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Lessons Learned by a First-Time Author on His First Book
Tour
By Michael Duranko, author of Bootism: a shoe religion
Looking back, my first lesson came from the hands of someone cutting my hair and I could say it started with a haircut, an expensive haircut. I’m a spinning pole, barbershop kinda guy. But going on a book signing tour, and possibly being invited onto Oprah’s couch to discuss my book about people’s passion for shoes, I thought I needed more of a style than a chop and scrap. An episode of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy helped to sway my decision.
My wife suggested Randall on the lower east side of New York. She said she got a great cut and the prices were reasonable. I know how much things cost, especially in New York, and I trust my wife when it comes to fashion and style. Another lesson learned, but that is a private matter.
Randall’s first question was, “Have you been watching Bravo?” Before I could answer, he laughed a hearty belly laugh. The rest was not much different than a typical visit to my barber, except for the gorgeous women and the order of magnitude difference in the price. “It’s not about the price, it’s the
value,” I think my wife said to me as I left the mod salon stunned. “You look
great,” she added, though I felt poor and too dumbstruck to care what I looked like at that moment. With tips, it came to
more than $100! Now allow me to change the subject before I get angry again. But the lesson was, “watch your pennies; you are not a best-selling
author yet!”
My first signing was in Brattleboro, Vermont on a sunny day in October in the peak of leaf peeping season. The Newfane Heritage Day festival and the many tourists enjoying a leisurely drive in the country delayed me. I still can’t believe I was late to my first book signing. I probably should have started extra early to accommodate for traffic, but I never would have left early enough to avoid the gridlocked four corners of Newfane. I won’t insult the reader’s intelligence with any lesson here, just don’t do what I did.
I picked Brattleboro not because I thought there would be a lot of shoe obsessed people lining up to buy my book, nor for the honorarium offered. Not even the pumpkin spiced coffee was part of the decision making process. My aunt and uncle have a rarely-used ski lodge on the other side of the state and I’d never been to Brattleboro. And, truth be told, The Book Seller was the first bookstore to say
‘yes.’ That counts for a lot in my book.
Also, I figured I’d practice my ‘author act’ in a small venue, the same way the Rolling Stones usually open their tour in a small club to work the kinks out of the show and build momentum for the larger cities. Brattleboro was perfect for me, but I don’t think the Stones ever played Brattleboro. Also, Vermont is for Lovers and I dedicated my first book to my second wife.
“Come to me, I am ready to sign your multiple purchases” was my first thought after I settled behind the postcards from my publisher fanned on either side of a stack of my books arranged on a table. What I didn’t realize, even sitting in a chair next to a big sign with my book cover and ‘signing today’ was I looked just like the people browsing in the store. That is, except for my pathetic eye-pleading directed at every person walking through the door.
And then an angel appeared in the form of Lana, back from lunch in the funkiest boots I’d seen in Brattleboro. The lesson she taught me was – ATTACK! After knowingly asking me if this was my first book signing, she grabbed a pile of postcards and walked out the front door. Lana handed every person that walked by the store a postcard. And to the people pausing to accept and read about my book, Lana told them how great the book was. She finished with an eyes wide, can-you-believe-it look, and exclaimed, “He’s here signing copies!”
People started coming up to me, buying books and chatting to me about shoes. Lesson learned and afternoon salvaged. No matter how good your book is, nobody should care more about it than you.
Bookstores in general are amazingly appreciative of authors. I’m sure it’s in the manual somewhere or part of the training, but no matter, it feels good. Even at the large chain booksellers, the staff was extremely helpful in promoting my book. Storewide announcements informed shoppers that I was in the building and signing copies of my new book. Usually a fun little topical paragraph was written in advance to create some excitement about the signing event.
My book is heavy on illustrations and light on text. At book signings, I expected to chat with people about their shoe questions and sign copies for people in the (hopefully) long line. At a big city Barnes & Noble I was pleasantly surprised to find a podium, a microphone and 30 chairs set up for me to address a crowd.
I was prepared to answer questions covering a wide range of topics related to my book. But I had worked on the “short and sweet, get to the point” kind of Q&A that I had expected. Here I was expected to dazzle and entertain people killing time in a bookstore.
I shared the story of how the book came about and a few other stories providing details I would have left out in a typical interview. And thankfully there were questions from the audience to keep the conversation moving. This actually happened a few times before it occurred to me to write a speech. The lesson I learned is to prepare a speech, even though I am comfortable speaking impromptu in front of a crowd. If nothing else I now have a (relatively) coherent story from which to discuss my book.
A local morning show in Chicago allowed me to make my television debut. The experience was a huge thrill because, for a writer, I watch a lot of TV. And after meeting so many individuals at bookstores, the idea of reaching a large number of people at one time appealed to me. Nothing is better than TV for reaching the masses.
I expected a short interview and an announcement of my upcoming events. I looked forward to a plush green room, a chatty stylist to help me look beautiful, and a prepared newsperson to chat intelligently about my whimsical book. A tape of this great interview would be used to convince the producers at the Oprah Winfrey Show that I belong on their couch.
My only concern was the date: October 31, Halloween. What if the interviewer was dressed up as Professor Dumbledore or SpiderMan? Did they expect me to dress up as a cobbler or in some elaborate shoe horn costume? That kind of publicity could go a long way and position me as the zany shoe guy. I went with a stylish shirt to match my stylish hair.
Thankfully, the anchor I met during a commercial break was not dressed up. She had a lot of great things to say about my book in the
ten seconds we chatted. She was a huge shoe person and I was thrilled with our rapport. The green room was a smallish
couch and a coffee table with day-old newspapers, but no stylist.
With less than two minutes before the red light was going to go on, a producer introduced me to the weatherman who was going to do the segment. “Something came up,” as they say on the Brady Bunch, and the anchor I met earlier was suddenly on assignment?
To my horror, the weatherman, like most weatherman, took Halloween seriously. He was dressed in one of those Pancho Villa vests, a straw hat, and penciled-in freckles. He looked like a Latino Howdy Doody. I was left with 90 seconds to explain my book and suggest a few questions. Just when I was starting to feel okay, and could sense the people in the studio turning their attention towards me, I looked down and saw the guy was wearing beat up loafers. Not a Bootist!
Most people with experience on air are professionals, and this guy was no exception. The interview went fine, except for the stumbles I made. He chatted up the book as if he read it to his wife the night before.
Here I learned the most important lesson of all: Don’t be so set on one approach. Be cool, go with the flow, and remember to laugh. This is supposed to be fun.
Michael Duranko's new book is Bootism: A Shoe Religion. He lives in
Manhattan with his wife. Wondering if you're a Bootist, too? Visit www.Bootism.com
and take the quiz.
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