Touring in Real Time

Because I covered publishing for the Wall Street Journal for five years and had been on a book tour previously, I actually thought I knew what to expect when I recently went on a 19-city tour for my third book. Now, I'm in blog shock.

As a writer, I'm tech savvy enough to have a Web site and e-mail newsletters on my book topics, but I wasn't prepared for the volume and quality of Internet feedback I got on the road. After all, my just-completed tour was for a book on quilting, The Quilter's Catalog: A Comprehensive Resource Guide. While I know quilters have their own version of Amazon (eQuilter.com) and that the dominant brand of quilt design software (Electric Quilt) is in version 6, who knew that quilt blogs number in the thousands? Or that I'd be able to track my rising sales along with postings on quilt blogs and Web sites?

My February launch party at a New Jersey quilt shop was featured in the popular blog of Mark Lipinski, editor of Quilter's Home magazine. He had already called my book “mind-bogglingly out of this world” in the magazine, but his bragging in his blog about coming to my book party and showing a photo of himself with his arm around me helped build the buzz.

As my tour progressed, from Portland, Ore., to Paducah, Ky., I was amazed how instantly I got feedback on my performance, given that I'm not a famous author even in the burgeoning quilt world. On a Monday evening, I spoke to 300 people at a quilt guild in Cincinnati, Ohio. While Googling en route to another city the next morning, I discovered that a woman in the audience who writes a blog called Ramblings of a Fabric Obsessor thought I was better than the other speakers. Mentioning that Mark Lipinski raved about the book, she declared, “If it has Mark's approval it's a must-have,” and linked her blog to his review. Does it get any better than this for a weary, laptop-clutching author on the road?

After signing books at a big quilt show in Virginia, I decided to give away my own copy, so I wouldn't have to schlep the 600-page thing home. I walked around with the cover facing out until someone stopped me and said she was desperate to find this book (the vendor had sold out). Would you believe someone blogged about her friend getting that copy?

The new-media benefits went beyond blogs. Now that television stations immediately transfer much of their programming online, I didn't have to wait for someone to mail me a DVD to see how I looked and sounded on the tube. Being a print person, I'm sound bite—challenged, and it was helpful over the course of the tour to review and adjust my performance after each appearance. By the time I got to Nashville near tour's end, I was hitting all my points briskly and smiling on cue.

It wasn't exactly a rocket-straight rise, but during the tour I watched as my book rose to be the top-selling quilt book on Amazon, a great reward after the six years of work preparing it.

Some say blogs are losing a bit of the influence they once had, as they multiply exponentially. In my opinion, there is still an enormous amount of juice and benefit to blogs and other new media, but it isn't simple for authors to control or exploit. Charles Morris, an ex-banker and author of 10 books, told me he's benefited from bloggers mentioning his new book, The Trillion Dollar Meltdown, and quoting rave reviews. But he says his decision to invest $5,000 in buying ads on blogs was a bust

Like every other author out there today, I'm just grateful for any attention my book gets and willing to work hard to get more. I spent hours making a personalized quilt for Rachael Ray that didn't get me on her show, and I'm working on more quilts for other unsuspecting talk show hosts.

Quilt blogs, on the other hand, are buzz-builders that didn't cost me any money, time or sore fingers.