All tours are filled with humiliation. My publisher once hired a private jet to fly me to a venue where 1,000 people were waiting. It almost bankrupted him.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I feel sometimes like a book tour is a slow series of humiliations and that if you're strong you'll come out of it OK.
We've had a lot of agencies try and sabotage our tour.
I've been on big tours ever since I started, but you can't just go out there and headline, you have to do it right.
I have always thought, the secret purpose of the book tour is to make the writer hate the book he's written. And, as a result, drive him to write another book.
Touring is a tough business.
Book tours are excellent things, and one is lucky to get to go on one, but they have a way of leeching away one's will to live.
I've planned book tours for myself, whether or not anybody wants to hear what I have to say. I've weighed in on things like what the cover looks like, what the copy looks like, how it's going to be promoted - just every aspect of it.
I would never cancel a tour unless I had real reasons and personal things that require my undivided attention.
No one really knows the value of book tours. Whether or not they're good ideas, or if they improve book sales. I happen to think the author is the last person you'd want to talk to about a book. They hate it by that point; they've already moved on to a new lover. Besides, the author never knows what the book is about anyway.
People want to hear your stories about these wonderful experiences you have, and that's what press tours are for.