posted
i was reading the news section and there was an article that said that shadow of the hegemon was his last signing tour. isn't he on tour for Magic Street? why did he change his mind.
Posts: 48 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I was tired of going on marathon tours, many events a day, for weeks on end. I was missing significant portions of the lives of my children; I kept getting sick on every tour and spreading mucus on all the books I signed; and I don't believe signing tours sell books anyway (who comes to my signings except people who already buy my books anyway, or their friends and relatives they bullied into attending on their behalf?).
So when my publisher next asked me to go on a signing tour, the answer was no. I meant it.
Then they started making accommodations. They paid for Kristine's flights so she could go with me. They gave me days off here and there in the middle so I could do laundry, for instance. They accepted my limit of two events a day at most (preferably one) so I can do things like write and read and relax in between. Signings are exhausting - they are by far the hardest thing I do as part of my career - but TOR and now Del Rey have bent over backward to make it bearable.
Nevertheless, while I like having a chance to occasionally meet the people who read my books (it's gratifying, for instance, to see that the people who show up at my signings are evenly divided between males and females, young and old, and many different racial and ethnic groups), I would be happy to limit myself to events like "one city, one book" celebrations and never do another signing tour as long as I live. It's the "tour" part of it that kills me. I simply wear out.
I have more important things to do. I want to get my magazine together so it can be published online in August (the tour set me back drastically). I have things I need to read, things I need to write. My Battle School Christmas book won't be out this year after all, because I couldn't get it finished in time. Etc. Etc.
So believe me, when I said that I would never tour again, I meant it. The fact that I'm still doing it says much about the willingness of my publishers to try to ameliorate the process.
The theory is that doing a tour boosts sales by communicating that this book is an "event."
But ... Magic Street is one of the best things I've ever written, yet my tour is doing nothing to boost it to the bestseller lists, it's just keeping me from writing my next book. The only thing that will make a bestseller of Magic Street is if people who read it push it on their friends and build a word-of-mouth groundswell for it. And so far, the only book of mine that that has ever happened to was Ender's Game. Maybe I'm just not that kind of writer. Maybe, despite my best efforts, I can't reach out beyond the boundaries of the genre. Maybe I'm already reaching all the readers that are likely to care about my books. Or maybe not. Either way, I can't see how a signing tour will change anything, except that it keeps me from writing other books.
Meanwhile, of course, I actually do enjoy doing each individual event. I'm not sitting there hating the process of signing a particular book or meeting a particular person - I enjoy that. I'm glad to do it. It's the fact that the next day I'll be doing ANOTHER signing in ANOTHER city that wears me down.
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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quote: The only thing that will make a bestseller of Magic Street is if people who read it push it on their friends and build a word-of-mouth groundswell for it.
pushing.....pushing......
Great gift idea! Everyone buy one for their next friend's birthday!
(still waiting on my copy -- a friend has it to take to one of your book signings, since I'm stuck in the middle-of-nowhere, where no tours ever come).
posted
i'm a kid too. i'm gonna drive my mom crazy when i ask her if i can go...wat's the limit on how many books he'll sign?
Posts: 146 | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:How Many Books? The first time through the line, OSC will happily sign and personalize all your books if you have only three or four (at most). If you have more books than that, you have a couple of choices.
a. You can get three or four signed the first time through, then come through the line again. The second time through the line, he will sign all the rest of your books so you never have to wait a third time.
b. If you want signature only, he will sign all your books the first time through.
quote:1: And the Lord came down unto the Orson of the Cards and he saith unto him: "thou shalt travel to Jerusalem of holy, and see thy fans." 2: On the fourth and the twentieth to the month of Hera saith the Orson of the Cards to the Lord: "Yet Holy the Land be far off in the corners of the World, and how could I begone there to see my fans? For die I may on the way!" 3: And yet the Lord saith unto him: "Go, for thy fan, the Jonathan of Howards awaits thy return. When death be his friend's part, give him of thine own life; 4: "Rise up and be Phoenix to his friendly soul, Beam fire and shine with thy haloing glow; Be symbol and reunify to be whole, And happiness thine to thy friends do bestow. 5: "Fear not for with thee I shall give all my aid, To vanquish all evil and lead thee to Good; To give to thy fans World's most joy thou wert made, And I give thee peace, thus be under my hood."
posted
But that was in 2003 and nobody told me about it!
Hrmph! I've got to meet him. I'll even tour him around Jerusalem and tell my teachers to bugger off because I'm... I'm... I'm leading the greatest person I've spoken to (wait, that is... The second greatest, no, the third greatest) around the city and bringing it fame.
I'll even show him the Mormon University, and ask them to name a hall after him.
Posts: 2978 | Registered: Oct 2004
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