For authors on book tour, one event per city or many?
A fellow emailed in yesterday, calling it a “missed opportunity” for an author to be speaking at only one event in a city, when he could be speaking at five or six. But what this reader calls a missed opportunity is what book publicists might call avoiding disaster: unless you happen to be touring J.K. Rowling or Stephanie Meyer, more events in a city aren’t necessarily better. Here are a few reasons why:
– Geography. Some cities are pretty spread out — most notably San Francisco and Los Angeles — and can easily support more than one event. In other cities, it’s possible to do an event in the city proper (in Boston or in DC, for example) and another in a suburb (in Cambridge or in Arlington) since urban and suburban audiences tend not to overlap for the most part. In many cities, however, it’s standard practice to hold only one event, since venues tend not to be far apart and multiple venues only cannibalize each others’ audiences. Some lecture venues even have authors sign contracts stating they will not give other public talks in the city in the same time period for this reason.
– Genre. All chain stores and most independent bookstores carry a wide variety of genres. This does not mean they sell a wide variety of titles equally well. When it comes to author events, many stores find that certain genres are more successful than others in drawing crowds.
– Author availability. Authors have a myriad of commitments and many simply don’t have the time to spend multiple days in multiple cities. So an author who gives us two weeks for a book tour isn’t going to spend five days each in two cities; they’re going to spend one or two nights each in eight or 10 cities.
– Media interest. To make the best use of the author’s time and our money, we try to schedule as many media interviews as possible when an author is in town for an event. Depending on the author, we can fill one day with interviews (although realistically, sometimes an author may only do one interview — or none — in a city). If five events are scheduled over several days, that leaves a lot of thumb-twiddling time.
– Logistics. Five events take five times as much time to schedule as one. Five nights at a hotel cost five times as much as one. We need to weigh the potential audience and sales of multiple events against the time and money it takes to schedule them. Sometimes it’s worth it; sometimes not.
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This post deals specifically with the issue of scheduling multiple author talks in a city. For more information in general about how and why author events are scheduled, click here.
And for some happy news about bookstore events across the country, check out this story in The Boston Globe tweeted by Wendy Hudson of Nantucket Bookworks and this one in the The Seattle Times sent along by media escort Joy Delf.
Promoting author events on event listing websites
Atlanta’s Wordsmiths Books closed up shop yesterday, becoming the latest bookseller to fall victim to our foundering economy. As book publicists, we always try to schedule print and broadcast interviews in advance of bookstore talks to drive readers to the stores (where they will, presumably, buy books). This technique is somewhat dicey these days, not the least because the journalists themselves are facing layoffs.
Fortunately, a slew of websites have emerged that list and categorize author events. These include BookTour and LibraryThing Local. BookTour has lots of partnerships with other organizations including Indiebound and Goodreads, the idea being that you submit information once and it automatically appears on multiple sites. (The downside is that information can easily and inadvertently be duplicated.)
Bookforum Magazine is starting its own events calendar (similar to Artforum’s events calendar) at the end of the month / early next. Details of author talks (anywhere in the country) should be sent to Marketing Director Valerie Cortes at valerie[at]bookforum[dot]com. Or, you can simply include Valerie on your tour mailing list if that is more convenient:
Valerie Cortes
Marketing Director
Bookforum Magazine
350 Seventh Ave
Fl 19
New York, NY 10001
Another way to draw readers to an event is to hone in on the right readers. Yesterday evening, for example, I attended Lady Jane’s Salon, a reading series dedicated to romance fiction. A group of about 30 ladies (and gents) had packed into a Houston-street bar — a respectable crowd at any time, but particularly admirable given that the event succeeded New York City’s biggest snow storm of the season.
Gabi from Viking Penguin suggests using the site Meetup to find like-minded individuals. Groups are listed by location and interest and are run by moderators. Some groups are pretty general, like the outdoor adventurers who belong to The Next Adventure; others, like the the New York Turkish Coffee Group, have rather more specific interests. Like many networking sites, Meetup requires registration and groups must be contacted individually, so it takes time to list events (which are only listed with the approval of the moderator). Still, if you’ve written a book about Turkish coffee, where else can you reach out to 259 people professing a love for Turkish coffee? Actually, possibly at a site like Eventful.
With so many event listings sites available, book publicists can’t realistically take the time to submit information to each one, so authors, if you have time to lend a hand … No doubt I’ve left out other sites that list author talks nationwide. What are some of your favorite?
When to schedule bookstore events (and when not to)
Friday night I was chatting with a novelist friend who said she was a little surprised her publisher wasn’t sending her on a book tour, given that her last four books have sold well (and that she had offered to pay her own way). Admittedly, bookstore events have seen better days. Still, it surprised me when my friend mentioned her publicist had refused to schedule a New York event for her. (She’s a native New Yorker, who — four bestselling books ago — managed to pack The Corner Bookstore to within an inch of the fire marshal being called.)
Very mysterious. Something wasn’t adding up. Although we aren’t the same readers who catapulted Jacqueline Susan’s Valley of the Dolls to bestsellerdom as she road tripped across the country 40 years ago, a popular author speaking in her hometown is, well, a pretty safe bet. (Or at least, as safe as they come.)
This got me thinking about why bookstore events should and shouldn’t be scheduled. For the benefit of authors and book publicists, I’m listing some issues to consider while planning an author’s schedule. (Thanks to the tweeps who already contributed to this post and readers please feel free to add your own ideas in the Comments section — or by emailing me — and I will try to update the post.) Also, do share the list with all and sundry if you think it will be useful.
Note: This post has been modified from the original to reflect reader feedback.
Why you should not schedule a bookstore event:
– Topic: Some books, often of the self-help variety (finance, parenting, self-help, some cooking and humor) can present certain challenges for bookstores. It doesn’t mean readers won’t buy these books — and it doesn’t mean talks won’t work in other settings — but are 50 people really going to pop into Barnes & Noble to listen to what types of nonallergenic foods they should be feeding their babies? Book publicist Adrienne Biggs, who has scheduled many successful bookstore talks for lifestyle and self-help authors, advises stores, publicists and authors to rethink the “traditional” bookstore talk for these types of books. That means that if anyone isn’t willing or able to be a little more creative with these events (regarding outreach, promotion, type of event, timing, etc.), it could end up being more productive to promote the book in other ways, i.e., by scheduling media interviews.
– Timing: With a handful of exceptions, bookstores like to hold events within about a month of the book’s publication. Stores typically schedule events between two and six months in advance of the event / publication date in order to have time to adequately promote their events. This means that suggesting events two weeks before a book’s publication date will not elicit a favorable response. From anyone.
– Hidden Costs: As The Bookish Dilettante’s Kat Meyer points out, even if an author pays his / her own way, events take time to set up and money to promote. Event coordinators often work odd hours and typically aren’t planted in front of their computers when they are in the store. They’re also juggling dozens of events and publicists and dates. Case in point: I first got in touch with one events coordinator in December about an April event. Between my trying to sort out the author’s availability and her trying to sort out the store’s availability, we only just finalized a date — two months and numerous email messages later. Then, once an event has been scheduled, the store must then invest time and money in promoting it. Finally, at least one (additional) staff member must be paid to oversee the event. This just isn’t a process that can be ironed out with one phone call.
Why you should schedule a bookstore event:
– The author is local. Many bookstores try their best to support local authors. Plus, they know they can count on the support of the authors friends and family members. (Fortunately for authors and bookstores, although these are the people who probably could wrangle free books from authors, they often end up buying books to support the author.)
– The author has a good track record. Often, the best predictor of how an event will go is how the last (somewhat recent) event turned out. This is one of those situations in which no track record won’t hurt an author (there are plenty of first-time authors who draw healthy crowds to bookstore events and plenty of stores willing to schedule events with these authors), but a good track can really help.
– First editions: Books on the Nightstand‘s Ann Kingman reminds us that some stores host first edition book clubs, whose selections can be dependent on an author coming to speak and sign books. Also, for certain types of (mostly) genre hardcover books — mystery, science fiction, romance, etc. — but some others as well, signed first editions go over really well with readers whether or not the books are selected for book clubs.
– The store requests an event. For logistical and financial reasons, publishing houses can’t schedule events at every single store that requests an author. (And certainly, successful events have been held at stores that did not request authors.) But when a store expresses interest in an author, it can be a sign they’ll try their darnedest to get a crowd and sell that book. Michele Filgate of Reading is Breathing (and events coordinator at the Portsmouth, NH RiverRun Bookstore) says events are critical for independent bookstores who are trying to be/become community — as well as reader — destinations. (Not that events aren’t important for the chain stores too.) Plus, an added benefit, courtesy of Teleread‘s David Rothman: hand selling. Author appearances keep books at the forefront of employees’ minds (and at the top of their recommendation lists).
– An investment in the future: Published & Profitable‘s Roger C. Parker notes that events can teach authors what questions readers will ask and what topics they’re most interested in. For authors who have more than one book in the pipeline, events can be a good way to build a following.
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What are your pros and cons? Have you ever scheduled a bookstore event when you didn’t feel it was appropriate? (Or vice versa?)
