How to use this Page

When I published my first novel in April, I knew that a) I wanted to go on a book tour, and b) New authors, with a few exceptions, don't get book tours anymore.

Add a Comment

Add a Comment

Nine authors, publicists, and event givers talk about book tours in an article in the Awl. I love this quote from one of them: ”I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I always wanted to go on a book tour. When you’re submitting flash fiction to Kitty Fart Face Review and you see another writer going on a twelve-city tour with a novel, you too want that. You kind of crave it, even if you deny yourself in expressing it.

Read more about book tours from The Awl here.

And here's a look at my very first book tour, twelve years ago.

Add a Comment

Two weeks ago I was out on the road on a publisher organised tour. No doubt many Awfully Big Authors have done many such trips and tours but this was my first “official” time on show.

I am not new to the game. I’ve been doing school & library visiting for year – and still do if asked - but this was the first time I felt part of somebody else’s plan. Usually I’ve been a big part of the organising chat so have picked up some sense of what I’d been meeting, and been able to spread the events out to give some recovery time. This time, the knowledge was just a five-day paper schedule.

The trip was – with due respect- a low-key version. It wasn’t me swanning about among the venerable stones of Oxford, Cambridge, Bath, Cheltenham. Edinburgh. There were no hotels away from home, no glam meals and not even a Hogwarts express to whirl me along.

This was me, alone, driving to Lytham St Annes, Rotherham, Leeds, Stockton and Preston version, and not truly the worse for that. My publicity manager came all the way up from London to support me on Day One and Two, as well as meeting new on-the-ground contacts with a view to future visits by other authors.

So what do I know now that I didn’t before?

I know that having a kind of ”visit uniform” - no matter what style this takes - to put on in the groggy time after the alarm rings get greater as the week wears on but also that the putting on the "Showtime Coat" - as we call it home here - gets easier as the rhythm of the week goes on.

I know now that the sand dunes of Lytham St Anne’s are closer than I thought. I love learning the landscape, even when there are gale warnings across Lancashire and Yorkshire. The A59 has wonderful early morning views unless you get so dreamy about the hills (and the hour) that you forget to watch out for the pushy lorries, erratic tractors and slow tankers.

I know that a using a fixed book talk with powerpoint – rather than segueing through various titles as I have usually done - makes it much harder to edit down a talk when you must cut twenty-five minutes or risk book sales because the visiting schools arrive late and want to leave early and the kind bookseller is sitting there with piles of books on view.

I know that technology is definitely not all. The power behind the lamps of projectors is very, very variable which mattered when some of the images in my talk were archive photographs. One morning I had brand-new double screen clarity and brightness. That afternoon, even the best images could only be seen in the front row on a tiny unfolding screen. Ah, bless those 60’s plate-glass libraries with their daylight! So back to the original version, the "plain" author talk complete with a large display book of illustrations carried around the corners of the audience.

I know to check the tour sheet well. The schedule had a blip, a cut and paste address sent in that didn’t match the named school. If I hadn’t neurotically googled all the venues, we'd have lost one of the most positive and delightful schools of the week.

I know now that Publicity Managers need special skills. They need to be full of energy to cope with the early mornings, long days and late nights; full of calmness when not everything is as they had been told by their contacts and full of diplomacy when they have to witness the usually private witterings of pre-session authors. Time after time.

I know that I have met some brave people out there working as independent booksellers: the Storytellers Inc bookshop and creative space in

Display Comments Add a Comment

The Economist reports that Aylet Waldman “offered a deal to her 5,000-odd followers on Twitter and a similar number on Facebook. If someone would commit to mustering 50 or more readers to a talk and signing session at a bookshop, she promised to come, irrespective of whether it was in a metropolis or a backwater.”

It’s interesting that The Economist says she chose to forgo a traditional tour. Publishers are hardly touring authors at all these days, so was it really her choice? And I’d be curious if her publisher paid for travel or she did. One thing that might make a difference: her husband is author Michael Chabon, which probably means they have the means to self-finance.

