Tour Schedule, Northern Loop

Drum roll, please!

After months of planning we have northern loop Road Show dates ready to share! So if you're in...

California!

Oregon!

Washington!

Idaho!

Montana!

North Dakota!

Minnesota!

Wisconsin!

Illinois!

Iowa!

Nebraska!

Wyoming!

 or Utah!

...check the roster for a stop near you!

I want you to know that we did everything we could to get to the places people requested (and some of those were definite sidetracks from logical routing, but in the tradition of this "Goodbye" for Sammy Keyes, that seemed more than appropriate).

On the roster you'll notice the Puyallup Book Festival. This Festival has two exciting days planned. 

The first one (Friday, 10/3) is billed as "An Evening of Teens, Books, and Rock 'n' Roll." Mark will be one of the featured YA authors, and it looks to be an awesome event with Santana drumming legend Michael Shrieve.

The second night (Saturday, 10/4) is the Goodbye Party for Sammy Keyes (aka Sammy-con!), and the plans for the night keep getting better and better! I will post about it separately, soon!

For now I'm going to leave you with our "War Room Map" which has been taped to the wall of our office since we started planning the first loop almost a year ago. (Green squares were the Southern Loop, orange is the upcoming Northern Loop.) I've really come to love this map. Our son pointed out that the roads look like arteries and veins and capillaries, and they give it the feel of being alive. Creepy, maybe, but I think it's cool.

Putting together this tour was tons of work, but now that we have our stops, dates, and finalized route, I'm excited for September, and especially excited to find out...who's coming to see us?

Ready Or Not, Here We Come!

Okay, we are just about set for the Road Show.

No, that's a complete lie. We are miles away from being about set.

And where are we going to fit this mountain of stuff we've got staged for loading into the van? The back seat it removed, but it's still going to be tight. We've got customized drum heads for each of the stores, a huge box of Sammy Keyes shoelaces (not to mention ten pounds of horseshoe charms to go with them), 20 cartons of hardcover Sammy Keyes and the Night of Skulls and 10 cartons of hardcover Swear to Howdys to raffle off at stores (and give away to random strangers at red lights and rest stops...can't wait for that part!). Then there are our (large) suitcases, plus equipment, a big box of books on tape and CDs (for all that "windshield time"), bags and bags of necessary stuff, a box of road snacks and...and...and...a hose.

Yes, I packed a hose.

(We're not supposed to take the van through a car wash. It's one of those super-shrinking kind.)

Really hope to see you at one of the tour stops, but if we're not coming to your area on this loop you can follow along.on Facebook at SammyKeyesBooks, and on Twitter at @WendelinVanD (for the "she said" perspective) and @MarkHParsons (for the "he said)-- we'll be very active there. Please help spread the word!

And now I'm off to find a giant shoehorn.
Or a vanhorn.
(Wait, there's one of those on the steering wheel.)

Anyway, ready or (like me) not,  here we come!

A Little Boost

I tend to throw myself into things.

Not Dumpsters...although I have been known to pull a Sammy Keyes with those, too.

No, I'm talking about ideas. I get an idea about something and before you know it I've thrown myself into it and work, work, work until it's a reality.

Name any book I've written, and that was my process.

The Exercise the Right to Read campaign was like that. Building the website, getting schools to participate, running the marathon...

26.2 miles? Whose crazy idea was that?

The "Pirate Party" was like that--something I did as a celebration of the "halfway" point in the Sammy Keyes series (which was for Dead Giveaway, which is pirate-y in a Billy Pratt sort of way, which turned out to be the 5/9 point in the series, not the half, but I didn't know that at the time).

Mark & me (and Valerie Lewis of Hicklebee's, San Jose)

The Pirate Party was insane. We rented a ship and cruised around the harbor with booksellers and librarians from all over the country. Nancy and my agent, Ginger, flew in from NYC. It was so much fun, and I gained a whole new appreciation for booksellers and librarians because they ALL dressed in "pirate" -- and totally outdid my costume (although Mark's was majorly awesome).

There was also the Flipped premiere that I hosted at a local indie theater. O-ver-board again! (And nary a pirate in sight.) I was on my hands and knees (as were Mark and Nancy) pasting down our own Avenue of Stars for the guests -- again, people who'd been supportive of my career over the years.

