By Ellen Birkett Morris
Early in my career, I worked as a public relations assistant for my local indie bookstore. Part of my job was helping at author events. I saw thronging crowds show up for book signings by Kentucky basketball coaches and witnessed the genius of Amy Tan, who showed up with her support team, her best friend, and a purse-sized dog. To my young eyes these events were glamourous happenings that I could never imagine taking part in.
Flash forward too many years to mention and I am off on a book tour for my debut novel, Beware the Tall Grass, published by Columbus State University Press. Knowing that most small press authors—whether promoting fiction, nonfiction, or memoir—will experience something different than the coaches and Amy Tan, I’d like to offer my tips for a “successful” small press book tour.
Most book tours these days use a “conversation partner” format, bringing together two authors with published books. Not knowing what crowds might be like for me as a debut author, I picked conversation partners who were known to the community where the independent bookstore was located. I looked for writers and thinkers I admired. In my case, I asked friends from graduate school, local journalists, writers I had interviewed before or taken classes with. I focused on the pleasure of being in their company and talking about writing instead of worrying about crowd size or sales.
I was not disappointed. I had wonderful conversations and walked away with even greater regard for my colleagues.
Selecting the right bookstores is important. Of course, I contacted my two favorite local stores, Carmichaels in Louisville, and Joseph Beth in Lexington. Then I looked for stores in cities where I had a connection. My editor hosted me at Prairie Lights in Iowa City. A friend introduced me to Pages, a small indie bookstore in Detroit, where I have family. Having attended the Antioch Writers Workshop in Dayton I reached out to a writer there and she suggested the local Barnes & Noble. I accompanied a friend from graduate school as she launched her own book at Malaprops. I connected with the booksellers there and spent money in the stores.
Small presses have limited or no budgets for travel. It is important to clarify what, if any, funds are available to support your tour. My husband and I decided to pour our vacation funds into book travel this year.
The best thing I did for myself on tour was to temper my expectations. My hometown event was standing room only with the books sold out. The event in Iowa City was twenty students and an unhoused man who asked a fantastic question: what is next for you? The event in Detroit was my wonderful family and a cadre of readers who love the bookstore. The event in Dayton was on a sunny Saturday the day before Mother’s Day. The group was small, but it included a teen writer who came up to talk afterwards.
I loved them all!
I am home now and off the road, resting and recuperating from the travel. Every so often I get a flash of memory, my husband’s proud face beaming from the crowd, the hopeful face of the young writer energized by meeting an author, the smile of my uncle whose decency and courage inspired me to set part of the novel in Vietnam.
Yeah, that tour was a success.
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Ellen Birkett Morris is the author of Beware the Tall Grass, winner of the Donald L. Jordan Award for Literary Excellence, judged by Lan Samantha Chang, published by CSU Press. She is also the author of Lost Girls: Short Stories, winner of the Pencraft Award. Morris is a recipient of an Al Smith Fellowship for her fiction from the Kentucky Arts Council. Morris is also the author of Abide and Surrender, poetry chapbooks. Her poem “Abide” was featured on NPR’s A Way with Words. Her essays have appeared in Newsweek, AARP’s The Ethel, Oh Reader magazine, and on National Public Radio.
