This blog post will primarily focus on organizing a book tour if you published your book with an academic press. However, this post should also be useful for folks who have published or are publishing a book with a smaller trade press, an indie press, or even a larger trade press that does not have a large marketing and/or publicity department.
Over the past 9 and a half years of The Historical Cooking Project, I've written about my research about the feminist restaurants, cafes, and coffeehouses, run primarily by lesbians and queer women in the United States and Canada beginning in 1972. In November 2022, Concordia University Press published my book Ingredients for Revolution: A History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses. The book had its release in the United States in early 2023. Since its publication, I've been working on promoting it and that has involved organizing a book tour.
While scholars (and other writers) often feel uneasy at the thought of self-promotion or publicity, it is important to let people know that you have published a book. As arts consultant Beth Pickens and graphic novelist Nicole J. Georges implore you to consider, you have spent significant time writing and editing this book. You owe it to your own project to let people know that it exists. Remember, there are people who genuinely want to hear about your book and are excited to support you. Social media posts, appearances on radio, podcasts, television, and print media are all wonderful publicity strategies (and I give tips on how to do this kind of publicity in my book Engage in Public Scholarship!: A Guidebook on Feminist and Accessible Communication (this is the link to the open access version)). However, a book tour can be a great way to connect with individual readers, share your scholarship with different audiences, network, and, of course, promote your book.
Below are a variety of strategies for organizing your book tour. I also include information about mistakes I made during my own book tour so you don't replicate them.
Starting Points: The Initial Launch Party/Event
It can help to host a launch event (or several) near to where you live. Do you have a connection with a local bookstore, library, or other venue? It can be exciting to have a kind of party or launch in the city or town where you live. A launch party/book party can bring together people you know and other folks who are interested in your project. Working with a local independent bookshop can also help publicize that small business.
If you want to sell books, organizing this launch event in partnership with a bookseller can be useful as the bookshop might already have a relationship with your press's distributor (more on that below). I'll also address this in more detail below, but as my editor emphasized, you want to try to wait for the book to actually be in your hands before setting the launch date. Delays in the last stages of printing and binding beyond the author’s or publisher’s control might unexpectedly shift the release date-- and you definitely want to have copies of your book at your launch!
Especially if you haven't done a lot of public events before and are feeling nervous about a book tour, starting locally in an environment where you feel more comfortable and are able to gather with some folks you already know can be a great place to begin. You can also use this event as a trial run. Some peoples' presses will have a modest budget to assist with catering or publicity, but don't expect anything like Carrie Bradshaw's Sex and the City book launch party. If you want cupcakes with mini marzipan shoes on them, you'll likely have to supply those yourself.
This brings us to... how to work with your press's marketing and/or publicity team.
Working with Your Press's Marketing and Publicity Team:
Every press functions differently-whether an academic press or trade press. However, at some point in the publishing process, you likely filled out an author questionnaire. You would have been asked questions about potential journals that might want to review your book, awards your book might be eligible for, folks to send review copies to, and potentially your interest in doing publicity work. For the purpose of this blog post, whether or not it is part of your author questionnaire, it's also very helpful for your press to know what kinds of events you are interested in doing and the amount of time you want to put into your potential book tour.
Some of you are publishing a book with a press that has its own dedicated publicity and marketing department. Utilize those resources. The press might have a circuit that it often puts authors on. Are you interested in speaking at those places? Can the team help you find other places to speak at? Maybe your press has specific connections-- try and find out.
Remember, in addition to the press likely being the one to send review copies to journals, sometimes your press might need to be involved in booking events if bookstores ask for ARCs (advanced reader copies) before adding you to an event calendar. Furthermore, the press might be able to help guarantee that copies of the book arrive from the distributor to local bookstores that you are speaking at. Even if you are scheduling your book tour on your own, it is good to let your press know about any upcoming events so they can facilitate books getting where they need to go and help with publicity.
Where Do You Want to Tour?/ and How Do You Make that Happen?
You need to figure our where you want to tour.
Maybe you have significant caregiving responsibilities and being away even for a couple of days is not possible at this point. Consider speaking locally and in other nearby towns or cities so you don't have to travel too far. Another option is to do primarily virtual events, organized in partnership with different bookstores or universities. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, more bookstores, museums, cultural centres, and universities have moved some or all of their programming online. Virtual events are a great way to reach potential audiences. Even with virtual events, you might be able to partner with a bookstore that can ship copies of the book to participants (Kitchen Arts and Letters Bookstore did this for my virtual Museum of Food and Drink event).
