Nuts & Bolts
Public Relations

How To Survive a Book Tour

By Ellen Hoffman, WIW Member

A few days before I began the book tour for my title, The Retirement Catch-Up Guide: 54 Real-life Lessons to Boost Your Future Resources Now! (Newmarket Press, August 2000), a friend who is into astrology issued a warning: It was a bad time to travel. A lot would go wrong. Plans would not work out and errors would be made. Luckily, she read my stars wrong. The trip was exhausting, but there were no major foul-ups. I would have been better off if my friend had warned me of how much “coping” would be required. Eleven radio shows. Seven television shows. One live Web cast. Two print media interviews. Two classes taught at Learning Annex. All this in five cities—New York, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles and Minneapolis—in the course of two weeks. The promotion tour for this title was not my first, but it was the most intense. When I thought back on the trip, I realized it had taught me some survival lessons that might be instructive for other authors. That inspired me to come up with this list of tips for fellow scribes anticipating book tours and to those believing that life on the road is glamorous or a vacation.

• Always have a copy of the book with you.
Books sent to media outlets before your interview have a way of disappearing into the ether. You do not want to be on TV without a book to show the camera.

• Always carry another copy of the book with you. Never give this one away.
You will need your own to refer to in interviews or to prepare before you go on the air.

• Always carry press kits.
Before guests appear on the air, stations often feature a headshot or image of the front cover. As with hard copies of books, these items have a way of being lost.

• Pack defensively and pack enough.
This means always having a clean set of clothes in your hand luggage. Forget about traveling light. My cross-country plane was so full that I had to stow my linen blazer under the seat in front of me. By 4 p.m. the Saturday I arrived at my hotel in San Francisco, there was no way for me to have it cleaned and pressed by Monday morning.

• Leave the laptop at home.
Planning to write your next column while you are on the road? Forget it. When you are not in action with the media, you will be trying to sleep off jet lag. Besides, e-mail is everywhere now. Just go to your closest hotel business center, cybercafe, Kinko’s or airport business center and try not to wince when you are charged a $10 minimum per half hour—even if you only use it for 10 minutes.

• Carry an extra copy of your schedule with directions in your suitcase (in addition to the one in your purse or briefcase).
There is nothing worse than running late and not being able to remember the location at which you are scheduled.

• Turn off your cell phone during interviews.
KCBS-FM’s Lon Landis in Los Angeles was terribly sweet when my phone started intoning a Bach “Invention” during our radio interview. Luckily, we were taping a future show and it could be edited.

• Prepare talking points and sound bites.
What is the difference? Talking points are for when you have time—say, at a book signing or interview. Sound bites are for frenetic anchors who only let you say half a sentence before they cut in.

• Prepare talking points for different audiences.
On “Senior Appreciation Day” at a Borders outside Los Angeles, my audience’s average age was about 72. They wanted to know how to catch up on retirement after they were already retired. Other audiences ranged from about 22 to 60 years old, and needed different advice.

• Sign as many books as you can at bookstores, even if nobody buys them at your signing.
Signed books are less likely to be returned to publishers. If you have time, call ahead to find what other bookstores in the area have your title in stock. Ask your publisher’s publicist to call the manager and arrange a time in your tour schedule for you to go in and sign them. Signed books often are placed face out in shelves, rather than spine out, which helps them jump off the shelves.

• Try to maintain a reasonable diet.
Experts will tell you that healthy food and rest will help you survive your tour, but the best-laid plans for eating fruit and cottage cheese for breakfast and salads for lunch can be very difficult to implement. If you cannot fit in three squares, stash some fresh fruit and nuts in your tote bag, along with the books and press kits.