The book publicity timeline
I spent a goodly amount of time the other day copying 200 press releases and folding them because I’d missed my department’s deadline for sending the releases to the printing house to be copied. The book is a paperback reprint we’re publishing in April, but in publishing we work so far ahead of time that three months early can be late.
Although timing will differ slightly from house to house, here are some common deadlines. (This is the 30-second — actually, make that the 10-second – version of book publicity, since I don’t want to write a book now and you don’t want to read one. At least not here and now, at any rate.) If you do want to read an actual tome about publicity you can try books like Publicize Your Book, The Savvy Author’s Guide to Book Publicity or Publicity: 7 Steps to Publicize Just About Anything – none of which I’ve read, by the way, but I like the titles.
Four-six months before publication:
Publicists: Mail galleys to long-lead media outlets (including monthly magazines and trade publications).
If you’re not a publicist: Make sure to share your thoughts about the book’s promotion with the publicity department. For example, what do you think are the book’s key points? What would attract readers’ attention? (And the attention of journalists?) What’s the target demographic? (Is there a demographic we should be pitching that is not immediately obvious?) What ideas do you have to market and promote the book? In what media outlets would you like to see the book covered? (Yes, we’ve heard of Oprah. And The Today Show.)
If you would like galleys sent to your personal media contacts (some authors will have more than others depending on their profession), you should let the publicist know earlier rather than later. Although it may make sense to wait to send the finished book to certain people (rather than the galley), if the publicist has the names early, then s/he can make that determination. FYI, you cannot approach the same person to blurb and review the book for reasons that should be becoming obvious to you right now — if they didn’t already occur to you.
Also, a book’s web presence (website, blog and / or social networking profile) should be established so that journalists can find information online when they receive galleys.
Publicists: Schedule bookstore events (if an event is appropriate for the book).
If you’re not a publicist: Make sure the publicist knows about any significant markets and / or bookstores. Make sure your schedule is clear around the time of the book’s publication (and if it’s not because, say, you’ve won a trip to the moon, let the publicist know). Bookstores need time to organize and promote events (both online as well as in print newsletters) and they often won’t schedule events with less than two months notice. If friends have promised to organize events, get in touch with them and keep the publicist apprised of what’s going on — keep in mind that most bookstores don’t have the staff to sell books at offsite events (like your friends’ parties) if fewer than about 100 people attend.
Four-six weeks before publication:
Publicists: Mail finished books to the media.
If you’re not a publicist: Publishing houses receive finished books (called “bound books” four-six weeks before the publication date of the book). This gives us a head start to get finished books to the media before they appear on shelves. Basically, everything you should have done before *really* needs to be completed now.
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And that’s my 10-second spiel. Which can pretty much be summarized as: it’s never too early.
Morning Brief — Tuesday, November 18
I was walking to the subway station this morning when I spotted an ad for American Airlines on the side of a bus that was promoting non-stop flights to London. Now, I live in New York City. Which begs the question: where exactly could a flight from New York to London stop?
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Yesterday, Publishers Weekly reported on the PubWest conference in Portland, noting that one popular panel was “Authors Breaking Out” that focused on three authors discussing book tours and online marketing. It’s great when authors are willing and able to promote their books, even better when they work hand-in-hand with publicists. Conveniently, Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists recently posted some handy tips from an author about how authors can best work with book publicists. (The author, Wendy Kays, spoke about her book, Game Widow, on the Dr. Phil Show, so clearly something worked.)
DC book events
Late last week a colleague and I met with Perry and Loretta of Hooks Book Events. I’ve been working with Perry for a while now, although over the years she has expanded her business and is now working with many different organizations (government and trade organizations, historical societies, business groups, etc.) in the Washington, DC area. A few things really stand out for me as a book publicist:
- They arrange book sales through Politics & Prose. (No last-minute wrangling with venues / booksellers!)
- They assume most — if not all — authors coming to DC will speak at Politics & Prose in the evening, so their events are held largely in the morning / at lunchtime. There is no conflict between P&P and their events because the latter are held at a different time of day and often are open only to members of the host organization (although they have now started organizing public events).
- There usually is some flexibility in the exact time of the events. Obviously, we want to leave time for the author to do interviews, and Hooks Books is good about accomodating us in this respect — a lunchtime event could start at 11:30 a.m. for example, or it could start at 1 p.m.
- They are interested in serious nonfiction, but this includes everything from business to history to science to politics and more. Books dealing with leadership and the environment / sustainability are particularly popular now.
- They’ve arranged events for big-name authors for thousands of people, but they’ve also held terrific events (and sold a lot of books, i.e., 50+) for mid-list authors.
If they have the staff available, Hooks Books can also sell books at offsite events that you arrange on your own. You can contact them here.
