Jess Lourey's Murder by the Month series is published by Midnight Ink as was my Dot Dead. Her latest, August Moon, is just out and has been piling up raves. ("Move over Stephanie Plum. There's a new bad girl in town!" - Anthony Winner William Kent Krueger.) I met Dana Fredsti last December at M is for Mystery's annual holiday party. Her first novel, The Peruvian Pigeon (not, mind you, The Maltese Falcon) is also on the shelves of bookstores across the country. A cover blurb warns us that "The ending will wash you away." When these two gifted, witty, and insistent authors stuck a Glock in my belly and asked me if I wanted to turn my blog over to them today, I thought it over for some time. Too long, I guess. A nudge in the solar plexus from the gleaming carbon black weapon decided it for me. I'd been blog-jacked! Keith
The Troubles with Touring, by Dana Fredsti
When Jess first emailed me about doing a joint book-signing road trip from the Bay Area to Seattle, I immediately pictured us cruising up 101 in a convertible a la Thelma and Louise. We would be two pistol-packing mamas, tempting amoral drifters and book store clerks alike with our sexy southern accents (never mind I'm from California, like, y'know?, and Jess is from Minnesota, ya, fer sure!). Of course, we'd substitute pens for pistols (comment from Keith: "Yeah, right.") and neither of us would be stupid enough to get all our money stolen by one of those sexy drifters. And we'd be driving my Saturn SL2 instead of a convertible and probably forgo driving off the edge of the Grand Canyon since it's several hundred miles out of our way and gas ain't cheap. Oh, and no head-scarves or mom jeans. But aside from all that, it would be just like Thelma and Louise. If they visited bookstores and begged passers-by to purchase their mystery novels.
Setting up the actual tour made me rethink the "no pistols" part, however. (Another comment from Keith: "I warned you.") Both Jess and I are published with small presses: Midnight Ink and Rock Publishing, Inc. And while there are many advantages to being published by a small press (lots of personal attention, a quicker turnaround from acceptance to publication, more say in cover art), being taken seriously by bookstores isn't one of them. After dealing with rejections from several unnecessarily snotty bookstore clerks and owners, the idea of going in with a gun and snarling "You're gonna carry my book AND give me a signing AND have a cheese tray available!" is very attractive. "Do you know how many people I talk to every day?" said one local San Francisco bookstore owner when I stopped in with a review copy of my book. He declined it because he "didn't have time to read." A friend of mine went into this same store a few weeks later and asked about my book. She was told by the clerk they didn't carry "self-published" books.
(Note to snotty bookstore owners and ignorant clerks: having a book published by a small, un-Murdochized publisher who pays all the costs of publication, provides free marketing and review copies of your book as well as other publicity materials and support is NOT self-publication. Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
The dichotomy here is the independents want people to support them and not buy books through the big chains such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Borders, where many books can be bought at a discount. However these same stores can't always support the independent publishers who give many new authors their first break because these smaller publishers don't offer the bookstores the discounts they get from the large publishing houses. Ah, the irony!
This all being said, not all bookstores are created equal and there are plenty of perfectly lovely independents willing to host new authors for signings and take a chance by ordering copies of our books. Jess and I are starting off our tour at M is for Mystery in San Mateo as well as hitting Murder by the Book in Portland. As far as the larger chains, the District Event Manager of the Seattle and surrounding area Borders stores has been fantastic and we have signings lined up at the Olympia and downtown Seattle stores. Thank you, Don!
We'll be driving from San Francisco to Portland after two days in the Bay Area. The plan is to take a full day to drive from SF to Portland with time to meander up the coast, make pit stops as needed, visit a few wineries, and see what kind of trouble we can get into and still keep on schedule. We're still arguing over who gets to be Louise. Neither of us wants to be the naive housewife even if she does get to have hot sex with Brad Pitt. Isn't this how Janet Evanovich and Sue Grafton started out?
Setting up the actual tour made me rethink the "no pistols" part, however. (Another comment from Keith: "I warned you.") Both Jess and I are published with small presses: Midnight Ink and Rock Publishing, Inc. And while there are many advantages to being published by a small press (lots of personal attention, a quicker turnaround from acceptance to publication, more say in cover art), being taken seriously by bookstores isn't one of them. After dealing with rejections from several unnecessarily snotty bookstore clerks and owners, the idea of going in with a gun and snarling "You're gonna carry my book AND give me a signing AND have a cheese tray available!" is very attractive. "Do you know how many people I talk to every day?" said one local San Francisco bookstore owner when I stopped in with a review copy of my book. He declined it because he "didn't have time to read." A friend of mine went into this same store a few weeks later and asked about my book. She was told by the clerk they didn't carry "self-published" books.