The stars from the Flipped movie

And now there's the tour(s). Good grief. Can I just relax a little? Do I really have to get the family van wrapped in books? Do I really have to make posters and fliers and postcards and do all the things I can think of to make the stores happy they hosted us?

Well, apparently, yes.

Maybe I am just a serial overdoer. Maybe I have an unhealthy need to please. Maybe I'm afraid of failure. There's probably some deep-seated psychological reason why I do the things I do, but there are also rational reasons. What contributes to this insane tour of independent bookstores is having grown up in a family that ran a small business. It instilled in me an appreciation for what it takes to make a small business work. It's not an easy thing.

There's also the matter of saying thank you. Sammy Keyes is (or soon will be) 18 books strong. Some of these booksellers have been hand-selling my work since Hotel Thief came out in 1998. I think a thank you is definitely in order.

Some of the stores we've called to see if they'd like to have us visit are, like, "Why are you coming to [Small Town, USA]?" It's hard to explain to someone who doesn't know you or understand that the awards on your books haven't put a barrier between you and remembering what it's like to balance the books of a small business. It's hard to explain the bit about 'thank you'.

The "He Said, She Said" Road Show Wagon!

Some owners are suspicious in a What-Do-You-Want-From-Me? sort of way.

It's been interesting.

And understandable, which is too bad.

Right now, Mark's researching Wind City Books in Caspar, Wyoming. He's super good at this researching stuff. When he's going through a store's website or Facebook pages, he often calls out things like, "I love this place!" or, "Look at this beautiful high ceiling!" or, "Check it out! They have a dog!"

(Indie stores: If you have a resident dog, we will come.)

Wind City Books looks like a cool little indie. So does Main St. Books in Lander. (Mark tells me they have the bonus feature of a coffee bar, and if you've seen our Spring tour routing, you know why this is of interest to him.)

We'll probably call these Fall tour stores next week, because we have to get that ball rolling before we leave on the Spring tour. Maybe they'll be suspicious. Maybe they'll be excited. Either way, we'll do our best to win them over and give them a little boost in faith that sometimes people just want to say "We get it," and "Thank you."

Spring 2014 Tour Schedule & Map

Here's the schedule for the Spring leg of the "He Said, She Said" Author Road Show. (We plan to have the Fall 2014 schedule--visits to the "north half" of the country--ready sometime this summer.) Hope to see you out there! (And please share with anyone you think might be interested!)

The Rest of the Story

Mark had his first book signing yesterday. It went really well--lots of people showed up. Some bought multiple copies. He had a good time.

Ramping up to it, though, was pretty stressful for him. He's not a horn-tooter, or someone who is comfortable imposing on friends and family for support. He's more the guy who's always giving the support.

In last week's post I mentioned that there is so much that goes into being an author that most people are not aware of, including first-time authors. A reader asked me to expand on that, so I'll give a little behind-the-scenes.

For any event to be successful, people have to know about it and it has to seem interesting or relevant to their lives. They have to want to go to make the effort to go. Even then, it's still probably only one in ten intendees who become attendees. Life happens, you know? Things come up. Homework needs to be finished. Maybe they're just tired. Or maybe the weather's bad. Rain (or, hello, ice and snow!) is big factor in people not showing up. Even wind has the power to keep people away.

The bookstore will do community outreach (or poster placement) to alert their patrons to an upcoming event. They'll tell the local papers about it and get a blurb in the Community Calendar listing. Other than that, a lot of stores rely on foot traffic and schedule signings when they hope it'll be busy in the store. They're busy, too. They have a store to run.

So for an author event to be successful, it falls on the author to help drum up interest in the event. This is way more work than you might think. Authors contact local papers & TV and try to get a reporter/editor or producer interested in covering the story. Authors write their own press releases. They supply their own photographs. They e-mail and call and (this one's key) follow up, and, if they're lucky, they get someone to agree to write a piece on them before the event so that people know about it and show up.

More often, press people simply ignore your submission. They're busy! They have deadlines! Their in-boxes are packed, and their voice mail is full! They simply don't get back to you.

Even with 33 books, multiple awards, and 2 movies, they simply don't get back to you.

This is where you want to say Forget it!. It is miserable and time consuming and maddening! But you can't give up yet. You have to keep trying. You have to follow up. You have to find an angle of interest. You have to go until you get a "No."

