What does this mean? Well, in addition to making sure you all have some great reads in time for your August vacations, it means these ladies are on the move. Yes, it's book tour time! (Pro tip: if you are going on vacation, check your favorite authors' websites for their events. You may find someone appearing near your resort or Air BnB.)Every few years, one article or another declares the book tour to be a dying vestige of an earlier, outdated era of publishing. (Recently, the gloom and doom has spread to the blog tour, which has been proclaimed dead as well - although we all still seem to go around begging friends and acquaintances to appear on their blogs, so take that with a grain of salt.) By 2020, we were told, authors would be meeting exclusively with readers in streamed events, chatting screen-to-screen and signing books remotely with Margaret Atwood's remarkable LongPen. Like the glorious revolution in ebooks, which would see authors unshackled from publishers, uploading our art directly to the masses online, this is a case where the technology is willing, but the consumer isn't.
It turns out, readers like meeting authors face-to-face, taking pictures together and getting books personalized. And so all across this land, authors rise up early and head to the airport, clutching their signing pens and bookmarks, ready to fly cross country in confusing and geographically illogical patterns to appear, first in Arizona, then in Portland, OR, then back down to Houston, then to Detroit, then back west to LA. "Why do the writers fly to and fro? Do not ask. You cannot know." ( An excerpt from the children's story about book tours I've just this moment decided to write.)I believe I speak for all authors when I say we honestly love meeting and interacting with readers. It is, bar none, the best part of book tour. Other highlights include: time to read books during the plane rides, watching "Say Yes to the Dress" while eating room service Chicken Caesar Salad, getting surprising recommendations from local booksellers (I was introduced to Joshilyn Jackson's work while signing at a now-defunct Montgomery, AL store) and relaxing in the rocking chairs in the Charlotte airport.
Less entertaining aspects of book tour: going to last night's hotel room number and having to explain why you're trying to open a stranger's door, getting up at 5am every morning for a week or two (every flight is a morning flight so the author can be on a local midmorning radio or TV show, sign stock at bookstores all over town, appear at a library at noon or at tea-time, and then check into the hotel before the evening's performance.) Not to mention dealing with airport security and car rental agencies.Still, we do it, and readers, when we smile and thank you for coming out to the library or bookstore to meet us, we mean it - we're doing it for you. No one in publishing knows exactly what drives sales, and no one will ever say, "Personal appearances boost a book onto the bestseller list," or, "This writer is a success because she does so many events." But we all know the connection between readers and writers is a special one.
So we hope you'll come and bring a friend or two. Get a bite to eat or a drink; make an evening of it. "Where?" I hear you ask? Well, I just happen to have the schedules right here:
Hallie Ephron's events
Rhys Bowen's appearances
Hank Phillippi Ryan's events
Dear readers, these three are criss-crossing so much of the country, you'll have to go out of your way to miss seeing a Red in person. Tell us about some of the memorable author visits you've been part of - and the writer's you'd love to see come to your home town!
