Have you ever considered doing an author tour abroad? Today's show takes you through the steps you need to take to organise such a tour. There's also some exciting personal news.
Have you ever considered doing an author tour abroad? Today's show takes you through the steps you need to take to organise such a tour. There's also some exciting personal news.
Hi, and welcome to the writing and marketing show brought to you by author Wendy H. Jones. This show does exactly what it says on the tin. it's jam packed with interviews, advice, hints, tips and news to help you with the business of writing. It's all wrapped up in one lively podcast, so it's time to get on with the show. And welcome to episode 116 of the writing and Marketing Show with author entrepreneur Wendy H. Jones. It's an absolute pleasure to be with you here again. And as you know, I botched the previous few episodes because I was busy and going away on holiday. And I wanted to make sure you had plenty in case anything went awry when I got back. And I hope you've enjoyed the episodes, especially the episode on Kindle Vela, because that is something we really need to be paying attention to here in the UK, because I can assure you it will be coming soon. And I will be trying it the minute it arrives, I will be on it and using it so that I can find out what it's all about. And so what of the news of this week, well, I've got some exciting news to tell you. But it ties in with the ties in with the episode that I'm doing today, which is about arranging a book tour abroad. And I'm going to be talking about my forthcoming trip to America. But before that I'm extremely excited here in the Jones household. Oh, by the way, I did tell you had some news to do with the trip to America. And I'm going to tell you about that soon. And it's an opportunity that perhaps if you're in Scotland, you can actually try for as well. So I have had the Scottish sociation of Writers Conference. And that went brilliantly. We had a blast, it was so nice to be in a room full of writers again. And everybody was really good. They kept their masks on, everybody stayed safe. To my knowledge, nobody got COVID. And it was so good to get some input from other writers to meet with other writers to just spend the whole weekend soaked in things talking about writing, then I had a five day holiday just relax. I didn't do anything really no writing. And I did write a blog on a newsletter. But that was it. Otherwise, I just spent five days relaxing, and soaking things up to do with history to do with, to do with the west coast of Scotland. And obviously, because of my Thomas Greene's books, it was nice to be there, I picked up a couple of absolutely brilliant books while I was there. And one is called bizarre Scotland. And it's all historical facts about Scotland that are all really strange. And you wouldn't believe but they're all true. And the other one is called Scotland hair story. And it's quite Scotland from the perspective of women who have done major things in Scotland throughout the centuries and how women have helped to shape Scotland. So I got those books when I was across in the Robert Burns museum. And I'm so excited to be able to listen to read them, I'm looking forward to it, trying to keep them till I go on my trip to Antigua, but I'm not succeeding and I keep dipping in and out of them. However, my trip to Antigua is coming out hence the reason I am so excited coming out coming up. Hence the reason I'm so excited. Two weeks on Friday. So two weeks in two days, when you actually listen to this. That's actually my birthday, the 22nd of April, I will be travelling down to London on the train. And I booked first class just because it's my birthday, it will be nice. I'll be travelling down to London, staying in a hotel overnight. And then the next day I will be flying out to Antigua. And I've set up a lot of different things to do in Antigua. And I've set up to meet with historians I've set up to go to the archives. I'm looking at various historic sites that I want to go and visit and I'm looking for a guide to take me there and to show me around and I want to I'm trying to meet up with some local authors as well. So I'm trying to arrange that. So if you happen to be listening to this and tiga and you would like to meet up please do get in touch with me through my website which is Wendy H jones.com. And I'm very excited about the trip to Antigua I've managed to get it all organised I'm just waiting really to go. And of course, you play a game of what should I take in my suitcase, what should I take out of my suitcase. And the first thing I always put in our books, of course, and I've put books in, and I've taken books out, and I've put new books in, and I've taken those out, and I've decided on new ones. And then he decided, actually, I need new books of I'm actually going to go away. So you they need a visit to a bookshop. It's the most important part of any trip for an author. But I'm very much looking forward to it, I'm looking forward to the trip on the train, I plan on doing some writing while I'm doing it. And, and on the plane, I plan on doing some writing, basically, because I looked up the BA website, and the BA website has nothing on the flight, our mind doesn't have any movies that I'm actually interested in watching. Although I am quite keen to watch more of East tone, I might do that. And watch that on the plane, instead of writing, we shall see, because I've got time to watch all seven episodes, which would be great eight and a half hour flight, seven episodes, seven hours, that works out with some time for eating as well. So that's my upcoming trip, which I'm very excited about now, as you know, and that was funded by the Society of authors. So I'm very grateful to the society of authors for this opportunity. It's a great opportunity. And I intend to spend most of my time actually doing the research, anytime that I'm able to do it. So basically eight in the morning till five every night, Monday to Friday, perhaps Saturday, I will be doing the research. But