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The "Do It
Yourself" Book Tour
By Aliza Sherman
Everything I know about booking a book tour, I learned while in the music
business. Sometimes, I joke that as an author I'm like a small rock band. I've
been signed by a major label, given some money in advance to make my album, fed
a lot of exciting promises about marketing and promotions, and then I'm on my
own. It is entirely up to me whether my record succeeds or fails. If I work really hard and there is a
blip in record sales somewhere, maybe, just maybe, my record label will put a
little money toward promotions or do a little public relations for me.
Does this scenario sound familiar? As a currently non-best-selling author, I've
learned that my publisher is the ideal distributor for a product - my book - but
that I'm really the marketing and PR machine. Once I accepted my role, I took
advantage of an extended road trip I was taking across the country to promote my
second book, Cybergrrl @ Work. I ended up stopping in more than 50 cities
in 2001 to support my book.
How did I do it? Based on what I learned while working in the music business -
at booking agencies and music managements companies in the early 90s - I mapped
out several months of tour dates. I also enlisted a friend - Alison Berke of
bworks.com - to help me book the dates, something she was happy to do on the
side while running a home-based Internet marketing business. Then I hit the
road.
Here are some basic concepts of booking tours that work well whether you are an
aspiring rock band or up-and-coming author.
ROUTING THE TOUR
The act of "routing a tour" simply means to map out the entire trip,
specifying the cities you'll cover, noting the mileage and drivetime, then using
it as a framework for actually booking the tour.
Your publisher will tell you that there are only a handful of major markets that
they really care about. My publisher mentioned New York, Los Angeles, San
Francisco, Chicago and maybe Seattle since my book was Internet related and at
the time, Seattle was an Internet mecca along with Silicon Valley. Traveling
between those cities can be unrealistic if you cannot afford the airfare. If you can take the time off, try
routing a driving tour to hit as many major markets as possible or stick to a
regional area around a single major market.
You can even book a tour within a driveable radius around your own hometown or
fly to a major market, rent a car and create a tour in that region. The best
market, of course, would be New York City and the tri-state area (New York, New
Jersey, Connecticut) plus Pennsylvania and Washington DC and even as far north
as Massachusetts. Amtrak has good deals between these cities if you don't like
to drive.
To route my tour, I used these essential tools:
1. A Rand McNally road atlas to help me visualize the driving routes.
2. Mapquest.com's Driving Directions section so I could check approximate
mileage and driving times.
3. A good map of the entire United States to get a perspective of the overall
territory. I found that the Rand McNally road atlas only had a small map of the
country without much detail.
4. Maps of each state where I would be traveling. My local AAA office furnished
me with every map I needed.
For the first leg of my tour, I began in South Florida with a plan to end a
month later in New York City. I knew that I wanted to hit Atlanta, GA, and
Charlotte, NC, so I couldn't stick to driving north on I-95. I had to consider
the drive time to each city and keep in mind that most bookstores preferred
evening appearances on the weekdays and afternoons on weekends.
The first few weeks of my skeletal routing looked like this:
JAN
Jan 8 Mon Miami
Jan 9 Tue Ft. Lauderdale
Jan 10 Wed Pompano Beach
Jan 11 Thu Speaking engagement (already booked) - Ft.
Lauderdale
Jan 12 Fri West Palm or Melbourne?
Jan 13 Sat OFF
Jan 14 Sun OFF
Jan 15 Mon Tampa
Jan 16 Tue Orlando
Jan 17 Wed OFF
Jan 18 Thu Jacksonville
Jan 19 Fri OFF
Jan 20 Sat OFF
Jan 21 Sun OFF
Jan 22 Mon Atlanta
Jan 23 Tue OFF
Jan 24 Wed Charlotte
I emailed the above routing to Alison. We received suggestions of bookstores in
each city either by emailing friends and acquaintances in the area or by
researching on the Internet.
Here is what the actual tour for those weeks ended up looking like:
Tue, Jan 9 Ft. Lauderdale, FL - 8:00 pm - Archives Bookcafe
Wed, Jan 10 Miami Beach, FL - 8:00 pm - Books & Books
Thu, Jan 11 Ft. Lauderdale, FL - Speaking engagement
Fri, Jan 12 DRIVE
Sat, Jan 13 Tampa, FL - OFF
Sun, Jan 14 Clearwater, FL - 1:00 pm - Barnes and Noble
Mon, Jan 15 Orlando, FL - 3:00 pm - Books A Million
7:30pm - Borders Books Music & Cafe
Tue, Jan 16 DRIVE
Wed, Jan 17 Atlanta, GA - 7:00 pm - Chapter 11
Thu, Jan 18 Atlanta, GA - OFF
Fri, Jan 19 DRIVE
Sat, Jan 20 Charlotte, NC - OFF
Sun, Jan 21 Charlotte, NC - 7:00 pm - Borders bookstore
The changes from my tentative routing to the final schedule happened mostly
because of the available dates and times at each bookstore. I skipped certain
cities because they didn't fit into the schedule as it developed, and they
weren't big enough markets to warrant rearranging the schedule.