Read more here.

Add a Comment

Here are three things we’re loving today: Lauren Oliver, Veronica Roth, and chocolate.  Specifically, the Moroco Chocolat Hall of Fame.  Did you have any idea this place existed?  We certainly didn’t!  Well, Lauren Oliver (DELIRIUM) and Veronica Roth (DIVERGENT) recently stopped by there  while they were on tour in Toronto, immortalizing their handprints in chocolate.  Take a look:

What we want to know is how they restrained themselves from licking their hands afterward.

Wishing you a delicious weekend!

Add a Comment

Twelve years ago, when I published my first book, it seemed easier to get book tours. I got toured with my second bookan experience which you can read here. There were more newspapers, for one thing, which might write a review of your book a few days before you came. Radio and TV shows had more local programming that might feature you.

One thing I've never considered is the bookseller's perspective. "Most publishers use event grids as a way for all stores to request touring authors. The grid is a massive Excel spreadsheet that needs to be filled out in with lots of in-depth detail about what you can do for the event: how many books will you order, what size crowd do you expect, what is your marketing plan for the event, etc." And this article in Publisher's Weekly says that when it comes to a national tour, a 20-person event is a disappointment.

Add a Comment

I definitely should be sleeping. It's 6:15 AM in Arizona. I am half way through my book tour.
I am being picked up at 8:00 AM to go to another school. After that, the airport where I will fly across the country to Raleigh, NC. Then two more stops in Texas.

I've been to a few schools and two bookstores so far and I have been greeted consistently whenever I arrive with a small waste basket full of trash! We made the video of me making Oops art and I guess it inspired a few book store owners and teachers. I feel like a magician staring into a trash can of crumpled paper, empty boxes, an occasional crushed soda can. "I've never seen any of this before. This is the first time we've met!" Kids seem to be a bit stunned that this old guy is reaching in, pulling out bits and pieces and taping things to a large poster size page, usually tapped to the wall. I have to say, it's always something different! While I'm up there, improvising, I imagine a number of the children watching, coming home and wanting to make art from things they find in the family trash. I am 'hoping' there are some parents out there with really open minds!

Okay, I'm going to try to sleep for fifteen minutes! Adios from Phoenix.

Add a Comment

Not too long ago, with the release of a new book, an author went out on a “book tour.”  Depending on the perceived sales potential and the size of the publishing house (as well as the author’s name), this involved the author traveling across the country for a few days to a few months to sign, speak about and otherwise promote the book.  The publisher (or the publishing house’s pr department) would set up a series of radio, TV and newspaper interviews in various cities in conjunction with public appearances and book signings at a combination of independent book stores and chains – usually focusing on those that reported sales to the New York Times or other major newspapers. The more signings, interviews and appearances, the more book sales.

In recent years, as publishing budgets have shrunk and the digital world has gained an ever-more-powerful footing, marketing and pr people have begun to redefine the book tour. While some major authors still occasionally ‘go on the road’, a new mode of publicity has begun to take over as the pr vehicle of choice – the ‘Virtual Book Tour.’

A Virtual Book Tour is one in which the “stops” are websites instead of cities, stores or other ‘real life’ venues.  Authors connect with readers online, via websites, blogs, podcasts, vlogs, teleconferences, chats, web-based articles and reviews, and Internet radio and TV, plus YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and other social networking communities.  Sometimes the author throws a ‘book party’ at his or her own website, but generally speaking he or she is visiting other people’s sites over a period of days or weeks in a structured, co-ordinated effort.  During these visits the author may be interviewed, answer questions from readers, have their book reviewed, or contribute original content in the form of an article, essay, guest blogpost, vlog or podcast.

