David Sedaris, in the National Post discusses book tours.
From the article...
I’m not a self-promoter, and I was never able to approach anyone and ask if they could read my story. Literally, the minute the piece stopped running, the phone rang. I had an offer to do radio commercials and to write for a soap opera and write for Mademoiselle magazine. I was lucky that I was so old; if I had been younger, I think I might have been distracted. The New Yorker called and asked if I’d like to write for them and I did. Little Brown called and asked if I had a book and I did. It was just waiting in a drawer for somebody to ask for it. It all worked out well.
I just went to 36 cities in 38 days [for a lecture series], and then I took two days off before I started my book tour. I know that a lot of authors complain about their book tours: “Oh, it’s exhausting.” But I really like it.
Last night was an easy night. I signed books for five hours and 45 minutes in Halifax. I never look beyond the person that I’m speaking to. I always like having gifts for teenagers; I’m just so grateful that young people come. A couple of books ago, I put a tip jar on my signing table and I made over $4,000 on my tour. The problem was then I started hating people who didn’t tip me. I didn’t say anything to them, but I would just sit there thinking, “You cheap son of a bitch. I just signed four books and you can’t even give me a dollar?” And why should they? But I just got so involved in it. I had to stop doing it.
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