A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: The Morphing of Book Tours

 

It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.

Today's topic looks at how the concept of, goals for, and conduct of book tours have changed over time. It also looks at whether a book tour is a good idea, based on likely % of return on investment. The essence of the morphing has been from in-person to virtual, part of that in keeping with the Covid experience.

In person

• Most authors think of the pre-covid take-a-trip from town to town for, generally, bookstore signings. That did work once upon a time, but mostly for people with household names. Previously unpublished authors often have romantic notions, completely untied from reality, that publishers will underwrite an extensive travel experience that will result in the sale of hundreds of books. We dropped one author (first time write, no name, no platform,), who hired a lawyer to insist that the contract include a commitment for the the author to be helicoptered or otherwise personally flown to a dozen cities to promote her book. (The last we heard that author never did find a publisher.) Let's look at the reality of new author expectations.
• Publishers, even large ones, do not have the funds to pay for such travel these days.
• An unknown author with an unknown name and no platform has little hope of pulling in hordes of fans for a book signing. Even some famous authors have noted that they have received almost no one coming by for a book signing. Times have changed. There are other ways to get autographed books if such are desired. There are other ways to meet authors. Readers take to buy online and not at bookstores (unfortunately, since bookstores are wonderful places).
• Stores, with some exceptions, are not eager to host events for new authors,
• Those stores willing to host book signings now generally order no more than 25 books and often return half of them, at considerable loss to author and publisher. 
• Stores--and this was typical in the past, as well--generally do not shelve the books of unknown authors for whom they host events; they have found that those books take up space and without the author around to excite readers into purchasing the book, the books do not sell. 
• We do not encourage in-person tours, but if an author is working with a publicist who is organizing one (some publicists are pretty good at this and can overcome the downsides listed above), then we will support. For the most part, though, especially after the Covid time divide, even publicists are looking beyond the in-person bookstore tour. 
• One of the favored options is to do it at home. There will be more interest in an author's work in his/her hometown and a greater likelihood of media coverage. In addition, successful books generally start local and expand to national (helps to get in some practice before the stress of the big time.)
• Another favored option is to do it some place other than bookstores and to combine it with a presentation of some sort, including informal coffee klatches at popular cafes, talks or readings at the local library, answering questions at a book club -- wherever the imagination leads.

Virtual 

• Virtual tours are where it is at these days. You can cover a lot more territory with a lot less cost and achieve better results virtually. Covid pushed us across a divide, and what used to be rare—virtuality—is now the commonplace and even the expected. Spend January researching and planning a virtual book tour, and in February., when book markets open up again, once people have paid off holiday bills, go “on tour” with a vengeance. Set aside an hour (or more, if possible) every day to “be” somewhere. 
• Webinars that you present can serve as a form of a book tour.
• Blog tours, where you write guest posts for a number of blogs (try to get onto the blogs of influencers), can be a successful promotion campaign.

 Need some convincing and some help planning? Check out this great article: Virtual Book Tours: A Powerful Promotion Tool for Authors - TCK Publishing. For other inexpensive methods of marketing your books, check out our earlier post on that topic HERE.

Lesson for today's Tuesday talk: Plan your book promotions with tomorrow's techniques, not last year's, in mind. Think virtually. That is where we are now. What can you do to take advantage of the virtual opportunities and platforms out there? How creative can you be with virtuality?

 Read more posts about publishing HERE.

The Tuesday talks reflect real discussions between the management of MSI Press LLC and our own authors or those would-be authors who come through our doors but don't make the cut--yet. If you have a topic you would like to see addressed, leave the question in the comment section. Chances are, in our 18 years of publishing first-time and experiences authors, we have had a conversation with one of our authors that we can share with you.