Guide to Building a Book Tour
Part 2: Selling on the Road 🤑
In Part I of this series, The Guide to Building a Book Tour, I discussed how to secure venues for gigs: what worked for me, and what didn’t. Since launching the tour at the end of June, I’ve gained more insights into the hustle of book touring. Looking back, my initial excitement blinded me to some of the realities I had to face.
A less-than-delightful turnout
I started my book tour in Jackson, WY — a place I lived for nearly a decade. Though I left in January 2022, I still have many friends and acquaintances I called upon to attend my poetry workshop and reading. I worked with the adult program coordinator at the library, and when I arrived, I was delighted to see a spread of tea, fruit, and cookies for participants. It felt so fancy! All of this was for me? I’m no one!
I was not delighted, however, by the turnout. Even though the event was publicized in the newspaper’s event calendar, on the library’s website and social media, on my website and social media (I even “boosted” my ad on Facebook and Instagram!), and even though I sent personalized invitations to friends and acquaintances through text and DM, and sent press releases to all the media news outlets, five people showed up to my workshop — two of which were my partner and the library coordinator. Three additional people skipped the workshop, but showed up for my reading. Eight attendees total. I was heartbroken.
Before I set out on my tour, I purchased 100 author copies of my book at $4.92 each, selling them for the cover price of $20. I was going to purchase only 50 author copies, but then worried I’d sell out or be close to selling out after my first event. In the end, I sold only three copies.
Taking advantage of “canned” audiences
After contemplating what went wrong, I thought of a couple of things I could have done differently. The first was, my event was the Thursday before the Fourth of July weekend. It’s summer in the Tetons, and most people’s schedule of events did not include sitting in the library writing poetry for two hours. Maybe I could have coordinated the event to be outside in a park instead or chosen a different day.
Secondly, my Wyoming friends don’t really care about poetry. I had to think to myself: If my friend Tom wrote a book about ski maintenance and to promote his book he organized a free, two-hour workshop on proper caretaking for ski gear, I probably wouldn’t attend either. As a non-skier who would rather swim with piranhas than spend a whole day outdoors in the alpine winter, it’s not relevant to me. It’s just not my thing. I probably wouldn’t buy his book either. At most, I would attend a reading of his book, but even then, I’d have to have nothing else better going on or he’d have to be a really, really good friend.
My really, really good friends did show up for either my workshop or reading or both, but none of my friends are poets, and they likely didn’t want to spend their Thursday night sitting inside discussing the eviscerating realities of losing a loved one to cancer. Maybe I set my expectations too high.
Each of my programs after that had larger turnouts despite taking place in towns where I have never lived. My largest audience so far was in Coeur D’Alene for which I was the North Idaho Writers League’s guest speaker. Thirteen people attended and actively engaged with my workshop. This is what is called a “canned audience” — people who would have shown up regardless. They were all writers, even though they weren’t all poets, and they would have come to their monthly meeting whether I was the guest speaker or not. They engaged with me and my presentation, asked questions, and read aloud. A couple people bought my book, and I received a lot of positive feedback after my workshop.
As I book events for the fall and winter, I’m going to look for venues that come with a “canned audience,” people who are already interested in writing and poetry, and who would show up whether I or any other Joe Schmoe were there.
Recommendations for penny-pinching
I am not making money from this tour. The honoraria I’m collecting won’t even cover the gas I need to travel to these places. I thought I’d be selling way more books than I am, but even if I sold every copy that I have left, the money I net won’t exceed the cost of gas and food. With that in mind, here are some ways I’m saving money:
1) I’m keeping all my receipts
and will write off these expenses come tax time next year. I am by no means a CPA, and I have no idea what exactly writing these expenses off will do for me, but I have every receipt and am keeping track of my expenses in Google Sheets for when the time comes.
2) I’m not eating at restaurants.
