Virtual book tours are a boost for both blogger and author. Through a virtual book tour, an author gains recognition for a new book. At the same time, a blogger also receives increased traffic flow to their site. Or at least that’s been my experience since 2011, when I hosted my first virtual book tour. Since that time, I have reviewed for an assortment of tours, including several arranged by Teddy Rose of Virtual Author Book Tours.
In fact, it was the fall of 2011, when Teddy first contacted me to review a hardcover edition of A Dog’s Way Home. This is how I got introduced to Bobbie Pyron, whose career I have continued to follow. Since that fall, I’ve served as hostess to a few other tours for Teddy. The latest will happen this week and is also for yet another novel for Bobbie Pryon. Thus, I thought it fitting for my readers to know a little more about Teddy Rose herself.
Even so, this interview almost didn’t happen. After creating my schedule for April, I got caught up with other commitments and forgot until this week about my interview plans. A huge shout-out to Teddy for returning questions within two days, in time for me to post this interview with her.
Teddy Rose Wedding
ALLISON: What started your love of books?
TEDDY: When I was young, my parents were told I had dyslexia. I was put in a special education class for the first 2 years of elementary school. I remember my sister who is six years older than me, helping me to learn to read as well as my teacher. I got frustrated very easily. However, one day I just started reading, like someone flicked a light switch. Since then, there was no stopping me, I never took being able to read for granted.
I always liked to read before bed however when my mom told me it was time for lights out, I got the flashlight out and kept reading. She kept catching me but finally gave in as said, “at least turn on the light so you don’t go blind.” Perhaps that is why my eyesight is so bad. LOL!
ALLISON: Why did you get into doing virtual book tours?
TEDDY: During high school I got in the habit of writing down notes to keep track of books I have read. I have been doing that since. When blogs came around, I realized it would be a more organized way to keep and find my notes. It was purely for my own use. However, all of a sudden I started getting emails from publishers and authors asking me if I wanted books to review. I thought I died and went to heaven! I am a book addict, after all.
Then one day I received an email from a blogger friend asking me if I wanted to take part in a virtual tour. That was Trish from TLC book tours. I asked her how it worked and thought to myself that it would be fun to coordinate tours. TLC only works with traditionally published authors so I decided to open up a tour company that would work mainly with independent authors. I had read some really good indies by then!
I asked two authors I was following if I could put tours together for them for free to see how it would work out. By the end of the tours, I had two great testimonials. So then they helped me spread the word and I started getting authors coming to me. After about 6 months I realized that I was going to either have to give up my social work or the business. I thought it was all or nothing however, my employer wouldn’t let me go and we agreed I would go on contract as an consultant. So now I have the best of both worlds.
I have met some amazing authors and small presses over the years and it has been a pleasure to work with them all! By the way, I give a discount to indie and small press authors. I also have added other services over time as well.
I love what I do! I feel like by supporting authors, I am encouraging them to keep writing. Books are my drugs of choice, I feel the need to help those that help me get my “fix”.
ALLISON: Are there any books you do not accept for tours?
TEDDY: Yes, we will not accept books that have not been edited by someone other than the author. The number one reason some book bloggers won’t read indies is because of lack of editing. You really need to get a second set of eyeballs on your work. We also won’t accept any religious non-fiction/fiction. We accept each book on a case by case basis. If we think tour hosts would sign up for a tour and it meets the other criteria I mentioned, we will accept it.
DJ
ALLISON: What started your love of animals?
TEDDY: I have loved animals for as long as I can remember. I use to beg my parents for a pet but I was only allowed to have gold fish. Then after the second one died and I cried, I wasn’t allowed to even have them. My mom hates animals.
When I was 5 years old and found out that meat was from animals, I decided I wouldn’t eat meat. My parents were horrified and forced me to eat meat. When I was 10 my mom got really worried because I wasn’t gain weight like I should have been. She took me to the doctor who diagnosed me as anorexic. I told him I was not and that if I was allowed to be vegetarian, I would eat. I haven’t stopped eating since! I have been vegan for over 25 years now.
