Why I Went on the World’s Longest Book Tour

We live in a world of content overload, constant contact, and ironically, an increasing sense of disconnection. As more and more human interactions are conducted online, we lose the opportunity for the simple “hello” and “how are you” that used to add something intangible to our days. At the same time, deeper, more substantive engagement is whittled down to 140 characters or auto-messages that promise you’ll call back when you’re free.

The problem is, we’re never free.

Never unencumbered, never not having multiple things we’re supposed to be doing at once.

Enter the world’s longest book tour. Stay with me here—there is a connection.

A book tour is in many ways the antithesis of our teched-out, sped-up world. It’s face-to-face, in real life, the slow meeting of one reader, one bookseller, one librarian at a time, in the hopes of making a deep enough connection that that person becomes interested in our books.

Many people also say that it’s dying, except for the biggest, blockbuster authors, who still don’t make money on a tour—attendees at events would likely have bought the book anyway—but do it to maintain good will with vendors like booksellers, and with fans.

I’m here to say that the book tour might just be the antidote to our overwhelming world, and exactly what it takes to stand out as an author.

It took me thirteen years to get published. That’s a lot of rejection—and a lot of desire built up to do everything I could once I was finally given the chance.

So after at last procuring a book deal from Ballantine, I did the next logical thing. Rented out our house, traded in two cars for an SUV that could handle Denver in February, pulled the kids out of first and third grades to “car school” them in the backseat, and hit the road with my husband, touring the bookstores, libraries, and book clubs of this great country for seven months and 35,000 miles.

My publisher thought I was nuts. They actually convened a conference call to tell me I was nuts. My editor, publisher, marketing director, and publicist were all in on it. I remember wondering how I was going to differentiate voices from my position at home—everyone in New York publishing tends to be young and female, or at least female—but I needn’t have worried because they all said the exact same thing. JENNY, STAY HOME.

They worried that I’d walk into a lot of empty rooms—and I did.

In Goshen, IN there was one person at my event, and he didn’t buy a book. This always troubles me on behalf of the bookseller who has gone to the trouble of setting up an event. (I mean, let’s be honest—one book is not going to cover the cost of my going to Goshen, IN). But this gentleman agreed to buy a book that I recommended, which meant the register rang once that night due to my coming, and salved my conscious. And here’s what happened next.

The man explained to me why he wasn’t buying my novel. It was because he already owned three copies. One to read, one to loan, and one to “keep pristine.” And he had to hurry then—because he had a three hour drive home.

Book tours may or may not make dollars and cents, but they sure make dollars and sense. A sense of the heart—as my encounter in Goshen proved. Their ripple effect can cause a bookseller to keep my book in stock months and months after it’s no longer new. At another low turnout event, one of the few people in the audience wound up being a book reviewer for a major paper. I’ve had lines from my books quoted back to me by attendees like I was Taylor Swift and the audience was singing my song. One of the deepest exchanges I ever had was with a reader whose brother committed suicide and read my book to feel less alone.

Guess what happened after the world’s longest book tour? My debut novel went into six printings in hardcover. Not mega printings—it’s not like everyone reading this post has heard of me, far less read my work. But my book did better enough compared to my publisher’s expectations that when I returned home, they said, “Hey, if Jenny wants to go out with her second novel, we’re not going to stop her.” And by the third book, they helped set up a portion of the tour.

All told, over the course of three releases in two and a half years, I’ve spent 15 months on the road with my family. Does it “work”? I think that depends on what “working” means. My sales spike each time I’m on tour. It would be hard to separate that spike from the fact of having a new book out—except that they spike for my backlist titles, too.

But my rubric has never been book sales. Book sales are a Medusa’s head of interactions, timing, quality, connections, and luck. If we get too bogged down in a pursuit of numbers, we’ll go mad. We writers have to compute our success by a different schema. A mathematics that counts things one by one. Reader by reader, smile by smile, and word by word.

And what about you? What if you’re not quite nuts enough to, um, I mean ready to cram your whole life in a car? The good news is you don’t have to. A mini-version/more reasonable tour can pack a lot of the same punch. By drawing a radius around your house and planning events for a weekend, a week, or over the course of a month, you’ll be increasing the range of exposure for your book, and making deep, lasting connections for yourself as an author.

If you do go out, please let me know, via Twitter, FB, or email. (Hey, I never said they weren’t good for some things). I’d love to support you. And below are five tips to help ensure success:

• Put on a Good Event: Get outside the read-from-your-book box. Teach a lesson that pertains to something from your book (craft, recipe, genealogy); lead a writing or publishing workshop; act out a dramatic section; make the whole thing Q&A (attendees love Q&A).
• Bring Out a Crowd: Identify where your FB friends and Twitter followers live, then invite them personally; connect with local chapters of writing organizations; hire a publicist to get local media coverage in advance.
• Be a Good Guest: Create little gifts related to your book, and give one to each person who hosts you. For instance, for a wintery book, think pouches of hot cocoa in a mug with your book cover on it. Bring food for an event to make it a party. Raffle off a bookshop gift card to encourage attendees to buy books.
• Tip to Engage Attendees at Events: Talk about things beside your books. Ask people what they’re reading that they love. Or hate. Ask what brought them out that night. Have them tell their worst author event ever story. Relay intimate stories from your get-published saga.
• Use AirBnB if you travel. Not only is this often less expensive than hotels, but nine times out of ten we found that the host bought my book, came to my event, and even brought friends.

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Jenny Milchman is the USA Today bestselling author of three award-winning, critically acclaimed literary thrillers, Cover of Snow, Ruin Falls, and As Night Falls, all published by Ballantine/Penguin Random House. She holds a board position for International Thriller Writers, teaches for New York Writers Workshop, and is the founder and organizer of Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day, which has been covered extensively by media, including the New York Times, and is celebrated annually in all fifty states and on five continents. Jenny lives in the Hudson River Valley with her family.

Tags: book tours, featured, fiction, women writers

Category: How To and Tips