Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Setting up booksignings...
Things went really well with my booksigning schedule. BEA (BookExpoAmerica) is happening in New York this week, but I was able to confirm booksigning dates with Emma Rodgers of Black Images in Dallas. I talked with Kensington Books' sale rep (a wonderful pit bull of a woman) who planned out a NYC strategy for booksignings. Since bestsellers lists are great marketing tools, we target NYT reporting stores, and since I know I can get a critical mass of readers to my signings, I can almost guarantee that I'll be somewhere on the list, at least for a week. The same with the LATimes list. That gets the momentum going for Friends With Benefits, because we can market the book to everyone as a NYT or LATimes, or Essence magazine, bestseller. And although the majority of African American readers buy books on word of mouth, it doesn't hurt if they read or hear that it made the list. Once I get these dates done, then we'll work on figuring out which ones will be done off-site and which on-site.
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4 comments:
How cool. Is this your first fiction book to be published?
How in hell do you take care of a family, go on a book tour, sell your house and move into an apartment, and start grad school -- all virtually at the same time?
Reading your blog makes me feel like such an underachiever...
LOL! I have a very supportive wife and child! It's the strangest thing. Since I started writing full time in '97, it seems like has never stopped. With my first book, I used to be on the road ALL of the time. I've lectured at over 250 school in five years, so we simply got used to me being on the road. THIS on the other hand, is pretty simple. All I have to do is go to school! As for the book tour, it sounds a lot more complicated than what it really is. I have done them so often that I can do a booksigning with my eyes closed. It's airport, rental car, hotel, sleep, signing, horrible food, and then back to sleep. Rinse and repeat.
This is my fiction debut, which is like starting over. Non-fiction is my love, but fiction is damn fun to write.
Don't worry about the underachiever thing. Everybody else's life always seems more accomplished than ones own, and I'm no different.
Well, you are an inspiration, let's just say that. Congrats on your fiction debut -- so many dream it, you are living it.
And your next book, the porn book -- fiction also? I'll resist asking about your "research" for that one.
By the way, did you submit a screenplay or your novel as a writing sample for UCLA?
Thanks for the inspiration comment! As for the porn book, it actually stems a non-fiction book proposal that my agent couldn't sell. All of the editors said that the subject couldn't sell as non-fiction, but could as fiction. I actually did do some research, going on shoots, interviewing actors and directors, and it was so interesting, that I couldn't let it go.
For UCLA, I submitted my second book, The Ways of Black Folks: A Year in the Life of a People as a writing sample. It was cool because Linda really GOT the book, and we talked a lot about it during my interview. I really like her and can't wait to take a class with her.
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