Morning Brief — Thursday, September 4
… Sarah Palin … Sarah Palin … Palin … Sarah … Even Michael Phelps didn’t attract this much attention. (Then again, Phelps isn’t running for office.)
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Media Mob (and pretty much everyone else) reports that The New York Sun will shut down at the end of the month unless it’s able to scare up some new funding.
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Sarah Weinman offers up Part II of her explanation of publishing house imprints on Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind. This time she looks at the Simon & Schuster imprints including Little Simon, Atria, Pocket, Scribner, Simon Spotlight, Touchstone and Washington Square Press.
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At Vanity Fair, Anne Fulenwider is handing over Hot Type duties to associate editor Jon Kelly and his assistant Kate Ahlborn. (I don’t post personal email addresses or phone numbers here; if you need Jon or Kate’s information, you know how to find it yourself.)
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Today’s Shelf Awareness reports on a new Publishers Marketplace initiative, a bookstore database called Bookstore Maps. According to Shelf Awareness, “The database is combined with Google Map, creating what Publishers Marketplace founder Michael Cader called ‘a visual database of stores’ … Among other things, the data could be used by publishers to map out store tours or look at previous tour or book sales information on national, regional and local bases.” You can check it out for yourself here. Sounds interesting. I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot more about it.
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Wondering what the difference is between traditional media, new media and social media? Christopher S. Penn breaks it down on Awaken Your Superhero.
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Marketing guru Seth Godin has some interesting thoughts about launch PR.
Morning Brief — Thursday, August 14
I was doing laundry yesterday when a neighbor entered the laundry room with her golden retriever, which promptly began sniffing around my clean clothes. I was about to ask Neighbor if she could keep Dog away from my clothes when I realized I really liked Dog better Neighbor. I edged Dog away from my cart and reached for my dryer sheets.
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BookTour.com, a database of author events nationwide, announces a new partnership with IndieBound, which means that events scheduled with IndieBound members (most independent bookstores) will automatically be posted to the BookTour site. I like automatic.
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Galleycat writes up Book Screening, a new site featuring book trailers.
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At Three Percent, Chad Post has just updated his extensive Translation Database of works in translation published by American publishing houses this year.
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Off the Page, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s book blog, comments on the various book-oriented social networking sites like Goodreads, LibraryThing and Shelfari. I once spent a Saturday afternoon adding all the books I’ve ever publicized (154 at the time, if I remember correctly) to my Shelfari shelf. Why, you may ask? Good question. One which I continue to ponder.
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Down the Avenue posts an interesting piece about what happens to blogs when they get big – usually we think of bloggers as individuals marching to the beat of their own drums, but some blogs have grown so large like Boing Boing (or started out that way like The Huffington Post) that they have multiple writers, editors, ads, etc. — sort of like … traditional media.
Morning Brief — Monday, July 21
I grabbed some Chinese takeout at a friend’s place before a Friday night showing of The Dark Knight (did anyone not see that movie this weekend?) and it occurred to me that all Chinese takeout food is … exactly the same. Everywhere. Tell me — what dark magic is at work here?!
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Bella Stander from Reading Under the Covers posts about book trailers. It’s an informative and comprehensive post that includes links to book trailers and Bella’s take on the advantages and disadvantages of creating them. Some authors comment about their book trailers here.
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I’m a big fan of email, but sometimes the phone is the best way to go. Tolly Moseley from Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists posts about how you can make phone pitches work for you.
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Portfolio.com’s Mixed Media blog reports that Fox News Channel’s Brit Hume will step down after the November elections.
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MediaPost talks about the dominance of Web 2.0 (texting, social media, blogging). I have to say, I recently had an author on tour whose schedule changed pretty much every day, sometimes several times during the course of the day as I arranged / rearranged interviews. So it proved pretty handy when I was able to text interview details to the Author / Producer / Media Escort at once rather than having to call numerous people with the information.
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Not a good time for newspapers. Massive newsroom layoffs / anticipated layoffs at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Baltimore Sun, the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News, the Honolulu Advertiser, the Orlando Sentinel and the (Santa Rosa) Press Democrat. And by now I think we’ve all heard that the last stand-alone book section of the Los Angeles Times will run next Sunday. After that reviews will be folded into the Calendar section.
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Unfortunately, folding book sections affect not only book editors and reporters on staff, but freelancers as well. Ed Champion, whose well-known podcast The Bat Segundo Show attracted hundreds of authors over the years, may be forced to end the show (which he largely bankrolled himself) because so many of his freelance gigs have dried up. There may be a Save Segundo Plan in the works, though, so make sure to check back on Ed’s site for updates.