No can be such a gift.

Authors are also invited (if they're lucky) to guest blog on sites where books are the focus. But submissions need to be unique. You can't submit the same piece to more than one blog.

The goal is to have people who are new to you (or your latest title) give your book a try. Or at least find out more about your work. So if you go on "blog tour" you have to come up with some new angle for each and every site. Try writing a dozen unique, entertaining, compelling posts (500-1000 words each) on your book. You will be so sick of yourself and your book!

So why do it?

There are SO MANY new books out there every season, that unless lightning strikes for you (or a constellation of starred reviews showers down on you), you have to make the effort to pop through all those pages and be seen (and, hopefully, read).

But wait, there's more!

Authors are expected / encouraged / required to speak in public--conferences, schools, bookstores, etc.--and many of us have (or had)  a crippling fear of public speaking. Which makes sense--most authors are, by nature, quiet types. They spend many hours alone with their characters and created worlds. Behind a podium is not someplace they want to be. And without a podium is even worse!

I remember my first few conferences and school visits--I was visibly shaking. My voice was warbly. I was sick to my stomach. It was awful!

So, again, why do it?

It has nothing to do with successful writing, and yet it has everything to do with being a successful writer. It has to do with selling enough books to be considered by your publisher to be a worthy risk for an advance on the next one.

It's what we do so we can go back to our quiet lives and fictional worlds. And if it accomplishes that, it's worth it.

Ramp-Up to Road Rash

The "He Said, She Said" Tour (also known as the Road Show!) is almost finalized. I expect to have the schedule posted next week.

This week, though, is all about the release of Mark's debut novel, Road Rash. Tuesday's the big day! It's amazing, really, how much there is for an author to do that has nothing whatsoever to do with the writing of a book--part of that involves the ramp-up to the release of a book. One of these days I'll write a whole post on it, but for now, I just want to share the book trailer for Road Rash.

Here's the link!

It's purpose is to make you want to read the book. It also makes me want to play the drums!

How about you?

Epic Road Trip

I have what seems today to be a great idea. A month from now it may not, but today? I'm all excited about it.

Ready?

Okay, buckle up. Because what I'm thinking is Epic Road Trip.

Mark's book is coming out in February. (I thought it was May, but no! February!) As you may already know the title is Road Rash. (Whoa. I think I'll ask him for the artwork. It may not be the final artwork, but it's close. And very cool! And I'm so glad his dad got to see it before he passed away. "Huntley" is a proud family name on his dad's side of the family. Covered wagon people. Hearty (and hardy) pioneers. You get the idea.)

Anyway! Road Rash is the story of a 17 year old drummer (Zach) who joins a band (Bad Habit) and goes on a "tour" of the western United States in an old motor home (the Bad-Mobile). A band on the road is a recipe for trouble (although they are not Troublemakers, so don't get your books confused!), and the book is a wonderful ride (breakups, breakdowns, and all).

So what I'm thinking is (as a tie in to the whole Road Rash theme), Mark and I should get our hands on an old motor home and go across the whole country (up, over, down, other-over [or through], up) visiting all the bookstores we can. Aside from talking about our books, I think we as a couple would make for unique bookstore presenters about the writing process, and how we contribute to each other's work.

And (since it's an old motor home) instead of leaving it alone in its old-motor-home appearance, I'm all excited about getting it painted (or shrink wrapped?) with graphics of Road Rash and Sammy Keyes books. Just picture a funky motor home rolling along with book cover images all over it! And words, of course. And all that social media info. We could tweet updates from the road, maybe post short daily videos so people can feel like they're on the adventure with us, and do giveaways to people who tweet us back.

February is too soon to pull this idea together, so it needs to be later -- maybe to coincide with the release of the last Sammy Keyes book. So it would be like the, So Long, Sammy, Hello, Zach epic road tour.

And why I'm telling you all this way at the beginning of the planning stage (rather than when it makes sense to tell you) is because (well, I'm excited and you're you and) the route is presently wide open. So I want YOU to tell me...

What city and what bookstore in that city do you want us to visit?

(If you're not comfortable putting that info in the comments, send it to mail@exercisetherighttoread.org )

And if you have other ideas, don't be shy. This is going to be epic fun and I want you to be part of it! Talk to me!