Maybe you are someone who does archival work or has to travel for other reasons. See if there are bookstores or local universities that might want to do an event while you are in town. If folks don't have to facilitate your travel, it's more likely that an event can happen.
You might be asking, how do I make these connections? Don't I have to wait until someone invites me to give a talk for an event to happen?
You likely have colleagues and/or friends at other institutions. You can utilize these networks.
I'll start by telling the story of my own book tour. When my book’s peer reviewers agreed to waive their anonymity to provide blurbs (after I signed my contract and submitted my final manuscript), I reached out to thank them. Dr. Megan J. Elias responded and said that she'd love for me to speak at Boston University once the book came out. This initial invitation planted the seed for a future book tour. I had also visited Wesleyan University for my 10 year reunion last spring. Several professors mentioned that they'd be interested in having me speak about my, at-the-time-forthcoming book, on campus. At this point, I already knew that I had interest in Boston, Massachusetts and Middletown, Connecticut.
My book Ingredients for Revolution was coming out in the winter 2022/2023. Since my press (Concordia University Press) is based in Canada, I knew (thanks to my press and fantastic editor Ryan Van Huijstee) that my book would come out a month or two later in the United States. Over the past couple of years, there have been significant publishing delays and challenges with book distribution across the industry. Having learned this information, it seemed best to have more book events, especially if physical copies of the book would be available for purchase, in the late winter/ early spring. I work full time at McGill University as a professor of feminist studies so it's difficult to travel during the semester. However, many universities want book events while classes are in session. This timeline meant that my best option was to schedule my tour during McGill's winter reading week. I asked BU and Wesleyan if this week would be possible for events. I also wanted to pair these events with archival work, since I'd already be driving 6+ hours south from Montreal for these events. By visiting archives, I was also able to use some of my research grant money to cover lodging during the nights I wasn't doing talks at BU and Wesleyan (both universities generously put me up in a hotel for the evenings after my talks).
As part of my research on feminist restaurants, cafes, and coffeehouses, I learned about strategies feminist poets, activists, writers, and artists utilized in the 1970s and 1980s in order to make giving free talks at feminist bookstores, eateries, and women's centres feasible. Folks would sometimes get an honorarium, lodging, or both from the local university and then do a free event later that day or soon after in the community centre. Ever since learning this in 2014, I have tried to employ a similar strategy.
So once I had BU and Wesleyan scheduled, I reached out to nearby feminist and LGBTQ+ bookstores in order to see if they would be interested in an event that week. Also, since I was already going to be in Boston, I reached out to a colleague at Harvard and asked if the centre she is affiliated with might be interested in an event. I needed to go to Brown University to do archival research for my third book project. I have fewer connections there so I contacted a colleague who did her PhD at Brown who put me in touch with her former supervisor who connected me to folks at a centre that was interested in a talk.
It took months of emailing back and forth with scholars at universities and feminist and LGBTQ+ bookstores, but my resulting tour meant that I gave 6 talks in a 6 day period and got to visit the Schlesinger Library's archives at Harvard, Brown University's archives, and the Lesbian Herstory Archives. I gave talks at All She Wrote Books (a feminist bookstore in Somerville, MA), Harvard, Boston University, Brown University, Wesleyan University, and Bluestockings (a feminist bookstore in NYC). I've also been doing virtual events at Charis (Georgia), Violet Valley Books (Mississippi), Burdock Collective (Alabama), Firestorm (North Carolina), Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD of NYC), and talks at several other universities.
Coordinating this tour took significant time, but it was an amazing experience. I continue to schedule virtual events, as I can do them during the semester when I am teaching. Since I will be traveling for archival work this spring, I have also scheduled in-person events in Los Angeles and London.
Making Connections:
So you might be saying... wait, you just email folks and ask if they are interested in events? Yes.
Sometimes it is awkward. Sometimes folks don't respond. It helps if you have networked with folks before, but the worst thing people say is "no." It can be helpful to ask a friend or colleague to write you a letter of introduction.
To be clear, I am not mass-emailing universities and bookstores. I am sending personalized emails that specifically talk about how the event might be useful or of interest for their program or business. As I write about the history of feminist businesses, feminist bookstores are often interested in this kind of programming. Think about the way your work connects to the folks you are messaging.
Sometimes people do reach out to you. What a fantastic opportunity!
Funding the Tour/s:
You might be wondering-- okay but what are the financial impacts of book tours? Again, the answer to this question depends on what kind of book you have published, the kind of press that published your book, and what kinds of events that you are doing.