hey, one day a week has got to be given over to sipping rum, punch and soaking up the atmosphere. Because I'm sure that's what my character did as well. If he got a day off, he would be soaking up the local sights, the sun, the sea, the sound of Antigua and perhaps trying a Rum Punch. So it would be rude of me not to. And before I get onto the topic today, which is about arranging our trip to America on a book tour, arranging a book tour. And I would like to say I enjoy bringing you this every week. And I do so willingly, I would be very grateful if you could support the time that it takes for me to do this, and takes time out of my writing by going to patreon.com forward slash Wendy H Jones. And so sponsoring me for as little as $3 a month. And I would mean that you liked the show you wanted to continue and I would be very, very grateful. And or you could support me just as a one off with buy me a coffee.com. And you can go to my website and buy me a coffee is there and you will be able to click on it and support me and just the price of a tea or coffee. Whatever it is you want to give and I would be very grateful. So what of arranging a trip to America. What's this all about? And what's my exciting news? Well, first of all, the first bit of exciting news is I have been invited to speak at a couple of conferences out there. The first one is the the Hampton Roads Writers Festival in Oh have forgotten where it is something Beach, it will come back to me in a minute in Virginia. And I'm very much looking forward to that. And I'm going to be a keynote. And I'm providing for workshops around four different aspects of writing, one of which will be historical research, writing historical research on researching historical research, sorry, historical research, making it fun monster tripping over my tongue today. I'm sorry, I don't know what's up with me. I think I need a sip of my tea. And that will help. So we might go quiet for 10 seconds while I have a sip. And I'm back. So it's about doing historical research. There we go. We've got it right at last. And I've also been invited to speak at the shepherd stone University conference again, and I'm very excited about that. And so these are in both in September, but there's a couple of other conferences that I want to attend while I'm there and I'm hoping I get speaking engagements at them as well. And one of them is the creatures crimes and creativity Conference, which is also in Virginia. And I love that title. It's absolutely fabulous title and I hoping I will be on a panel on providing a workshop there as well but more news on that later. So what was my exciting news apart from the fact I am going to America? Well I applied for another grant now guys, this is only for people from Scotland, and it's called the Scottish authors interview National travel fund. And if you're invited to speak at our conference abroad, and they are going to be paying for you and doing other things like providing you with transport and providing you with accommodation, but not your flight to the country, then you can apply to this fund. And I applied for my plane trip to America. And I'm extremely, extremely grateful to the Scottish authors international travel fund through publishing Scotland, because I have received the entire amount I asked for, for my flight. So they're paying my flight to America. So there's an opportunity for you guys if you happen to be a Scottish author. Now for that, to be a Scottish author, you have to be living and working in Scotland, you can't just be Scottish and living somewhere else and see at a Scottish author. And that's one of the criteria. And so I'm very grateful to them. And I'm looking forward to it. Now this trip is going to be for just over two months. And I'm flying out on the first of August, and I'm returning on the second of the second of October, so to two months in total. And during that time, I have a lot of different events. It's worked out now, myself and another author called Allie Marie, and who is a good friend of mine and lives in Virginia. Well, when I say myself and Allie, she's doing most of the work, I have to admit, but we are going to be doing book signings, numerous, numerous, numerous different places. In the States, it's I'm going to Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland, South Carolina, not South Carolina, sorry, North Carolina, New York, Washington, and hopefully New York State. And I'm going to be doing book signings in all those places. So I'm going to be, first of all, how did we do this? Well, first of all, I was invited to the conferences. So that was the first starting point. I had a starting point, I knew I needed to be there in September. Then I spoke to my friend in America, who is very good at organising things, and said, what can you do in terms of a book signing and book opportunities for us? So she went and spoke to a number of local businesses and around the area. And she asked if she would be worried they would be willing to have a book signing for herself on an international author, a Scottish author. And 99.9% of them said yes. And it's very exciting. And so we have got those plugged into our diaries. So actually planning, the times that you're going to be there is crucial, then it's making sure that these venues actually have the books available. And that that's easily done. Because if you're a published author, if you're a traditionally published authors, and your publisher will see to that if you're an independently published author, then you just make sure that the books are in the right places at the right time. So the venues need to have the books and we're also looking at there's I mean, there's a number of places we're going to we're going to book shops, we're going to vineyards, we're going to breweries, distilleries, we're going to cafes, restaurants, indoor markets, outdoor markets, by the way, you can do outdoor markets there because the weather is going to be nice. It's usually sunny in August and September in places like that. We're not talking Scotland here, where