 | 19 Sep 06 |
(Please welcome New York Times Bestselling Author Tess Gerritsen, who is guest blogging at MurderSheWrites.com today! Please note: Tess is on the road, and thus cannot currently respond to comments, but I will make sure she sees them all when she returns.)
As I head off on my book tour for THE MEPHISTO CLUB, I’m reminded of an old saying about author tours (although I don’t remember who said it): “the only thing worse than going on book tour is not being asked to go on book tour.” And it’s true. It’s a privilege to be sent on the road to promote one’s book. It’s a privilege to be invited into bookstores to talk to readers, to be put up in nice hotels and driven around by chatty media escorts. But let’s be perfectly honest about what I’m actually doing out on the road. I’m a traveling saleswoman, and the product I’m selling is not just my latest book; I’m also selling myself: Tess the storyteller and entertainer and public personality.
Some authors (J.A. Konrath, for example) are gregarious charmers who thrive on mingling with their public. They love being on the road. But for those of us who are shy, those of us who chose this novel-writing job because we actually like being locked away in an office by ourselves, the book tour can be an ordeal. Airline travel alone these days is enough to frazzle you. Then there’s the stress of playing a role that, for most of the year, is so out of character for me. At the end of a long day of shaking hands and smiling, I want to dine by myself in a restaurant and read a book. I want to sit in a bathrobe in my hotel room and watch CNN. I don’t want to be charming or entertaining or even presentable. I want to be like Greta Garbo: left alone.
But the real stress of being on tour, the thing that makes me wake up in a cold sweat in my hotel room and causes me to jump for the ringing telephone, is all about The Book. More specifically: How is The Book doing?
I’m sure I share this anxiety with every single author who has a new book out in stores. We wait in terror for the reviews. We fret over the first-week sales figures. (“Why did we drop in Target? What’s the problem in Walmart?”) Then there’s the book tour. Drop-in signings, those little bookstore visits that mystery author J.A. Konrath manages with such aplomb, are my undoing. The tension starts to build as I pull into the bookstore parking lot. My heart’s pounding, my hands are sweating. It’s a feeling of both anticipation and dread. I walk in the front door and stare at the front table, looking – of course – for The Book. Is it displayed where it should be? Is there a huge stack of copies (meaning they aren’t selling) or only a short stack of them (meaning the store didn’t order enough)? Is it even on the front table? Is it in one of the front bookcases or has it already been banished to the Siberia of “shelved in section”?
Then there’s the ordeal of hunting down the manager. Most of them are perfectly nice people, happy to have an author drop in unannounced. But every so often I’ll meet one who really doesn’t want to bother hunting for my books. Or keeps asking what my name is, and do I write fiction or nonfiction? Or tells me, “we can’t have you sign the books because then we can’t return them.” Every so often, one will check the computer and solemnly inform you that your latest sales suck. (Which is something I always suspect anyway.)
About half the time, I walk out of the store feeling demoralized.
So why do I go on the road at all? Why do any of us do it? Why do we put ourselves through this ego-shattering ordeal of visiting bookstores, only to find out that we’re never selling well enough or displayed well enough? That we’ll never have all the readers we hoped we’d have?
Because we’re all driven and compulsive and crazy people, that’s why. We’re convinced that if we don’t do this, our careers are over. We believe that if we just got in our car and drove to every bookstore in America and shook every manager’s hand and signed every copy of every book we ever wrote, we’d achieve our dreams.
And maybe it’s true. Maybe you have to be a compulsive and crazy to make it in this business.
I’ve been at it for ten books now, and it may be true that part of my success is due to the fact that I went out on the road for almost every one of my books. But I also know about authors who spent so much time on the road promoting their books that they never got home to write the next book… and their careers tanked after that. You just can’t be touring while simultaneously writing your next novel. That is, unless your name is Nora Roberts.
What I do know is this: I wish I could just stay home and tell stories. I wish I could stop worrying about reviews and daily sales figures and what my Amazon index is doing. It’s all driving me crazy.