Universities will often offer modest honorariums. These honorariums can really range. I run Disrupting Disruptions: the Feminist and Accessible Publishing, Communications, and Technologies Speaker and Workshop Series. I pay speakers 800 CAD honorariums in order to compensate them for their work. I am able to pay this size of honorarium because I apply for the Canadian Tri-Council's SSHRC Connection Grants in able to make the series possible. Many universities have some departmental funding for talks. Again, the amount of money in these departmental, program, centre, or program budgets completely vary from institution to institution. I am typically offered honorariums ranging from 150- 500 dollars to give a 45 minute-ish talk with a 45 minute Q and A period. (For folks reading this post that might want to invite me to speak at their campus, I'm also very happy to accept more money than that, too).
Some high-profile speakers will be offered 10,000 dollars to give a talk. Remember, these large honorariums are extremely rare. I remember once wanting to book a scholar who required 40,000 dollars. Speakers with high fees often tend to do corporate events, which usually but not always, offer more money. I have often found that speakers with higher fees also have their own publicist, manager, or booking agent who sifts through requests. In my case, I receive emails that I respond to myself.
I usually am very happy that someone has offered an honorarium to account for the labour of preparing talks, traveling, and delivering the presentation. I also will often accept significantly lower honorariums from a small, grassroots organization than a rich, private university. You get to set the amount that you are willing to accept. If an organization asks your rate, you can ask them what they have paid speakers in the past and set your request from there.
Some universities will not offer honorariums, but will instead offer to cover your travel and/or a hotel. Sometimes you can pick between an honorarium and a hotel. Sometimes you are offered all 3. Again, it depends.
I don't get paid for events that I do at bookstores. The bookstore is helping to promote my book and I am helping to promote the bookstore. As I mentioned before, I try to pair a bookstore or library event with an event at a university so that I don't lose money on traveling for the event.
For my book tour, I was able to use some grant money to cover my gas money to drive to events since I was also doing archival research during the day. I also was able to use some grant money to cover 3 nights in hotels. As I prefer to use most of my grant money to fund student research, I crashed on a friend's apartment in NYC the night after my event at Bluestockings.
Selling Books:
Theoretically, you are also making money on book sales.
Depending on whether you are working with an academic or a trade press, the amount of money you make on your book will differ. Also, the popularity of your book will obviously impact how much money you make. A lot of academics selling their books with academic presses don't ever make enough money to buy a cup of coffee from the book sales (this is one of the many reasons why I think folks should also publish open access versions of their books).
Whether or not you are going to make money on your books, one of the main reasons for the tour is to promote the book (which is part of sharing your scholarship).
Sometimes you can work with a campus bookstore to have copies of your book at the event or at least at the bookstore. Sometimes this is not possible. Every campus has different contracts with booksellers, so make sure to talk with your host months in advance of the event.
Here was my biggest error with my own book tour. I wish I had brought more author copies with me. Depending on your book contract, you might be able buy copies of your own book from your press at a reduced rate. You can then distribute or sell these at events. Even if you are selling them at a discounted price, you will likely make more money on those sales (maybe up to a couple of dollars?!?!) than you do when folks buy your books from bookstores.
Nota Bene: Be mindful to check your author contract here! Sometimes you are NOT supposed to sell your author copies. Presses and distributors have established relationships and you want to make sure to not undermine these formal contracts and agreements. The book industry is composed of many interlocking and overlapping pieces of infrastructure. However, sometimes you might have to find workarounds in cases where there aren’t bookstores, your distributor doesn't service a particular region, or if an event is going to happen before stock can arrive in time, etc. Just make sure you aren't violating your contract here. When in doubt, check with your press.
I was a bit worried about crossing the US/Canadian border with a pile of books so I didn't bring any copies to sell. Definitely make sure to check the laws about bringing goods across the border before doing so.
There were several occasions in which folks wanted to buy copies of the book from me at university events. Those moments would have been a great way to help folks get signed copies. I wish I had brought author copies with me.
Bookstores will usually have copies of your book for purchase.
Sometimes bookstore prefers to have you bring copies of your book to sell and they will then reimburse you for your percentage of the profit. This process is referred to as selling books on consignment. The bookstore will only pay you for copies sold. If you are selling books on consignment, before heading out on your tour, make sure you know how many copies the bookstore wants in advance. Financially this might be a more beneficial arrangement if you can buy copies from your press at the author rate and also not violate your author contract (and the press's agreement with the distributor). Selling books on consignment means that you are essentially acting as your own distributor. However, if you are flying and have to pay baggage fees or traveling on public transport, this model may be less desirable. Your press might also have a contract with the distributor and you might not be allowed to sell books on consignment.
