In a few minutes, Maria and I will get into our car and drive to the Round House Cafe for breakfast, then to Albany to kick off my 27th book tour for “Saving Simon: How A Rescue Donkey Taught Me The Meaning Of Compassion.” I will be on Northeast Public Radio for an hour beginning at ll a.m. Tonight, a reading at my wonderful local bookstore, Battenkill Books. Book tours are about so much more than books, they reflect life and change and the world beyond in so many powerful ways.
Three years ago, my book tours lasted more than a month, took me all over the country, to a score of bookstores, radio and TV interviews. I was in and out of airports for days, I was an almost automatic best-seller, on the New York Times list bestseller list a bunch of times. I was met at airports by big black cars, stayed only in four-star hotels, ate in the best places, was driven around by paid media escorts who guarded me like Secret Service agents, fed me snacks, fussed over me. People waited in hotel lobbies to ask for my autograph and every day began with a different TV interview.
At bookstores, big crowds, long lines, eager staffs, big piles of books.
This book tour, like all of the others, is different and tells it’s own story about me and my writing. And my life. I have changed, my world as a writer has changed. I don’t sell as many books as before, get many fewer reviews, many of the bookstores are gone, many people buy my work on their digital devices, and my life has changed almost beyond recognition. Have I lost my gifts as a writer, I sometimes wonder. Am I getting older in a youth-driven culture, where everything needs to be new and different? I don’t really know. Maybe all of the above. My publisher doesn’t pay much attention to my books anymore, I just don’t sell that many hardcover books, so I quit and found another publisher, they are paying attention. We’ll see, I am optimistic.
I don’t blame the world for anything, life happens to everyone. My life as a writer is a miracle, not a struggle story. I have been a full-time writer for more than 30 years, I could not ask for more.
The traditional part of this book tour begins this morning and ends this evening at Battenkill Books, there will be no limos, no waiting TV crews. But I am making my own history with this book, reflecting a new and different (and exciting) kind of life.
There is my blog, millions of visits a year, it has already sold more than 600 copies of “Saving Simon” for Battenkill alone, and the book just came out today. And there is my camera. I have a bigger following for my writing than ever before, in many different ways. How curious, how remarkable. An editor told me that I am bigger than ever. Can this be true?
I sometimes miss all the fussing and glamor, and surely the food. (And I want to stay close and keep an eye on the New York Carriage Horses, they are still in peril). But I love my new book tours in a funny sort of way. They don’t speak to me of decline but of rebirth and renewal. Maria is so much a part of them, she can come with me almost everywhere, so can Red. I still get sweet reviews, there are still people who read my books and profess to love them, I think they do. I love my relationship with Battenkill Books, it speaks of intimacy and community, and I love doing my readings there – I used to do them in big opera halls – a cozy bookstore is fine. I can’t wait for tonight.
Am I over? Or am I just starting out? I don’t really know. I love writing more than ever. I am awash in the love of my life. Does the new book tour reflect that? I am mindful of the old ones, big splashy affairs, images flash through my head, but many nights, I was throwing up in terror in the hotel bathroom. I don’t do that anymore, I sleep well wrapped around the most wonderful and loving human being imaginable.
So on with the 27th book tour, it is so different, the world changes and changes, and I am an engaged spectator in the front row. Writing is not about crowds and limos, it is about freeing the creative spark inside. I do that every day. Come on this new book tour with me, I will keep you posted every day. It is not over tonight, it really just begins. I can’t wait to see what happens. Check in with you later.