-Blog Tour
1st e-mail blast .BargainBooksy
Click here
Click here–

Day 6 of Bk-Blog Tour
2nd Review
Welcome to #CassandraMsPlace
Click here
Click here

Day 6 of Bk-Blog Tour
1st interview
. PinkysFavorteReads
Click here
Click here

Day-7 of Bk-Blog Tour
Click here
2nd e-mail blast
60,919 readers interested in Memoirs
Click here

Day-8 of Bk-Blog Tour
.DrBillsBookBazaar says “this fabulous memoir”
3rd Review
Click here
Click here

Day 9 of Bk-Blog Tour
.BeingTillysMummy
3rd Guest Post
Click here
Click here

Day 10 of Bk-Blog Tour
.BeingTillysMummy
An excerpt from Crazy is Normal
Click here
Click here

Day14 of Bk-Blog Tour
.BackPorchervations

>>>Amazon Sales Rank #4 on Memoir-Educator genre list<<<

Day 23 of Bk-Blog Tour
With Melissa Beck
. TheBookBinder’sDaughter
10th Review
With Interview
Click here
Click here

>>>Amazon Sales Rank #4 on Memoir-Educator genre list<<<

Between Book Blog visits—10-24 to 10-28—promotional ads ran on:
http://www.ebooklister.net/
http://www.sweetiespicks.com/
http://digitalbooktoday.com/
and
Click here

Day 29 of Bk-Blog Tour

>>>Amazon Sales Rank #8 on Amazon’s Memoir-Educator genre<<<

Day 30 of Bk-Blog Tour
Hosted M. Denise Costello
12th Review
With Excerpt
Click here
Click here

>>>Amazon Sales Rank #5 on Memoir-Educator genre list<<<

Day 31 of Bk-Blog Tour
13^th Review
At DWD’s Reviews of Books, Audibooks, Music and Video
Click here

>>>Amazon Sales Rank #9 on Memoir-Educator genre list<<<

Day 34 of Bk-Blog Tour
14^th Review
. She Treads Softly
Click here

Day 34 of Bk-Blog Tour
People Reads Weekly Feature Promotion from November 3 - 9

>>>Amazon Sales Rank #14 on Memoir-Educator genre list<<<

>>>Amazon Sales Rank #5 on Memoir-Educator genre list<<<

Day 39 of Bk-Blog Tour

Indie Book Promo.com will run from November 8 to December 8

>>>Amazon Sales Rank #44 on Memoir-Educator genre list<<<

Day 41 of Bk-Blog Tour

Day 41 of Bk-Blog Tour

>>>Amazon Sales Rank #15 on Memoir-Educator genre list<<<