Shmorgh is Bored – the Interweb Home of Randy Henderson

Here finally is a wrap up of my book tour experience for Finn Fancy Necromancy — the good, the awesome, and some lessons learned — not only to say thank you to everyone who helped or attended, but also to maybe help those who are trying to plan their own book tour.  This is way overdue, I know.  And I’ll do a separate post about promotion in general.

I figured I’d talk about how I set up the tour, how I promoted it, then share some pics, and a list of the bookstores.

 

SETTING UP THE BOOK TOUR

First off, I must say that on the Tor side, my editor, assistant editor, and publicist were all incredibly supportive, and responsive to all my requests and questions.  Seriously, I could not have asked for a better team championing my book.

 

And I also would have epicly failed at some of this without the help of my partner and not-so-secret weapon, Christy Varonfakis Johnson, who reminded me to do all the things I would have otherwise forgotten as I ran around being distracted by shiny objects, gave me feedback on my reading performances, made me look twice as thoughtful and together as I actually was, and was the genius behind ordering the delicious cakes from Borracchini’s Bakery.

 

And of course lots of friends helped in lots of amazing ways for which I am eternally grateful.

 

But bottom line: nobody is going to care as much about getting your story into the hands of readers as you.

I actually did not expect much in the way of support for a book tour since I was a debut author, and FFN was not one of those rare debuts with huge critical buzz or a large advance investment by the publisher.  But I really wanted to get out there and connect with folks.   So I decided I would just tour down the west coast on this first tour, to ensure the time and cost were something I could afford to invest.

 

So before Tor even assigned me my official publicist, I did the research myself on potential reading venues, and put together a proposed itinerary.  I provided my proposed itinerary to my publicist once she was assigned.  She then contacted all of the bookstores on my list to see if they wanted to book a reading.

 

Most of the independent bookstores happily booked me, those places where the discerning specfic reader goes to get their fix, such as: University Bookstore Seattle, Third Place Books, Eagle Harbor Books, Powell’s, Borderlands, Mysterious Galaxy, Avid Reader, Village Books, etc.

 

In general, however, Barnes & Noble didn’t want to risk scheduling readings for an unknown debut author for fear of low turnout.   The one Barnes & Noble that did schedule me was one I reached out to myself, as I had an established relationship with their customer relations manager having read there on my Writers of the Future tour.

When there is a reading, the bookstore must order enough books to sell to anyone who shows up, and of course spend some time and money promoting the event.  And you are taking a slot that someone with potentially more sales might take.  So big chain stores are less likely to be open to new or less established authors.  Or they may book you, but as part of a group reading or signing with other debut, independent or self-published authors, an option I did not explore as I ended up with a full itinerary as it was.

 

In addition to doing the work of actually contacting and scheduling the bookstores, Tor was very generous in offering to cover many of the costs of my tour, perhaps because, again, I had an itinerary in place and had intentionally planned it up front to be as low cost as possible — driving rather than flying most places, and staying with friends rather than at hotels when possible, etc.

 

PROMOTING THE TOUR

Once the tour was booked, the next step was promoting it.  Tor did a number of things to promote the book itself outside of my book tour, but generally speaking it is up to the author and the bookstores to promote the readings.

 

Most bookstores will do some combination of putting the reading on their website, listing it in the arts section of the local newspapers, including it in the emails sent to their email subscribers, and of course posting about it on social media.

 

If you Bingle for your reading and don’t find any mention of it online at least a couple weeks before the event, it might not hurt to send a polite email to the bookstore asking in what ways they are able to help promote it.   And if you have a publisher who will signal boost on your behalf, that is nice as well.  Tor would generally retweet the announcements from the bookstores about my readings, which was great.

Still, only in a couple of places where the bookstores had clearly done a great job of either promoting the event itself or building a core of loyal customers who attended such readings were there a number of people who attended through no effort on my part.

 

Ultimately, 90% of the people who attended most of my readings were people I personally invited via Facebook Events, or email, or were from workshop and writing groups I had some association with, or were accompanying those people (in addition to friends and family of course).    And for one “local” reading I did manage to throw up flyers in libraries, used bookstores and postal stores, which I think might have pulled in a couple of people.

 

The other time I saw a large number of unfamiliar faces was at the SFWA reading, where I read with Scott James Magner and Mark Teppo.  This is one of the advantages of doing a joint reading, in that the other readers have also promoted the reading, and some of the folks who come to see them read might enjoy your work as well.

 

Group readings = fun and beneficial.  Group signings without a reading = you possibly sitting around while the person next to you signs a bunch of books.

 

However, by the time I got to Norwescon, a couple of months after my book launch, I was seeing an almost even balance of people I knew, and people I did not, for two reasons: first, because most the people I knew had already heard me read elsewhere, and second, because the book was starting to get some buzz around it from reviews and word of mouth outside of my own promotion efforts.

 

And as much as I love my friends and would love to see them every day of the week, it is in fact a great and amazing thing to see strangers at your readings.  So maybe by the time I go on tour for Book 2, even more people who I don’t know will be showing up at my readings as well.  And then we can become friends too! 🙂  Though I will not go with you to a secluded cabin in the snowy woods.  Probably.  Though stranger things have happened.

 

What I ultimately found was that I never seemed to have enough time for promotion.  Perhaps I just needed to be better organized, I don’t know, but when you are promoting the book, and working your day job, and writing your next book, and living life, it is hard to remember to promote your readings too.

 

So while I would create a Facebook Event in advance, I was pretty terrible about following up both generally, and with individuals, as the readings drew closer.  And once the readings began, it seemed I was always focused on the next couple of readings and didn’t have time to do anything about the readings next week or next month.  As I mentioned, I would have done even worse without Christy’s help and reminders.

 

So the better you can plan out promotional reminders and efforts ahead of time, the better.  And if you are promoting a reading in a city not your own, where you perhaps do not have a large number of friends to help boost attendance, you need to build up contacts and a plan well in advance so you have time to coordinate support in that city — friends, or fellow writers, who might be willing to put up flyers for example, or can spread the word to local writer and fan groups, etcetera.  I certainly did not do enough of this.

 

But, soon enough the book tour was all booked, and I’d done what I could to promote it.   All that was left was to arrange my book launch.

 

 

BOOK LAUNCH PARTY

Finn Fancy Necromancy was published by TOR in the US on February 10th, 2015.  I had my book launch party that same day.

Books often launch on Tuesdays, or weekdays.  So keep in mind that if you want to have a launch party the day of your actual book launch, people may be coming after a long day of work, and have to work the next day, and you will have to tempt them to face traffic and abandon the comforts of home to come hear you read.

 

I had my publicist book the date with University Bookstore in Seattle, at no small prompting from the bookseller superhero Duane Wilkins.  I then called and reserved a side room at the District Lounge around the corner from the bookstore (where drinks and food would be available for order), and pre-ordered a couple of fancy cakes for the after party (at Christy’s suggestion).  Note that if you’re having cake at a restaurant, remember to ask if it is okay first, and some may charge a “cake cutting” fee or similar.

 

I also purchased some giveaway prizes, and planned to have an 80s costume contest at the reading (due to the heavy 80’s nostalgia in Finn Fancy).

 

Lesson learned:  I mentioned the costume contest in the Facebook Event, but people often don’t read all the details of those things, just the headline, date/time and location.   Or they may skim it at best.  So only a few people even realized the event was a costume party and showed up in 80s attire.  Next time, I will be sure to call such details out and remind folks separately from just listing it in the event description.

 

 

THE TOUR ITSELF

The book launch was AWESOME! Due mostly to all the amazing people who showed up. Attendance was around 50 people, and a ton of books were bought and signed.  To this day I feel an incredible rush of gratitude, and disbelief, at how lucky I was.

 

I dressed Miami Vice style, and a few other people got into the 80’s spirit as well.  And the after party was a success, though I was in a bit of a daze.

 

And the tour went pretty dang well.  I had “better than average” attendance for a debut author at nearly every bookstore, the most notable exceptions being a couple of local locations I utterly failed to promote until the last minute, and one that was the same day as Emerald City Comic Con.  So, you know, try not to book a reading at the same time everyone is going to be somewhere more exciting, or book too many readings in the same general area.

 

For most of my readings I read from the opening of the book, though later switched to chapter 2 with some introduction beforehand because I love the characters you meet in chapter 2.  You want to make sure whatever you read, the audience can understand what is going on, and will care.  If you just read an action scene from the middle of your book and we don’t know who the characters are, we aren’t going to care what happens to them.

 

I also left plenty of time for Q&A (without going over my hour), and offered small prizes for attending and for first or best questions, etcetera.

 

General rules of thumb: keep it moving, keep it fun, and start and end on time.

 

As for the signings, what an amazing experience.  I met a ton of great people.  If you are doing a signing, remember to always ask how they spell their name — even “Joe” could be Jo or Djao.  Always put the date.  Make sure you have an “author” signature that is easy to do (you will be signing a LOT of books), and isn’t the one you use to authorize your credit cards.  And have hand sanitizer for after you shake all those hands, just in case someone has a cold and doesn’t runny knows it.   Finally, have a quote from your book handy.  Apparently, some people just want you to put a quote and your signature.

