Gearing Up For the Tour...

It's Monday, and I woke up this morning with a thundering headache. But things had to be done. Groceries had to be bought, last papers for the house had to be signed, and boxes unloaded. And last but not least, I have a sixteen day tour to get ready for.

Kensington says that they are sending me 3000 Friends With Benefits postcards for publicity. That's cool, but it would have been nice to get them a bit earlier. However, I'm going to send them out to all of the bookstores prior to my signing. Right now, things seem pretty good, but I am a little worried about my Seattle signing. Not about whether anyone will show, but about the venue. The owner emailed me on Saturday, wondering if she needed to order my books. I speak in less than a week and she's just now asking. Yes, she needs to order. I never bring books, but I just may bring the copies my publisher sent me just in case.

For me, booksignings aren't glamorous, nor are they particularly exciting. In fact, they tend to be very lonely. My typical day is: airplane flight (most likely Southwest), to Hertz Club Gold to Holiday Inn. I do the gig, find a Chili's or Outback Steakhouse for dinner, and then back to the hotel room. You would think that you'd have plenty of time to write with that empty space and time, but not so for me. I pretty much stay bored.

I'm a people person, so I do like meeting readers and people in general, but I've never looked at booksignings as being an added benefit of being an author. And they are hit and miss. You can have a booksigning that is overflowing with people, and then the next day, have three people show up. You can't get too up or down with either.

So what am I going to do this week? One, I'm going to start talking to the reporters that want to do interviews. Kensington is working on getting me more interviews in the cities I visit. Remember, the goal of this tour is to create momentum for the book. That means being interviewed, dropping in on bookstores and signing stock, and taking as many pictures as possible. Hopefully the end result will be Friends With Benefits on multiple bestsellers lists and a new fiction readership loyal to my work. See you on the road!