Book Tour Creativity

Kerry Madden was one of my students in my Buzz your Book Class . I was so taken with what she came up with and how she executed it, I asked her to guest blog about it.

Long before my second novel, GENTLE’S HOLLER, was published, I took the "Expect nothing, do everything" philosophy toward book promotion along with the "Buzz Your Book" course from M.J. Rose.

I chose this path because I watched my first novel, OFFSIDES, go out of print in the blink of an eye. All right, two blinks, but it was a quick death for a book that was optioned for a film before publication with Diane Keaton attached and likened to "The Great Santini" from a girl’s perspective. I could regale you with the saga of its sequel, HOP THE POND, which was accepted by an editor at William Morrow and then rejected by the marketing-powers-that-be since OFFSIDES didn’t sell enough copies.

But why bother? We all have wrenching, "if only" tales…Suffice to say, GENTLE’S HOLLER came after a near decade dry-spell of bad writing, rejections, ghostwriting, and finally, lowdown desperation. I knew that if I didn’t write something I loved and cared about then I could not, in good faith, call myself a writer. I could call myself a "writing teacher" or "editor" or maybe "a writer for hire" or whatever…but I knew I had to get back to the heart of why I fell in love writing in the first place no matter how long it took (two years). And it worked. My book found a home and a real pub date.

Once I had the home and the pub date, however, I suspected that much of the rest was up to me. I knew my publisher couldn’t send me on book tour, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t create one for myself through the kindness of friends and family and an informal agreement to walk the basset hounds if needed. (It was.) Most important of all, I knew that I didn’t want the "typical book tour" experience of reading to the clerks, followed by the slinking back to my rental car because no one showed. (Been there, done that.) I figured if I set up the book tour as writing workshops for kids or seminars on "Publishing Middle Grade and YA Fiction" for adults, then I would at least have a few folks who might show.

One of my UCLA fiction students, Rahni Sadler, also became my publicist because she wanted to know what she was getting into for when it came her turn for her own book. Boy, did she learn, and as a journalist, she knew how to approach the media and talk to school kids who loved meeting her and hearing Australian accent. I will be editing her books for as long as she needs for all the incredible work she did from press releases to phone calls to follow-up calls to flyers to the best sense of humor ever when it got especially grueling. Now I’ll be able to actually pay her next time, and we both talked of how we could write a book together on grassroots publicity.

However, I have to say that the best part of one leg of the book tour was traveling with my fourteen-year-old daughter, Lucy, through Tennessee and Alabama. We had eight days together on the road together and it was so much fun – even the stressful stuff. The absolute worst was an unsavory car rental guy in Birmingham who tried to sweet-talk/browbeat us into taking the extra vehicle insurance at $16.99 a day for "peace of mind - especially if y’all intend to park this vehicle in ‘parking lots’ during the trip?" After an endless back and forth, I said, "Look, I've never had an accident, and I have my own insurance." His reply? "Lady, you've never driven in Birmingham!" When we finally got on the road (sans the extra insurance) Lucy said, "How many times do you think that guy said, 'vehicle.' Hundred? A thousand?" That guy haunted me in every parking lot of the book tour, but we returned the car without a scratch.

The long and short is that writers need to figure out ways to create their tours and connections with readers however they feel comfortable. I like getting kids to write stories and poems and posting them on my live journal, and I like working with adult writers to help them find their voices as storytellers. I am ever grateful to friends and family who offered couches and spare rooms. Here’s the thing: if you do decide to go this route, I recommend flowers or baked goods or signed copies of your book as thank-you gifts, all the while reassuring yourself that one day, maybe, your next tour won’t involve walking the basset hounds as lovely and sweet as they may be. And do write thank you notes to everyone - librarians, teachers, booksellers, kids, agents, editors, and publicists! Be appreciative, don't whine, say thank you. (You can share war stories over cocktails with your friends later. )

Did it pay off? Yes, I feel like it did. Of course, it’s still a struggle. Last week, GENTLE’S HOLLER, was paired on AMAZON’s "Better Together" with a DVD of Roman Polanski’s MACBETH. That’s like pairing "The Trip to Bountiful" with "The Exorcist." One of my friends who is a mystery writer knew she "had made it" when her publisher sent her a chocolate facsimile of her book to her hotel as a congratulations.

No chocolate books have arrived here, but I have met the most amazing people on the road, and I’ve read GENTLE’S HOLLER all the way from Joey’s Pancake House in Maggie Valley, North Carolina to Dutton’s Books in Beverly Hills. (I live in Los Angeles, but the book is set in the Smoky Mountains.)

GENTLE’S HOLLER has gone into a second printing and sold to Audio Books. Viking has also bought the next two companion novels, LOUISE’S PALETTE and JESSIE’S MOUNTAIN, so I get to spend more time in Smoky Mountains, and more than anything, I have little more freedom to get to do what I love most of all. Write stories.

Comments

[jessica keener]

Dear Kerry,

What a lovely story of overcoming writer's heartache. I think you're right about the food. I know a writer who passed out candy at her book readings for her debut memoir about being a lesbian --Love In Good Time by Claire Robson, Michigan State U. press. At the beginning of her readings, she held up a box of candy and encouraged audience members to ask questions during the q & a period following the reading. People who asked questions were rewarded with a piece of candy. This simple gesture loosened up the audience and made the experience memorable and fun for all.

Congratulations to you for not giving up.

[Kerry Madden]

Thank you, Jessica, for your kind words and for sharing what Claire Robson does at her readings. Thanks, thanks! Much appreciated.