(Note to snotty bookstore owners and ignorant clerks: having a book published by a small, un-Murdochized publisher who pays all the costs of publication, provides free marketing and review copies of your book as well as other publicity materials and support is NOT self-publication. Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
The dichotomy here is the independents want people to support them and not buy books through the big chains such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Borders, where many books can be bought at a discount. However these same stores can't always support the independent publishers who give many new authors their first break because these smaller publishers don't offer the bookstores the discounts they get from the large publishing houses. Ah, the irony!
This all being said, not all bookstores are created equal and there are plenty of perfectly lovely independents willing to host new authors for signings and take a chance by ordering copies of our books. Jess and I are starting off our tour at M is for Mystery in San Mateo as well as hitting Murder by the Book in Portland. As far as the larger chains, the District Event Manager of the Seattle and surrounding area Borders stores has been fantastic and we have signings lined up at the Olympia and downtown Seattle stores. Thank you, Don!
We'll be driving from San Francisco to Portland after two days in the Bay Area. The plan is to take a full day to drive from SF to Portland with time to meander up the coast, make pit stops as needed, visit a few wineries, and see what kind of trouble we can get into and still keep on schedule. We're still arguing over who gets to be Louise. Neither of us wants to be the naive housewife even if she does get to have hot sex with Brad Pitt. Isn't this how Janet Evanovich and Sue Grafton started out?
Jess Lourey and Dana Fredsti's pacifistic Thelma and Louise-type book tour starts in San Francisco on May 21. By then, they will have decided which of them gets to be the Susan Sarandon character. The person who makes the best case on this blog for why it should be Jess wins a free copy of August Moon, the latest installment in her Lefty-nominated Murder-by-Month series. The person who makes the best case on this blog for why it should be Dana wins a free copy of The Peruvian Pigeon, the first in her Murder for Hire series featuring warm, wise, and witty Connie Garrett. Check here for the latest tour dates and stops.
Ha! You put up a good fight, Keith, but in the end, it was better you let us blog than youse sleep with the fishes.
Posted by: Jess Lourey | May 02, 2008 at 09:40 AM
As my grandpappy told me, "Look closely at the hands of the women who are asking you for something. If they are wearing the ring you gave them or the gun someone else did, just say yes."
Posted by: Keith Raffel | May 02, 2008 at 10:47 AM
Except I didn't use a glock. It would be a Smith and Wesson '38 Victory Model revolver... OF course, you were understandably nervous and not as observant as you would be under normal circumstances...
Posted by: Zhadi | May 02, 2008 at 11:17 AM
Well, if Thelma and Louise had decided not to go out in a blaze of glory, they would have turned to writing murder mysteries eventually.
I dunno, Dana. I know you're sexy and dangerous, but MOM jeans?
Posted by: Redzilla | May 02, 2008 at 11:30 AM
Oooh, that sounds like so much fun! I just wish you guys were coming south down the coast too!
Posted by: otherlisa | May 02, 2008 at 11:45 AM
Red, I'm NOT wearing MOM jeans. Not gonna happen.
I wish we were touring down south too! Not enough time or money for this one....
Posted by: Zhadi | May 02, 2008 at 12:18 PM
Okay I don't know what the heck MOM jeans are but here's my take on who will make the best Thelma or Louise - Since Dana is not married, from what I know, she would have to be an unmarried character. I don't know Jess at all but from her pics and all - I say you need to create two new Thelma/Louise type characters and have them both fit your personalities. Dana - you are tall like Geena Davis right? so you get the Geena Davis like character, married or not and who cares - jeans are jeans - so you can wear whatever type you want. Jess you don't look that tall so guess that makes you equivalent to the Susan Sarandon like character - let's call them new names - now coming up with similar but different names is a whole other matter. - oh well - I'm out of ideas - see you all in the postings - I like this post very much - Go a blazing up the west coast and have fun - E :)
Posted by: Elysabeth | May 04, 2008 at 04:36 PM
Oh, but I AM married...and I"m not all that tall. 5' 8". We're looking at personality types here...but that's one vote for me as Louise and one vote for Jess as Louise! Or whatever names we come up with. :_)
Posted by: Zhadi | May 06, 2008 at 01:24 PM
You're not married? Are you?!!
Mom jeans are the kind that create a camel toe AND go halfway up to your boobs. No small feat.
Posted by: Jess Lourey | May 06, 2008 at 06:18 PM