It is likely that your press works with a distributor. Your press might use a different distributor in different countries. When you are making arrangements with bookstores, it is useful to know the contact information of your distributor. The bookstore will likely also want to know the ISBN number, if there is a wholesale rate, the MOQ (minimum order quantity), and the SRP (suggested retail price).
Also, your distributor might have different policies around minimum orders if the book will be used for an event. Check in advance!
Timing the Tour:
Check with your press about when the book is supposed to release. You probably don't want to plan an event the day your book is supposed to release. Especially over the past couple of years, publishing delays can unexpectedly impact a book's release. You don't want to have a launch party and not have copies available. You want to make sure that bookstores can source copies of the book from distributors before the event. It's important to stay in communication with your press.
Here I want to give particular thanks to my editor Ryan for offering to bike over copies to my local feminist bookstore L'Euguelionne to make sure that we had copies for the book launch.
If you are touring outside your own country, note that it can take months for copies to arrive at bookstores.
Most folks do the majority of events within the first year of their book's release. This is your main timeframe to work on promoting the book. University events might continue to happen for years.
Consider timing events and your tour with relevant events or holidays. For example, does your book focus on LGBTQ+ content? Well, Pride Month will be a great time to promote it.
Length of Tour:
You don't just have to have one tour. You might have several during the course of the year. Or you might sprinkle events here and there.
Giving a book talk 6 days in a row, all of which were different kinds of events and talks (and I was also touring two different books), was exhausting. Pairing archival work and needing to travel between cities and change the place I was staying most nights was exhausting. Try to create a schedule that is sustainable for you. We all have different accessibility needs. Your tour will be individual to you.
Book Tour Events Can Take Many Forms
While you might imagine a short reading and a discussion of themes, followed by a question and answer period for a bookstore event or a 45 minute powerpoint lecture, followed by a question and answer period for a university event, the events of your tour can vary. The previously described formats can work really well, but you might also have an event where you are in-conversation with another author or host. I had an event with Wren Awry who was also promoting a book. We both asked each other questions and spoke to the overlap of our work. This session was followed by an audience question and answer session. I also love a good "fireside chat" format, which functions like a kind of interview. These chats are often followed by Q and A.
However, you can think even more creatively! In January, I hosted a Historical Queer Music Night at a local music venue, Turbo Haüs. My book addresses the women's music movement and the ways that feminists, lesbians, and queer women used music to connect across the United States. Musicians would travel between the various restaurants, cafes, and coffeehouses. I asked some of my fellow Rock Camp for Girls and Gender Non-Conforming and Gender Non-Binary Kids volunteers if they wanted to do covers of queer women's music from the 1970s and 1980s. In between sets, I read passages from my book. I also asked a PhD candidate who was a former student of mine (Kiersten Beszterda van Vliet) to read from her own work on the queer music scene in Montreal. The entire event was a fundraiser for Rock Camp. Over 100 folks came out to the venue on a Monday night in January and we raised over 1000 dollars, covering the scholarships of several campers for next year. My editor sold copies of my books and zines. The musicians had merch on sale. Rock Camp also had merch. The event was so much fun and was a great way to share my research outside of the academy.
Think about what kind of events might appeal to you!
Terms to Know:
ARC: advanced reader copy. This is often also referred to as a galley.
Distributor: It is likely that your press works with a distributor. Book distributors pitch and sell titles directly to retailers, book stores, other stores, and libraries. They create catalogs and utilize sales representatives. The distributor's job is to maintain a relationship with the stores and take care of the marketing side of things for you and your press. Remember that it can take months for books to get from the publishing side to the distributor's warehouse.
ISBN: International Standard Book Number is a numeric commercial book identifier that is intended to be unique. Your press likely already applied for one and it will be printed in your book.
Selling your book consignment: a process of acting as your own distributor. You give copies of your book directly to the store and the store will send you a percentage of the money from copies sold.
MOQ: minimum order quantity. The MOQ impacts how many books a bookstore must order before they receive a shipment from a distributor. Some distributors have different rules if the book will be used for an event.
SRP: suggested retail price. This is often published on the back of the book or on your press's website.
Other Resources:
I also recommend Laura Portwood-Stacer's newsletter as she has other resources for promoting your book as part of her newsletter. Definitely be in communication with your press. Chat with other authors and colleagues. Also, personalize your book tour. Figure out what appeals to you!
Wrapping Up:
I hope after reading this you feel motivated to start organizing your own book tour or working alongside your press to do so.
Remember, a book tour is also a celebration. You did it! You wrote a book! Congrats! Have some fun with it!
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Thank you Ryan for reading through my post to make sure I didn't recommend anything illegal/ that would violate my author contract/ and/or get my press in trouble.