First some links and news:
Driving the Point Home
I know there are going to be some authors who scream and yell about selling out but I’m cheering this idea - BMW goes POD It’s great innovative thinking from BMW and just the kind of marketing the book industry needs more of. The goal being – lets get more people hearing authors names and book titles no matter how, no matter where. Or at least within reason. (Story thanks to PM.)
Via Shelf-Awareness some interactive fun - the mural at Barter Books
Congrats to three ITW members, terrific writers and best of all wonderful friends. This weekend at the Love Is Murder convention in Chicago, David Morrell's Creepers won best thriller of 2005; Barrie Eisler won for best series; J.A. Konrath won for best police procedural.
In other ITW news NYT Bestseller and ITW board member Tess Gerritsen has been nominated for MWA Best novel, and Theresa Schwegel for Best First.
More posts all this week on book tour advice from bestselling authors as well as several top publicists. Be sure to come back often. Today Robert Ferrigno and Ken Bruen offer some tips.
From Robert Ferrigno - whose novel, Prayers for the Assassin came out this week and is a top Booksense pick.
1: Advil for muscle aches. Flying coach and hotel beds... you'll need it.
2: Photo of someone you love: children, spouse, lover, pet. When you have a signing and no one shows or when your escort shows up high... focus on the photo and remember you'll be home soon.
3. Most importantly, bring along your sense of humor. Don’t forget the gratitude either. If you’re on booktour, you’ve actually written a book, which means you’ve confronted the most fearsome creature in the known universe: a blank screen with a blinking cursor. You conquered the beast. Cue the applause! You wrote the book. Not only that, your publisher has sent you on a book tour, spending large sums of money that they know they have little chance of recouping, all for the purpose of getting you to meet booksellers and readers. This is a very good and rare thing, and never forget for a moment how lucky you are. Edgar Allen Poe never went on book tour… well, if he did he scored some blue morphine on the train and didn’t make it to the reading. Hemingway never went on book tour. Unless it was in Africa and featured elephants and Cape buffalo (sometimes referred to as “critics.”) and a 410 Enway large-bore. So enjoy the ride. You’ll be staying in very nice hotels and ordering room service. One last tip… the mini-bar. This is your chance to sample the forbidden wonders of the $5 Coke. Live it up. Peel back the wrapper on that $8 bar of Italian chocolate. Heck, cast aside all restraint and pop the top on those Macadamia nuts that cost more than the gross domestic product of Mongolia. You deserve it. You’re
an author.
And a few bon mots – short but telling from the incomparable Ken Bruen whose novel Priest is currently keeping me staying up way too late.
Are tours worth it and why or why not?
Vital......to alas, get your face out there, it's the times we live in
What's your goal when you tour?
To meet the readers.....that's the buzz and the shopstore people, they're incredible, the independents are all worthy of an Edgar
How do you ensure you get a lot of out it?
I work like a bastard
How do you deal with low attendance?
I whinge, sulk, cry but hide it under a gee shucks expression, I think.......I knew it, they hate me
What's the best/worst part of touring?
Not getting to spend any time in the places you hit.
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