18 October

Rethinking the book tour. Old and new

by Jon Katz
New book tour

I think we are seeing a new kind of book tour and I like it very much. Bookstores, libraries, face-to-face encounters. A great rolling conversation about the issues and feelings I write about. New technology – the Ipad, Facebook and other social media, reader reviews, living rooms, book clubs, different venues. Not one thing or the other, but the best things of both. Old book tours don’t work anymore, too cumbersome and expensive. New ones might invigorate the idea, and give writers the most amazing new tools to connect. We need publishers and editors and marketers, and we need to work with the, but we can speak for ourselves about our work. And find our readers and listen to them, as well as talk.

18 October

The book tour, the Facebook Opporunity

by Jon Katz
Making friends

Dayton, Ohio – Izzy makes friends wherever he goes. Here, a woman in Ohio comes over to say hello to him, and they talked for a bit outside of a McDonald’s, where we stopped for coffee. Izzy is in some discomfort, but is doing all right, and I do plan to keep bringing him to book tour events. His experience yesterday prompted a lot of discussion about dogs, kids, responsibility and the nature of animals. That’s always good.

The book tour is in its second week. How’s it going?

– Sales. The book nearly made the New York Times bestseller list last week, “so close” says my agent. Maybe this week. It’s hard to do in October, when the big Christmas and political books and biographies start to roll out. Be nice, but not the most important thing in the world. A writer has to be careful not to get drawn into “bestsellerdom” as the only measure of a book’s success. I chec the Amazon numbers once day. That’s it.

Lots of people say the book is sold out here and there, but I don’t really know how sales are going. My agent says they are “strong.”

– Events. Great. Full houses everywhere. Great enthusiasm for the novel. Very warm and engaging people. Lots of good and intelligent questions. Lots of people, most of them buying one or more copies of the book. Fascination with the mind of a dog. Good words about my blog and photography. People are eager to see Maria and I am pleased to see a lot of people with cameras, taking photos. Lots of interest in my idea to put up a page on my site so the Bedlam Farm photographers can show one another their work. After the tour, I’ll try and figure that out with Mannix Marketing. Encouragement is important. People everywhere say they like me better now than they used to. Interesting. I never knew that.

– Maria. It is wonderful having her along on the tour. We have a lot of fun together, talking day and night, taking walks. She is helping sell the Famil Farm notecards, which are selling very well to benefit family farms. I’ve never toured with anyone else, and it is another wonderful way of sharing my life. And the driving, for sure. I am so lucky.

– Alternative book tour. I am trying, along with Random House, to experiment with a new kind of book tour, some use of new technology, looking for ways to bring different people – readers – into a book tour that is inexpensive and effective. What works?

– Facebook, for sure, works. On FB I organized in less than a week a full-house reading in Columbus. Facebook helps me connect with readers, communicate my message, promote my events. Writers who whine about new technology destroying reading and culture are just nuts. Technology ought not to overwhelm the book tour, but it may be the most effective device I’ve ever seen for energizing a book tour and connecting readers with potentially isolated writers and publishers clustered in New York City.

– People all over the country are e-mailing me and posting on FB. They are following my book tour, unable to be physically present, yet able to be very present. And to carry the message of my book and my writing, as well as have their own conversations about me and their own perspectives.

– Ipad. Five stars. People joke that it’s my new “toy,” but it is anything but a toy. It is a highly effective information device that is small and fast and helpful. The Ipad carries my e-mail, helps me communicate with the publisher, find good motels, navigate when I get lost, even blog and soon, hopefully, upload photos. I actually like it as an information tool better than an e-reader. Nobody does that better than Amazon, at least not yet.

– Novel. It’s early but I think people like “Rose In A Storm,” and get it. Rose captures people’s imagination. People want to know about her, so this reaffirms my instincts to wrap a novel around the idea of her. I feel good about that.

So the book tour is going well. I am tired. I underestimated the driving time and its impact on us. My voice is struggling, as I am speaking and giving interviews every night, many more to come. I love the people I am meeting. I am being energized, re-charged, re-inspired. That is for me the best thing about a book tour. TV at noon, interviews all day, reading tonight at Joseph Beth in Dayton. More to come.

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