Since I graduated university, I have never lived without at least one pet. I have had wonderful cat and dog children. You can see many of them on my website: Teddy Rose Reviews Plus More. Our cat Amanda passed right before the new year so right now we just have our dog DJ, he is a Shetland sheep dog. I have volunteered in pet rescue and we will only adopt rescues.
ALLISON: Do you prefer dog/cat/bird/small pet? Why?
TEDDY: I fall in love with just about every animal I see! I don’t discriminate too much but do prefer the furry variety. My first pet was a rabbit, then cats and dogs. I’m still trying to figure out how we can get a giraffe to fit in our house. LOL! I love birds too but they just seem like their too much up keep.
ALLISON: What started your love of film?
TEDDY: I always loved movies but in my late 20’s I started hearing about foreign film and how much I was missing out on non-Hollywood film. There were very few places to see foreign film in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, where I grew up.
Then at the age of 29 I moved to Vancouver, British Columbia Canada and found out that they had theaters that played independent and foreign film. I immersed myself in it and then come fall, I found out about the ‘Vancouver International Film Festival’. I volunteered with them for 15 years. I would use my vacation to volunteer with them and then used more vacation days to attend. However, now that I mostly work for myself, I don’t have the time to volunteer and I see less during the festival. I use to see 75-90 films during the festival. Last year I saw 15.
ALLISON: Share a favorite moment from a film festival.
TEDDY: Wow, there are so many but I have to say that my favorite part has been the friends I have made through the years. When you’re waiting in line or waiting for a film to start, conversation about films start organically. Then talk of other common interests would come up. I have made some amazing friends over the years!
ALLISON: How do you juggle all your interests?
TEDDY: Well, that is the million dollar question! As far as reading goes, that’s easy. I try to get to bed by midnight and read until 2 am. That has always been my favorite time to read, when everything is at its quietest. When I am reading a book that I can’t put down, I read even longer but I try to discipline myself against that.
Since Bill and I don’t have human children we usually watch TV with dinner and subscribe to a lot of movie channels. Sometimes we will go out to movies on an evening or weekend and we like to dine out as well. Now that Vancouver is more vegan friendly, we have a lot of choices. I rarely find the time to knit anymore and I gave up quilting entirely.
We also belong to two meetup.com groups that meet up for vegan meals. If you don’t know about meetup.com, you don’t know what you are missing. There are groups in just about every community around the globe for various interests. I also belong to some business and social media meet up groups and have learned a lot from them!
ALLISON: Describe a favorite spot where you live in Canada.
TEDDY: The small park that Bill and I got married in. It’s not very busy compared to English Bay, Stanley Park, etc. Those are beautiful but living in a big tourist town, due to our natural beauty, those places are so crowded. The small park we got married in is a lot quieter. I just can’t feel close to nature with so many people around.
Teddy, Bill, and Peter Yarrow
ALLISON: Any other interests I have not covered?
TEDDY: Bill and I also love music, especially singer/song writer types. Like Joan Baez, Peter, Paul, and Mary, The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, etc. We also like rock like U2, REM, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, etc. We go to quite a few concerts during the year but mostly smaller venues. As much as we love some of the big names, we find that stadiums strip away the sound that we love.
However, we do go to outdoor music festivals in the summer. We go to at least two per summer. This year we have trips planned to Vancouver Island for a festival there and then two weeks later we will be making the 12 hour drive to the 4 day music festival in Calgary.
TEDDY: Thanks so much for inviting me to interview. I am always so busy organizing interviews for authors and it was fun to be invited to one myself!
ALLISON: You’re welcome! I enjoyed getting to know more about you. 🙂
As I mentioned, my latest involvement with Teddy’s tours is happening this week. Over the next few days, I’ll post an interview with author Bobbie Pyron, along with two of her books including Lucky Strike. Save the dates: April 22-24!
Allison's Book Bag 
April 25, 2015 at 5:57 pm
A great interview!