While on the road, I buy nearly all my food from grocery stores. Not convenience stores or gas station markets, but grocery stores: Safeway, Albertsons, Kroger, Whole Foods. It is so much cheaper, and I can make sure that I am nourishing myself with (mostly) whole instead of overly processed foods while traveling. I don’t have a cooler with me, so if I buy yogurt or other food that needs refrigeration, I just eat it right away. I am not much for cooking, but when I was a nanny for the rock and roll band Hank & Cupcakes on their 2017 summer tour (an article for another day!), they saved tons of money by cooking instead of ordering takeout. They had a large cooler that plugged in, and they brought a rice cooker with them. We’d have salad and some sort of grain and vegetable concoction for dinner every night. It was delicious, and way more nourishing than if we had pizza delivered, or ate microwavable macaroni cheese on the regular.
I don’t have space in my car for a large plug-in cooler, and even assembling a salad is too much cooking for me! So, my go-to travel foods are fresh fruit, snap peas, yogurt, Lara bars, and popcorn. I do, however, spend more money than I’d like to admit at coffee shops. I could have easily brought an electric kettle and either a pour-over or AeroPress with me, but I didn’t. Instead, I pay $5-$8 a day on lattes. In the future, I will do this differently.
3) I’m not paying rent or staying in hotels.
Before I left the east coast, I moved all my stuff into an 8x5 storage unit for which I pay approximately $125/month (first month free!). In the meantime, when I’m not staying with friends, I am camping out in my car. I’m not living the #VanLife in a retrofitted Sprinter, but an even more modest lifestyle in the back seat of my Subaru Forester.
Here’s the cozy car set up.
Long before my book tour, I bought a platform that attaches to the backs of the front seats and covers the rear footwells to prevent my elderly dog (now deceased, RIP Bella Bird) from falling while I drove. Knowing I’d be car camping this summer, I purchased a memory foam crib mattress (that is surprisingly comfortable!) to go over top. After I added my satin bed pillows and an array of comfy blankets, my setup merited display on a Pinterest board. This, of course, will not work for most people. I am 5’4” and normally sleep in the fetal position, so snuggling up in my backseat doesn’t feel claustrophobic. In terms of safety, because the #VanLife is more popular than ever, whenever I find a highway rest area to camp out for the night, I am one of at least a dozen other cars there. If someone tried to break into my Subaru in the middle of the night, I’d be able to hit the emergency button on my car fab and a lot of angry people would check to see what was going on. I am not a stranger to traveling solo or “roughing it,” so this setup works for me, and I haven’t had any safety scares.
Because I’m not making money from this tour, I am constantly asking myself, Is this worth it?!?! I still have two-thirds of my tour to go, and I hope my upcoming events are more fruitful in terms of attendance and book sales. So far, out of the 100 wholesale author copies I bought, I have sold ten books and given 14 away for free. I told my partner the dozens of leftover books are going to sit in our basement, and maybe our future children will find them and use them as kindling in their post-apocalyptic world. Only time will tell.
The me from three years ago would say, “You’re on a freaking book tour for your published book, dum dum! This is a dream come true! Stop complaining!” So I will stop complaining now, and say that even though my tour has not reaped the kind of success I had initially hoped for, I am having a lot of fun. I am visiting friends I haven’t seen in years, exploring places I have never been, and I’m sharing my poetry with the world. I spent my birthday facilitating that program in Coeur D’Alene, and I told my mother who was concerned that I was spending my birthday alone that yes, I wasn’t spending the day with friends and family, but I was in my favorite place… on the road.
TL;DR
Too long; didn’t read
One month into my tour, I’ve had modest turnouts at my events so far, and haven’t sold the amount of books I originally predicted. When I book future events, I’m going to search for venues that come with a “canned audience.”
To save money on my tour, I’m buying groceries instead of eating out and camping in my car instead of staying in hotels. I’m keeping all my receipts to write off my expenses come tax time.
And last, if I could go back in time, I would have ordered fewer author copies.
Despite it all, I am having fun.
With another two months to go, look out in the fall for my Part III and conclusion to this series!
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This article was published on August 1, 2023. Written by:
