Create Your Own Book Tour
by A.H.Holt

Scheduling a book tour requires nothing more than a computer with an internet connection and lots of determination.  Decide where you want to go. Plan your travel around the location of family and friends who will let you bunk with them. If you can keep the motel costs down you can tour much longer.

Use internet white or yellow pages to find the names and addresses of book stores within driving distance of where you'll be staying. Almost every indie has a web site.  You'll find phone numbers and addresses for all chain booksellers.

I use email as much as I can to set up signings, then use the telephone as a last resort. I contact the store manager or community relations person, tell them when I plan to be in their area, describe my book, and ask them to host a reading/signing.

Write everything about the signing in your daybook. The manager's name, the address of the store, beginning and ending times, phone number and any special instructions. It's hard to hang on to bits of paper or scattered information when you are traveling.

Once your tour is planned don't forget to send press releases to all news media in the cities you will be visiting. You will find their web sites on the net and somewhere on each you will find an email address

I always plan to arrive at a signing at least one-half hour earlier than agreed. If I'm in the neighborhood a few days earlier I take them a poster. I call the store the day before the signing to remind them I'm coming and ask if they have any problems.

Be sure to have a good supply of handouts.  I carry bookmarks and "Rules for Writing" printed on plain paper with some reviewer quotations about my novels on the back.

I always ask people who come to my table to give me their name and email---whether they buy my book or not.  I'm building a fan list to announce my next book and the next one after that.

Always carry a supply of books.  If the store runs out, I make a deal --- in advance---and in writing --- to collect cash or a check for any of my books that are sold when I leave.

Make the most of your time in any new area to visit other bookstores and libraries.  Make up packets including information about you and your books to give to book store owners and Acquisitions Directors in libraries.

Remember that making money is not the object of a book tour or of any book signing.  Meeting readers and making sure readers and booksellers know our books exist are the real goals.

Copyright © 2004 Anne Haw Holt. All Rights Reserved.

SILVER CREEK, A. H. Holt, ISBN 0803496001
KENDRICK by A.H.Holt, ISBN 0803496508
Mystery, romance, fast-paced action and real cowboy heroes.
http://www.ahholt.com
http://www.westernfictionreview.com