What Really Happens On a Book Tour

While rockstars on tour leave wrecked hotel rooms in their wake, do writers leave book ideas scribbled on the bedsheets?

I’m almost at the end of a book tour that’s taken me to six different states and territories in Australia over three weeks and eighteen events. I have no idea what day it is, I’ve eaten so much hotel room service that I’m about to turn into a club sandwich, and I’ve almost used up all of my signing pens (Artline Calligraphy 4.0, in case you’re wondering!) It’s been a fun and exhausting whirlwind of bookshop visits and reader events, aeroplanes and hotels, book signings and interviews.

My book tour secret weapon is Kate, from Hachette Australia. Kate is actually the Publicity Manager at Hachette, but she’s also my publicist, and every writer should have a Kate with them on tour.

Kate’s goal is to make the tour as easy as possible so I can keep my energy for the events. We sometimes did two events in one day on this tour, which doesn't sound like a lot, but when you’re speaking in front of a crowd for an hour twice a day, and then talking to readers for at least another hour per event in the signing queue as you sign their books for them, it can be quite exhausting.

Me, looking somewhat crazy-eyed around the midpoint of the tour. This video shows footage from a couple of events, as well as the absolutely divine penthouse suite I was given to stay in after my lunch event at Bannisters by the Sea in Mollymook, NSW.

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I joke that being on tour is the only time in my life when I get to be a child. The only thing I have to know each day is what time to be in the hotel lobby to meet Kate and what format of event I have – in-conversation, author talk, interview etc. And then Kate does the rest.

She books a car and driver for us so we can cover the most ground, the most quickly. She has a supply of everything in her bag – nut bars and food for me because my metabolism is pretty fast, bandaids, spare pens, Panadol, a copy of THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ASTRID BRICARD, probably even a faux-Natasha that she can take into a bookshop in case I fall ill!

She books all of my favourite hotels so I’m always staying somewhere nice, she gives me a twenty page schedule listing everything we’re doing, and she’s the one who, in the signing queue, is writing readers’ names onto post-it notes so I don’t spell them incorrectly, taking photos for readers, making sure people aren’t getting bored while they queue up etc.

She is quite honestly a treasure and I couldn’t do this without her. The whole reason I’m able to get up at an event and be energetic and entertaining (hopefully!) is because of her. So far this tour I’ve done everything from lunch events to morning teas to a gin event in Canberra, where they made a special gin cocktail just for me! It’s a hard life being an author on tour!!

Yes, I wore the sensational 2014 Raf Simons for Christian Dior gown for one of my tour events!

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In between events, we do bookshop signings and media interviews. By the time I get back to my hotel room at around 9.00pm after an event, I’m too tired to do anything other than order something quick for dinner and then go to bed. There is definitely no energy left in me for wrecking my hotel room – I would make a terrible rockstar!

But it’s all worth it. There’s nothing better than getting out from behind your desk and meeting readers and talking to them about the book you’ve spent two and a half years imagining into being. But the key to a successful book tour is definitely to have a Kate with you. I don’t know if anyone understands how much organisation goes on behind the scenes – and the people doing the organising aren’t often the ones who receive the applause at the end of the night. So, to all the Kates out there who make book tours possible for writers, a big, heartfelt thank you.

PS - no Monthly Magazine this month because of the tour, but I hope you enjoyed this post instead. I’ll be back to my normal schedule in November!