SUBMITTING A RIDER
Every rock band has a rider - an addendum to their contract that states what the
band would like in the dressing room to make their appearances more comfortable.
Whether it was M&Ms without the green ones for Van Halen or an enormous bowl
of boiled shrimp for Def Leppard, I witnessed rockers getting almost anything
their hearts desired at each concert.
As an author, you only get what you ask for. I created a rider that Alison sent
in advance to all of the bookstores that requested things such as:
1. How to obtain copies of my book and who to contact if there is any delay. I
wanted to make sure they had my books at each signing. This may sound obvious,
but you'd be surprised at how many authors show up for signings only to find
their books aren't there.
2. Request for the exact store location, contact information and driving
directions to be emailed to Alison. I wanted everything in advance so I didn't
get lost.
3. Request for specific event details. Would I be doing a signing only or did
they want me to speak as well? Or were they going to set me up behind a table
with my books at the front of their store?
4. Request for Audio/Visual inventory. If they want me to speak, what would be
the setup? Microphone? Podium and lectern? If they wanted me to speak, I did
request a microphone and amplifier because I found that it attracted more
attention storewide.
5. Request for several bottles of spring water without ice. This was my luxury
request.
6. Request for local media contacts. If they provided Alison with these contacts
in advance, she could help pursue media coverage of the event.
The rider worked out well for everyone, and I always had my bottles of water
when I needed them!
ADVANCING THE DATES
In the music business, to "advance a date" means to call a few days
ahead of time to make sure everything is in order. Alison contacted each store
within a week before my appearance to make sure everything was set, to go over
the rider point by point, and to get answers to any last minute questions.
Advancing dates is not foolproof, but it is helpful. After over 50 tour dates, I
had only had one mix up when we got a date wrong, and no one realized it until I
missed my appearance. The store generously let me set up the following evening,
although I didn't have the benefit of promotions.
PROMOTIONAL TOOLS
After many appearances at bookstores, I've learned that as an author, you can't
have enough promotional tools. Here are a few tools that have come in handy:
1. Promotional Blurbs. Prepare a few, very short promotional blurbs about the
book and about you that the bookstore can have in advance to include in their
newsletter or give to the media. You can only imagine the erroneous and
irrelevant blurbs I've seen about my book. Getting a consistent message out
there is key to marketing your book.
2. Pre-Prepared In-Store Announcements. Write out and give bookstores several
options for storewide intercom announcements to avoid them reading blandly from
your book jacket. Make sure you clearly specify how to pronounce your name. I
can't tell you how many times I'm announced as "Eliza" or "Aleesha"
instead of the proper way - Uh-LEE-zuh. If you can, get permission to do the
announcements right before your appearance if you are comfortable on a
microphone.
3. Book Blowups. Get several blowups of your book mounted on foam core. When you
arrive in a town, go directly to the bookstore even if a few days in advance.
Check the signage about your signing, and offer the blowups to put in their
window or near their checkout counter with the date and time of your appearance
taped to it. I was lucky enough to be given 3 blowups of my book by a New York
City bookstore who had them made for my local appearance. The posters were so
eye-catching that the store sold over 40 books the week before my appearance.
4. Flyers. I made fliers at Kinkos with my photo, a graphic of my bookcover and
the text: "Meet the Author - Tonite!" and "Aliza Sherman - "Cybergrrl
@ Work." I left blanks for Date, Time and Location. I made several copies
of the master flyer and used a Sharpie pen to insert the appropriate
information. I made copies on bright yellow paper to attract attention, and then
canvassed neighboring businesses near the bookstore and asked permission to hang
up the flyer in their windows. They almost always said "yes."
Booking your own book tour can be time consuming and being on the road can be
grueling, but as you begin to see book sales increasing in the markets you've
visited, you'll realize how effective a grassroots tour can be. Happy
trails!
Aliza Sherman is the author of "PowerTools for Women in Business: 10
Ways to Succeed in Life and Work" (Entrepreneur Press, 2001) and is
currently working on her 6th book. You can read about her work at www.mediaegg.com
and about her year-long cross country trip and book tours at www.rvgirl.com.
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