 

 

AND NOW, MORE PHOTOS!

BOOK LAUNCH PARTY – UNIVERSITY BOOKSTORE AND DISTRICT LOUNGE

 

 

KIRKLAND, WA — SFWA READING AT WILDE ROVER

It was a great reading with Scott James Magner (who read from his novel Homefront using voices!) and Mark Teppo (who, I believe, read something from the Mongoliad series).

 

 

 

PORTLAND, OR — POWELL’S

Thank you Portland and Powell’s for a lovely visit and fun reading.  Everyone signed the small book standup Powell’s made me while I signed their books, but alas I kept forgetting to have people sign it at the subsequent readings, otherwise it would have been an awesome memento of the entire tour.  I’ll try to remember to do this next time.

And thank you to Shannon, Mark, Curtis and Tina for being wonderful Portland hosts.

 

 

CALIFORNIA BOUND

From Portland, I planned to take the magic portal to California.  But I ended up taking a plane.

 

DAVIS CA — AVID READER

Davis reading.

 

 

SAN FRANCISCO – BORDERLANDS

 

After the reading, Megan and Joey took me to a genuine speakeasy, with passwords, hidden rooms and all.

Also, lesson learned: not to make assumptions about which Bay Area location people will attend based on where they live.

 

SAN DIEGO — MYSTERIOUS GALAXY BOOKSTORE

I left Mountain View after my reading at BOOKS, INC, and after a celebratory post-reading dessert with the always gracious Amy Sundberg, and drove to San Diego.  Along the way, I passed many obstacles.

 

 

Anyway, I made it inside to find folks gathering, including eccentric gamer genius Noah. Had a blast reading, and was amazed and grateful for the huge triple stack of books going out to Fantastic First and online order folks. Thanks Mysterious Galaxy!

Also thank you to Jim and Wendy Varonfakis for the manicotti!  And to Mark Yturralde for sending me info on a M.U.L.E. emulator after I waxed nostalgic about my Commodore 64 days.

 

 

LOS ANGELES — GATSBY BOOKS AND LAST BOOKSTORE

The Last Bookstore was an incredible and huge space (as evident in the pics), but just as impressive was Gatsby Books, whose owner Sean Richard Moor has created a charming community space where you can walk in and be recommended just the right book. I loved both bookstores, and was grateful for all the folks who came to hear me read and speak, particularly Christine Marie Bryant for her support.  And it was great to see the folks from the Writers of the Future staff again.

 

 

THIRD PLACE BOOKS, LAKE FOREST PARK

I returned to Washington, and soon after had a reading at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park.  My host turned out to be Lish McBride, which was awesome because she also has a humorous series featuring a necromancer, though it is YA, the first book of which is titled Hold Me Closer Necromancer.

 

And I finally wrapped up my tour at Village Books in Bellingham (alas, no photos).

 

THE BOOKSTORES

Thanks again to these awesome bookstores!  I fully encourage you to support them.  They are so important to the living breathing genre community in their area, and to spreading the love of our genre to new readers.

 

University Bookstore – SEATTLE

4326 University Way NE

Seattle, WA 98105

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Mysterious Galaxy – SAN DIEGO, CA

(NEW LOCATION!) 5943 Balboa Avenue, Suite #100,

San Diego, CA 92111

 

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Village Books – BELLINGHAM, WA

1200 11th Street

Bellingham, WA 98225

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Borderlands – SAN FRANCISCO, CA

866 Valencia St.

San Francisco, California 94110

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Powell’s Books – BEAVERTON, OR

(Cedar Hill Crossing Location)

3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd

Beaverton, OR

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Third Place Books – LAKE FOREST PARK, WA

 

Lake Forest Park Town Centre,

17171 Bothell Way NE,

Lake Forest Park, WA 98155

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Liberty Bay Bookstore – POULSBO, WA

18881 Front St NE

Poulsbo, WA 98370

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Eagle Harbor Books – BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, WA

157 Winslow Way E

Bainbridge Island, WA 18049

 

 

 

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Avid Reader – DAVIS, CA

617 Second Street

Davis, CA 95616

Additional Info: Reading/Q&A/Signing for Finn Fancy Necromancy

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Books Inc. – MOUNTAINVIEW, CA

301 Castro Street

Mountainview, CA 94041

 

 

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The Last Bookstore – L.A.

453 S Spring St

Los Angeles, CA 90013

 

 

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Barnes & Noble (Kitsap Mall) – SILVERDALE, WA

10315 Silverdale Way NW
Silverdale, WA 98383

 

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King’s Books – TACOMA, WA

218 St Helens Ave,

Tacoma, WA 98402