Back from the book tour

I have just returned from a fourteen-day book tour to promote Gauntlet. I was on radio, TV, and in what feels like at least 100 book stores. I was extensively tutored by my publicist, Antoinette Kuritz, but even after that it was difficult appearing on television, and I don’t think I’ll ever really get used to it. But we started with a bang: right off the bat my publisher announced the incredible news that the entire first printing SOLD OUT BEFORE THE RELEASE. She was scrambling madly to get the second printing to the distributor while I was on tour. I, meanwhile, was telling everyone in sight that the books I was signing were now LIMITED EDITION!!!

From there, the trip just got more interesting. It feels like we hit every book store in San Diego, to start, though I’ve been told we didn’t make 1/10 of them. I DID get into the famous Mysterious Galaxy, a cult bookstore in the SD area, which was exciting. The employees there were amazing. We also ended up in Las Vegas, Reno, Olympia, and Seattle (Washington). I spent more money than I want to think about on cab fares and Starbucks, and spent too much time in my editor’s tiny car, fighting for space amidst the books, manuscripts, bookmarks, posters and lord knows what else rolling around in there. I ended up staying in hotel rooms that ranged from $200 a night to $14 night, and living mostly on coffee. Well, coffee and In-n-Out, which is something I’m told they only have in California. In Reno we met with one of Glass House’s consultants for dinner. We ended up in a wonderful restaurant where dinner was cooked beside our table by a crew of pyromaniacs — everything was dipped in one liquor or other, and set on fire. It was awesome. It was also a bit scary. Kind of like being on tour.

I have to say that I was treated with great courtesy and respect by the managers and event coordinators at all the stores. It was also pretty amazing to see Gauntlet on store shelves, and to see people buying the book. People who had already purchased the book came back to the bookstores to have me autograph it for them. The compliments were universally good. Overall I came away from it feeling pretty damn good about myself.

We are going to be continuing these tours, but one city at a time, over extended weekends, so that I am not away from my family or my day job for too long. We start with a trip to the London Book Fair next month. As I spent a number of years as a student there, I am greatly looking forward to this.

It was exhausting, but it was a blast. And now I’m back in the real world, which is a bit sad.