But now it’s time to pack my bag and hit the road.
Allison Brennan enjoys Tess’s latest book!
Natalie R. Collins was born in Logan, Utah and attended the University of Utah. She worked for eleven years at The Salt Lake Tribune, Utah's largest daily newspaper, before leaving to devote more time to her family. During the ensuing years, she wrote five novels. She also worked for the 2001 and 2002 Sundance Film Festivals as an editor. Natalie is a member of the International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America, and Romance Writers of America.
Subscribe to Posts 
Tess, thank you so much for guest blogging with us today! Good luck on your book tour!
by Jen September 19th, 2006 at 9:39 amTouring is dirty work. When you are first starting out, it sounds SO neat. Wow, the book tour! Down the road, you realize it isn’t so ideal. Of course, my only book tour was… Oh WAIT. I’ve never had a book tour. I’ll shut up now.
by Natalie September 19th, 2006 at 10:48 amI go on the road next month. (a self intigated book tour) Methinks it will be a love hate relationship. I love meeting readers and book sellers and just hanging out around books. I hate to travel.
by Karin September 19th, 2006 at 11:03 amThanks for stopping by Tess and good luck on your tour.
Tess, thrilled to ‘see’ you here at MurderSheWrites. I’m always glad to hear from published writers it isn’t all champagne and roses. The real dirt is much more informative.
by Amanda September 19th, 2006 at 11:34 amTess,
Thanks so much for blogging here. One thing I know for sure: in your case if sales are down it would have something to do with the economy. It sure wouldn’t be because of the writing. I love your books. I always start out thinking I’ll just read a couple of chapters and turn out the light. I always get hooked and end up reading far into the night.
Good luck on the latest book tour. And soon you’ll be able to go back to the bathrobe and CNN.
Mo
by Maureen September 19th, 2006 at 12:08 pmThank you Tess for visiting and telling it like it is. I very much enjoy your blog because of your down-to-earth honesty. It’s enlightening for newbies like me. Though it’s scary when someone of your talent seems as neurotic as me.
As you can see, I already got the book
and as soon as my whip-cracking editor gets off my back, I’ll be finishing it. 
by Allison September 19th, 2006 at 1:04 pmTess, I absolutely adore that you are so open and honest. I read your blog regularly and just want to say thanks for sharing. I appreciate it.
by Meretta September 19th, 2006 at 1:43 pmTess, I absolutely adore that you are so open and honest. I read your blog regularly and just want to say thanks for sharing. I appreciate it. Best of luck on your tour!
by Meretta September 19th, 2006 at 1:43 pmTess thank you so much. It is nice to know that Natalie isn’t the only neurotic writer out there in checking numbers and self confidence. It seems to me those who lack the exact self assuredness to not worry about the numbers are those who should be worring.
I have long wondered how a writer juggles a tour and writing. It boggles my mind.
Karin when does your tour start? Where does it take you? Pacific Northwest maybe? hmm?
Natalie you need a tour…I’ll drive
by Cele September 20th, 2006 at 12:29 pmAs always, Tess is a beacon of light and sanity amidst all this craziness.
I’m doing my first tour right now, too, week 2, and it is eerie and horrifying to read this post and realize IT NEVER GETS ANY BETTER, no matter how big you get.
But at least now I don’t have to beat myself up that it’s ME, and I’m doing something wrong.
Some of it is wonderful. But the anxiety is practically killing. And if I don’t get some writing time soon I will kill someone myself.
Sending all light, Tess!
Alex
by Alex Sokoloff September 21st, 2006 at 11:51 am[...] So, does anyone know? Did it work over the weekend? Is the mechanical book signer going to save authors who are forced to turn into travelling saleswomen … or men? [...]
by Author Loreth Anne White September 25th, 2006 at 9:39 pmI hope you have writer’s cramp from signing. Your readers are always thrilled to see you in person!
Mary
by Mary Marvella September 27th, 2006 at 9:48 ambest mortgage rate
best mortgage rate
by best mortgage rate March 24th, 2007 at 9:03 am