Planning a Book Tour on the Cheap

This week, I've invited author Beth Groundwater to share her experiences about planning her book tour:

Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of fiction authors receive no funds from their publisher for conducting book tours. Any traveling most authors do is on our own nickel. Eventually, we learn to stretch those nickels as far as possible, and I thought I'd share with readers of Hey There's a Dead Guy in the Living Room eight tips for planning a book tour on the cheap. Many of these tips can be applied to any kind of trip.

1. Flying: If possible, avoid flying and use cheaper transportation modes. If you must fly, use frequent flyer miles or shop online for the cheapest fare, even if it means changing planes multiple times or driving to another airport close to your home or destination. For instance, leaving from Denver versus my hometown of Colorado Springs can often save me more money than the extra I spend in gas and airport parking.

2. Driving: Try to carpool with another author to share the cost of gas, parking, and tolls. You can do this if you anchor a conference at one end of your tour or invite another author to tour with you.  Also, here's where a AAA membership can come in handy as a source for free maps, guide books, and Trip-Tiks. A travel counselor at my local AAA office who is an avid reader enjoys planning book tours with me after I've collected my dates and addresses for bookstores and nighttime stopovers.

3. Sleeping: Plan your route so you can stay with friends and/or family along the way and avoid paying for rooms. If you do need to pay for a room, try to share the room with another author or, if going to a conference, with another attendee. Look for as cheap a room as possible, compare the price for the same room at multiple websites and by calling the property directly, or use your affinity points if you've got them. Beware of city hotels with parking garages if you're driving, because they often charge exorbitant parking fees. Lastly, I always check that the property provides free Internet service, is located in a safe area of town, and is not located next to railroad tracks.

4. Eating: Take a small cooler so you can carry meals in the car or keep them on ice in your room. Many times I've packed snacks and sandwiches for a car trip or kept yogurt and fruit in a cooler in my room for breakfasts. Even better is to find a property where breakfast is included. Ask bookstore staff before your visit if they have book club that you could meet with for a meal before or after the signing. Also check if there’s a local chapter of a relevant writing group (such as MWA or Sisters in Crime, in my case). Either type of group will enjoy the opportunity to visit with an author, you'll have more attendees at the signing as a result, and the group often will pay for your meal.

5. Drinking: Take your own water bottle to conferences and events and refill it as needed. Drink just water with restaurant meals. Avoid expensive coffee and alcoholic beverages. Even more costly can be a slip of the tongue while inebriated that can cost you fans. Instead, if you're at a conference where the bar is a great place to network, nurse a soda all evening. However, if opportunity comes knocking, go for it. I've never turned down just one free drink!

6. Freebies: Don't go overboard on the giveaways. You should only need business cards and bookmarks or fliers. The expense of pens, buttons, notepads, mini-flashlights and all those other freebies can really add up. If you only make $1 in royalties per book, you shouldn't be spending more than 25-30 cents on a giveaway that you hand out to potential customers.

7. Decorating: Bring along packable eye-catching decorations for your signing table, but don't overdo it or interfere with the decorations and signage the store or conference provides. Suggestions include a small prop related to your book's theme or setting, a brightly colored tablecloth, a sign, and in my case, yellow crime scene tape. I suggest a candy dish on your signing table, but buy the candy in a bulk multi-pound bag at Sam's or Costco.

8. Dressing: Don't buy new clothes for the tour. Most fans are comfortable with an author who is neatly dressed just one notch higher than themselves. For instance, if most of the customers in a bookstore will be wearing jeans, I wear casual slacks and a shirt with a collar. Take clothing that travels well, can be layered, and can be washed on the road, preferably at a friend or relative's house.

Using these guidelines, I planned a two-week trip in 2007 after the release of the first book in my Claire Hanover gift basket designer mystery series, A Real Basket Case. I flew using frequent flyer miles to Virginia for the Malice Domestic conference, rented a small car with unlimited mileage, and stayed with friends in Arlington. Then I drove another author to the Festival of Mystery, and we shared a motel room. After dropping her at the Pittsburgh airport, I drove back to Virginia and stayed with relatives and friends throughout the state while conducting signings. As an extra benefit, many of them enjoyed serving as door greeters at bookstores.

My next two-week book tour on the cheap will be a car trip with my husband this June after the release of To Hell in a Handbasket. We'll drive to Oregon to attend my daughter's college graduation, conduct signings on the way out and back, and stay with relatives in Seattle and Bend. I'm also on the lookout for friends along the way who will trade a dinner out for use of their guest room! To see if I’ll be signing at a location near you, to subscribe to my email newsletter, and for information about my novels, please visit my website: http://bethgroundwater.com/ .

Do you have any other good ideas for book touring on the cheap?

Comments

[Patricia Stoltey]

Hi Beth, Thanks for the tips and good luck with your tours. See you in June....Pat

[www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawl5Fv-tkhIk5IWUFf2EVlfJ4vTz4b0oxiU]

J.A. Konrath actually asked his blog readers for a place to stay while he's on his latest tour and has been staying in "fan" homes. Most feed him at least once too. Seems to have worked well for him. You can read about it on his blog. http://jakonrath.blogspot.com

[Beth Groundwater]

You know, being a woman, I'm a little leery of staying in the home of someone I don't know. If someone who I've met at a conference and talked to in person offers me a place to stay, I'll certainly consider it. In fact, I have gotten and accepted one offer of a place to stay from an another author since I announced my June tour.