Just as with ‘real world’ book tours, in order to be successful, the Virtual Book Tour must be a carefully organized and factor in the book’s subject matter and perceived audience.  Well before the tour begins, the highest profile and most related bloggers and website hosts are identified, queried and sent advance copies of the book, as well as media kits including press releases, author bios, photos and other pertinent materials (usually also in digital form).

It’s possible for authors to plan and set-up their own Virtual Book Tours, but as with the old-fashioned kind, tours are often most successful when a specialist is brought in to assist. Most of today’s publishers and marketing/pr agencies are well-versed in managing virtual book tours. In addition, there are some individuals and organizations who have made names for themselves exclusively in the Virtual Book Tour market. Among some of the better-known are Alex Mandossian (“VirtualBookTour Secrets.com“), Kevin Smokler (“BookTour.com”) and John Kremer (“BookMarket.com”).

Once the tour begins, it functions in many of the same ways that the ‘real world’ tour does, except that the author never leaves home – and possibly never even gets out of his or her pajamas.

Add a Comment

Over on the Huffington Post, one author talked about what is often the reality of book tours. It doesn't start with reality, though, it starts with a fantasy: “Of course, total strangers would want to leave the comfort of their homes on a weeknight just to see me, an author they'd never heard of, who'd written a book they didn't know existed!”

Yeah, right.

She also talked about what has worked well for her: “My publisher, smartly, builds my bookstore appearances around ticketed events; literary foundations, museums, with lecture series who invite me to appear. These events come with some ready-made publicity, as well as ready-made audiences.

Read more here.

And here's my diary of my first book tour, eleven years ago.

Add a Comment

What’s taking the place of the book tour? For some authors, it’s nothing. For others, it’s blog tours or Facebook or...

An article in the Philadelphia Enquirer says, “Random House publicist David Drake, who is coordinating Kelley's appearances, says only a few A-list authors still enjoy the classic perk - a book tour. "Kitty is doing an old-fashioned tour: Full media and event appearances in 10 cities over three months," he says. "But for many mid-list authors, the economics of putting an author on the road are forbidding." Fantasy, horror, and romance writer L.A. Banks, 50, misses the good old days. "You would sit down with marketing folks to come up with a campaign," she says. And today? "Puhleeeze!", she says, adding a sigh for effect.”

The article also quotes Publishers Weekly features editor Andrew Albanese. “Consider Rebecca Skloot, he says - the science writer who devised and mounted her own publicity campaign for her new tome, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. "She's now on this crazy book tour . . . and she's getting huge crowds. . . . She did it by using social media to personally reach out, almost one by one, to readers," Albanese says. "She really moved the needle herself."�

Well, Rebecca used a lot of venues and is very media saavy. Plus she wrote non-fiction about something with an incredible hook, well-suited to traditional media pitches. So I don’t think it’s all Facebook.

Read more here.

Add a Comment

 So for my book tour that my publisher sent me on I had a partner, Alyx Harvey. Alyx has been published in Canada but HEARTS AT STAKE is her major U.S. debut. 

Having a book tour buddy is good because:

1. You can make in-jokes about peach Iron pills really smelling like bottoms.
2. You don't have to talk all the time - just you, by yourself, with everyone staring at you. 
3. You have someone to go to the restroom with and therefore you don't feel like the only one with a nervous bladder. 
4. You have someone who can help you find your way back from the restroom and to the place you are supposed to talk. (I have a tendency to get lost). 

But having a tour buddy can be bad if:

1. You have a big ego and don't like sharing.
2. Your tour buddy is way cooler than you (has a haunted house, belly dances) and you are insecure.
3. You like peeing alone.

I liked having a tour buddy. I really like Alyx. 

 This is Alyxandra Harvey

But before the tour started I was totally terrified she wouldn't like me. Sort of  like Kirk and Spock in the beginning of the new Star Trek movie, but I was also nervous about a million trillion things, such as everything going totally wrong in a Star Trek kind of way. Like what if we got captured by evil people who knew we weren't from Northern California or Seattle and them whip us and put us in a cell where we have nothing to do except stare longingly at each other?

