The author of "Go the F*** to Sleep" wrote a piece making fun of the whole concept of book tours and the ridiculousness of book signings at bookstores. The publishing and PR world is really mad at him.
Except for me.
I agree with him totally. I usually advise my authors not to concentrate on them, and not to overbook themselves at bookstore signings, because you'll end up having to beg your friends to attend. There is no natural audience for a book signing, and the bookstores don't do much of anything to promote them. It's up to the author.
And then you give the bookstore 40% of your profit.
When Swany and I were promoting "The Radio Producer's Handbook", we did more than 20 book signings. The few that we didn't aggressively promote drew about three people. That's very typical of authors that aren't very well known.
I've seen it many times.
Go ahead and be pissy with him PR and Publishing people, but he speaks the truth. It's a whole new world out there now. You just have to be creative about where and how you get the word out.
