ODD MOM OUT Countdown

I think we’re down to 18 days now before Odd Mom Out hits the store shelves on September 27th. I felt my first flutter of nerves this morning as I addressed event postcards for my book tour that begins October 3rd and doesn’t wrap up until just before Thanksgiving.

Readers and reviewers continue to tell me they love this book, and they think its even better than Flirting with Forty. I just want the book to be read. I also want my book tour events to be fun, so if I’m going to be at a bookstore near you, do come see me. If you think your friends would be interested in ODD MOM OUT send me an email with their names and addresses and I’ll send them a postcard event invite to the event nearest them.

I’ve been working really hard on the book tour. I never just leave the tour details up to my publicists and hope for the best. I do a lot behind the scene (a lot, a lot) just as I do with publicity and media. Just as we parents know no one will ever love our children the way we love do, I know that no one will ever be as devoted to my books and career as I am. I have to be involved at every level. Part of it might be the control freak in me, but the other part is the realist. Event listings in newspapers don’t generate big turnouts at book or literary events. Reviews in papers don’t necessarily draw traffic. Verbal invites don’t always do the trick. You’ve got to put together good mailing lists, lists that are personal and selective, people that have not just read your books in the past, but have written you to let you know, or have sent you an email to say thank you, or have asked to be notified of future releases and events.

Ever since Flirting with Forty came out last July, I’ve been working on developing a list of core readers, readers that do want to read my next book, readers that wanted a sequel to Flirting, or wanted me to know how much they enjoyed Flirting.

I’ve done the events where no one’s there. I’ve read for an hour in SF from Frog Prince about depressed Holly with her fat thighs to a room consisting of Three Men and a Baby (seriously, a bookseller with dreadlogs from Jamica, a man from Turkey and my brother who brought his infant daughter) and that was my first reading ever. It was painful. It was long. It was also very funny in a achingly awful sort of way.

I’ve had events where one hundred people show up and they’re faces I’ve known all my life. My 6th grade teacher. My former parent-in-laws. My swim coach. The mother of my best friend. A crush from first grade (Froggie, I called him because he was so little and cute). My mothers book club. My mothers bridge club. My mothers PEO sisters. (Thank God for my mother. If I had a daughter and she needed people at an event I’d have to beg my boyfriends surfer friends to come and they’d want alcohol and music and girls in bikinis and it wouldn’t be literary.)

In short, book events require people, devoted people who are both readers, family and friends. Over time my readers do become family and friends (just ask Kari and Mitchy) and the best part about going on the road is that I get to meet them.

Do not fear if I’m not in your city or state on this booktour. I’ll hit the road again in late May for ALPHA MOM, the sequel to ODD MOM OUT, and I’m hoping to visit some new cities this spring/summer. So send me an email with your address if you want me to come see you and fingers crossed we’ll be having coffee and chatting about books, life and men very soon.

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