 See Spock and Kirk. See Spock and Kirk stare longingly. I think I am Kirk because Kirk has a bigger chest/rib cage and Spock is a vegetarian. Alyx is a vegetarian. See? The similarities are endless.


I was also worried about random crazy monsters that might plague us on our book tour. These monsters are known as THE SUPER AUTHOR EGO, THE WHAT IF NOBODY SHOWS UP MONSTER, THE WHAT IF I ACCIDENTALLY SAY the phrase 'WEREWOLF EROTIC NOVELS' DURING THE PRESENTATION MONSTER. 


 This is Kirk fighting a Gorn Monster Guy. They are fighting, I swear. I know it looks like they are about to kiss, but they are fighting.

But the truth is that if you DO get locked in a jail cell or fight a Gorn having a tour buddy is an awesome thing. It makes it easier. If you have to talk to 250 people (and we did) or just 25 (we also did), it's good to have someone there who understands exactly the feelings that you are going through. Because you are vulnerable out there, sort of half-naked and presenting yourself and your books to people who you mostly don't know. 

 In other words, it's good to have a half-naked friend there with you, laughing and talking about books. 

So book tour buddies? I am highly in favor. 
-Carrie

Add a Comment

The Daily Beast has an interesting story about authors who attend bookgroups by speaker phone or Web cam, as well as reach out in other ways. It begins: "Not long ago, Joshua Henkin, a professor of creative writing at Sarah Lawrence and Brooklyn College, was doing just such a thing in his home office. He was scrolling through Goodreads.com, monitoring the reception of his new novel, Matrimony. A user named Shelley had given him a mixed review—three stars out of five. Henkin clicked on her name and decided to email her, offering to attend her book club, if she had one. She did—that very evening—and, after several exchanges, Henkin was set to call into it."

[Full disclosure: I met Joshua Henkin at Wordstock. And he's always tried to be out of the box. For his first book, he did a self-financed couch-surfing tour back in the day when nobody used the term couch-surf. He was smart enough to write about it for the NY Times, probably multiplying his exposure 10-fold. I can't find a link, or I would post it here.]

Later on in the article it says:
===
"�One thing that’s true,” Dara Horn says, “maybe now more so than two or three years ago is that readers have this idea that they know you, or want to know you and want to have this personal connection to you, however tenuous… Unless you’re someone like Stephen King, there is this sort of expectation that you’re available to readers.” When her novel All Other Nights was published in April, she couldn’t travel because she had a new baby. Phoning into book clubs was one way she could help promote from home.

"�People used to write with hesitation,” Horn says. Now she wakes up to all sorts of emails. A British reader recently lauded a specific page of her novel, then asked how he, being an older Gentile, might woo a much younger “Jewish American princess” in his office. He apologized for his drunken email the next day. “Who drunk dials writers?” Horn laughs. Bohjalian says that readers will come up to him at readings and say, “Don’t you recognize me? I’m Haley from Facebook!”"
====

I've done bookgroups by phone, and now that I have computer with a Web cam, I could do them that way, too.

Read more here.

Add a Comment

The last week of the free e-book contest has been cancelled. Christina Rodriguez will receive a copy of Trouble Finds Rooter and Snuffle on CD.

Display Comments Add a Comment

Display Comments Add a Comment

The movie Premonition had many, many things wrong with it, but the one that bugged me the most was the main character who was shown running one moment and smoking the next. Why? Where was the motivation? And then as the movie went on, she wasn't a smoker any more. Or a runner, for that matter. None of the book editors I've ever had would have put up with me creating such a contradiction for no reason.

Kid has learned that just because the commercial looks good, it doesn't mean it is.

If you've seen the movie, share your favorite moment that didn't work.





Subscribe with
JacketFlap's
Children's
Publishing
Blog Reader

Add a Comment