Another little cheap book tour tip that I didn't include in the article is to buy a box of a dozen extra fine point Sharpie permanent markers at an office supply store before you leave, to sign books with. Hopefully, you'll need them all!

Thanks, folks, for stopping by and commenting here. I'll be checking in throughout the day and early tomorrow to address other comments.

The schedule for my whole blog tour is at:
http://bethgroundwater.com/Book_Blog_Tour.html

My next stop tomorrow will be at:
http://www.writersplot.typepad.com/
where I'll be talking about how to invite authors to visit your book club.

I hope you'll comment on ALL the stops along my tour--and increase your odds for winning an autographed set of the two Claire Hanover mystery books!
- Beth

[Karen Brees]

I'm combining my trip with my high school reunion. Makes the trip tax deductible. Not comfortable accepting invites from new acquaintances for room and board. Gonna put the camper on the truck and stay at KOAs or state parks and cook my own food.

[Penny Warner]

Great tips, Beth! Thanks for sharing them.
-Penny Warner

[feedingthegreycells.blogspot.com]

Great Tips Beth!
Wish you luck on your blog tour.

You are invited to make my book review blog feedingthegreycells.blogspot.com part of any of your future tours.

feedingthegreycells.blogspot.com

[L. C. Hayden]

Beth,
Super advice. Loved the idea of a virtual book tour which is also a way to save on those costly promo tours. One thing you may want to mention is that you should combine book tours with other things you will be doing anyway--like you mentioned going to your daughter's graduation (congrats!) and signing while there.
I will definitely use your advice when my next book comes out, which isn't unfortunately, until April 2010. Aye, caramba!
Have a great book tour!

[www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawksV0oEQnZ6wmU_bkN15hAteUXcOxOSRoE]

Very interesting! I wouldn't have considered ALL of those expenses. Hope your Oregon trip goes really well!

[me.yahoo.com/a/11L_Wcgp18wP_eiiLxA2dnfU4s.F]

Beth -- don't forget to stop in bookstores, especially independent ones in towns you stop in or even if you can in towns you go through. Leave a card and a publishers data sheet (or your own) on each of your books and ask them to order your books

Rod Summitt

[Joann Breslin]

Best of luck, Beth, I hope your tour goes very well! I'll be away for almost 3 weeks, so I'll look forward to hearing your good news on the SINC or Guppies list.

Joann Breslin
[email protected]

[askwendy.wordpress.com]

Hi Beth,
Loved the yellow crime scene tape idea!

I learned quickly to put out a sign up sheet to gather email addresses for future announcements (classes, book signings, contests, etc.)

[Beth Groundwater]

As L.C. said, if you're planning a trip anyway (like my husband and I were to attend my daughter's graduation), turning it into a book tour allows you to deduct the expenses.

And Rod's advice is wonderful! I've been working on the in-person events first, and now I'm emailing out stock-signing requests, but adding that third step of just stopping by other stores and leaving information is a great idea. I'll have to print out a list of stores and addresses at each of the cities we'll be going through.

And yes, Wendy's idea is great, too. I automatically put out a sign-up list for my email newsletter at every event I do, so I forgot to mention it here. It's a zero cost thing to do (except for the price of a pad of paper). I now have over 2000 folks on my list!

Let's keep the ideas flowing! Any other tips that could be applied to travel in general, like Karen's for camping out and cooking your own food? KOAs often have inexpensive cabins you can rent, too, if you don't have a trailer or camper.

[Ketutar]

Thank you for the great tips! I am so new a writer that I haven't even written The Great Novel yet :-D But I know I will be grateful for this information in the future :-)

[Dr.Mani]

Nice tips, Beth. Thanks for sharing those. I found your post here through the 'Blog Tour' program - which is probably the ULTIMATE tip to 'cheap tours'... do it from home via the Web :)

Looking forward to more useful tips along the course of your blog tour.

All success
Dr.Mani

[Account Deleted]

Hi Beth, I always appreciate when authors come to our little town (Alamosa, CO) and especially when they take the time to talk to fans and kids. Thanks for the tips.
Holly

[Beth Groundwater]

Hi Holly,
Okay, I'll take that as a gentle hint and put Alamosa on my list of possible stops. Do you recommend a bookstore in town?

For those of you who stop by today and think you're too late, don't despair, I'll be checking in and responding to comments today, too.

[www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawkBFgjvCSI7GoY1i7m_JhvmSE3LNZAp4BY]

Beth: Thanks for the great tips! You've got to be the best self-promoter I know. Best of luck on your book tour.

[Beth Groundwater]

Thanks, everyone, for the compliments AND for your comments. Good luck in my contest! If you follow the tour and comment on EVERY one of my posts, your odds of winning the autographed book set will improve. Hint, hint, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more...

[sue]

Neat ideas Beth, good luck on your tour.

[stitchyfingers.blogspot.com]

Great ideas! Good luck, and let us know how it went!

[www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawka1KF752b23glenc4UbHC8gD6srvpMNTI]

Great tips. Thanks for sharing. Good luck on your tour and congrats on your daughters graduation.

[ktdyer]

Hi, Beth! I am extremely impressed with your tips. Now, if only I had a book to tour with! I enjoyed your first book so much and I know I will enjoy your second. I hope you have a great tour! --Karen