Launching a book into the world is a mind fuck. It’s exciting but often devastating and can be humiliating.
My Adventures in Book Publicity Part 3 | Book Tours
Each edition of series My Adventures in Book Publicity will feature a campaign or organization close to my heart!
My Adventures in Book Publicity
Book Tours
Low expectations and making the most out of everything big or small is the key to surviving.
Book Tours
For my third post in My Adventures in Book Publicity series, I am focusing on book tours for small and independent press authors.
Literary festivals are often what makes up a great deal of a tour for an author and allows them to afford to go because festivals or your publisher pays for travel and hotel. Then the author can do side events around the festivals.
At the time that I had planned my tour, I had not been invited to any literary festivals, so I knew if I were to do a book tour I would be footing the bill.
Just because you have a book out doesn’t mean the world is waiting for it. That can be a tough pill to swallow for some writers, and book launch season can feel like one disappointment after the next, if you let it.
I’m not going to lie.
Launching a book into the world is a mind fuck.
It’s exciting but often devastating and can be humiliating.
You may not be on a list or get a review or get an invitation.
You will compare yourself and your book to others.
You will mostly feel bad because it’s an exercise in exclusion.
Low expectations and making the most out of everything big or small is the key to surviving.
I learned this lesson with my first book and have carried it with me through subsequent publications.
Nobody cares about your book more than you.
Nobody.
A book tour looks very different for a writer who is getting paying invitations along with some travel funding or for an author who can afford to self-fund and take time off for an extensive tour.
So if you don’t get invited to a paying festival, what can you do?