14 October

Hometown reading. Opening up the book tour

by Jon Katz
Hometown Reading

Ft. Edward, N.Y.

So good to be back on the farm, although not for long. Got back from a sensational reading with Rita Mae Brown last night in Virginia, and came back for my hometown reading at Red Fox Books (actually at the Crandall Public Library. The store’s owners, Susan and Naftali, are good friends and Glens Falls, N.Y. is our adopted town in many ways. Izzy is coming (maybe Lenore) and then we have to scramble to get ready for Ohio. Saturday we are at the Halfmoon Library in Clifton Park, N.Y. at 2 p.m., and then we are setting out for Ohio, looking for  a motel on the way. Kind of sun to set out like that. We will be at the Book Loft in Columbus, Ohio, at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Home town readings are a special part of the book tour, the first chance a writer gets to talk about a book in the place where it was conceived and written, with people who have often witnessed the process. I will be bringing some family farm notecards to sell for $16, to benefit struggling family farms. I’m looking forward to it.

Random House is working with me to experiment a bit with the form of the book tour, a mix of old and new practices. Focusing on events at bookstores and media interviews, but then I am using Facebook, the Ipad,  online reviews and social media and the photography to find new ways of connecting with readers and talking with them. I am sometimes foregoing the TV studio for living rooms and for informal visits to book stores and book clubs to break away from the somewhat rigid structure of the book tour. In Hadley, Mass, I am not going to a TV studio but hopefully to the homes of some book readers to talk about writing and my work, and their own ideas about books. The cameras can follow if they’d like.  I’m trying to open it up a bit, using conventional practices and some new ones. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. Readings at bookstores are critical, but publishing is changing and writers and readers need other ways to connect. Reading is alive and well, from what I can see.

New technologies can help writers like me  have a dialogue with readers. I don’t want to be engulfed by technology, always a dangerous bride, but I don’t to hide from it either. I hope to do an e-book or two next year. Nice to see the dogs. We are having a huge tick problem up here now, and Izzy and Rose are going to be groomed in the morning, so Izzy can look swell for the tour.

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