you're probably thinking you're going to get rained on. I never do outside things here. So we're going to craft fairs, we're going to numerous different places to do book signings, and she has arranged them all. And even today, I've been talking to her today. And we've arranged some more than another way that I was looked at doing a book signing as I was on a Facebook Live, not Facebook Live sorry, tik, Tok live. And there was a young woman, a lady came on. And she was saying that she was also an author. And she lived in New York State. And I said, Well, I happen to be going to New York. And I'm now looking at doing a book signing in New York State somewhere around Syracuse that hasn't been set up yet. It's all subject to it being finalised and us being able to set something up. Then I might be doing one around syracuse. And I just said I'm going to be there. What do you think about us doing a joint book signing? She said, Yes. So asking us the first thing guys just ask the world is your oyster, you know, the possibilities are endless. You've just got to have a bit of chutzpah and say, What do you think people can only say no. And if they say no, then you're, you know, what happens, you get a bit embarrassed, nobody dies of embarrassment, I can assure you, that's the case. But the possibilities are that you can actually end up doing the book signings and you sell books. If you don't go, if you do go and you just meet people, and you don't sell many books, but you meet a lot of people, or you had cards out, they might buy them as ebooks, your book sales will go up one way or the other, your book sales will go up because people will remember you. And August and September, good times, because while September in particular, because people are just about starting to think about Christmas presents. And in September, if they get a signed copy of a book by a Scottish author, they can give that in December. And it looks as though that's they've been planning and thinking about it carefully. It's a really good thing to do. So what are my tips, tips and tricks. First of all, my first tip is join with other people. Don't try and do this alone. And I'm also joining with my friend, Arlen Gibson. And I'm hoping he will arrange some book signings for myself and him around where he is when I go to the conference. So don't do this on your own. Ask other people invite other people, you're not going to sell less books, because other people are there, you sell what you sell. You know, if you're the only person there, you might sell 10 books, if you're six people there, you might sell 40 books. Or you might sell one book, you don't know you sell what you sell people like what they like. So join together with other authors. Think about it, do you know someone in another country? And do you think that another author? Should I say do you think you'd be able to do book signings together? And if the answer is yes, then ask them. That's the starting point. Ask them, ask them what it is they want to do. Ask them if they're willing to do it, that so once you've established that, then you need to start looking for venues to actually do the book signings in and you need to do this sooner rather than later. The earlier you can do it, the better because people can book you into their calendars. People get busy. So they want things in their calendars, and cafes and things want to get customers in. And if they can put a poster up saying book signing here on X date, they might get more people because you're doing the book signing. So that's a good way of doing it. Actually just, you know, booking in advance, you've got to book in advance. Now the other thing you've got to do is don't just book something in every day for two months, much as you would love to do that you're going to kill yourself, you're going to be exhausted, you need to cover a time. So think about perhaps doing one one day, having a day off, doing one another day, having a day off, maybe doing a couple having a day off and do other things during that time. Check your business cards with your check cards with your books on with you. And if you do happen to bang into people and you're chatting to them, and they're interested in the fact that an author, give them a card, they will look you up or they won't look you up one way or the other. All that's happened is you've given a card away, they might look you up, then they might look you up months in the future when they're looking for a book at that time. So give yourself rest time. Now I'm also going to be doing research while I'm out there for my Thomas Green Book. Because he went to America while he was in the Royal Navy, the ships he was on, went to America. And although he was a surgeon, I'm sure he would have been given a day off. And he would have got to go ashore. And he would have seen the same areas. So I'm going because Virginia was huge to do with the Navy, the American Navy, they would have gone there. So I'm going to go and do research on the historical naval information of the early 19th century in America, because this would have tied into what he was doing. It would have tied into why his ship had gone there. Why did the ship go there? That's important. I need to bring that out in my novels. So I'm doing that I'm also going to the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress to do research, because I want to do research in the newspapers of the time and books from the time to see what was important to the Americans then because that is really important to know what was happening in the countries he went to. And I'm just very, very fortunate that I've been able to go to these two places. So that's my next tip is Is there anything else you can do towards your writing when you're there? So for example, when I went to speak At a conference in and it was bachelor con in New Orleans, I did a lot of research there about New Orleans about voodoo about the history. And that tied into my book killers curse, which didn't come out for about another three months, three years. But it the set was set in New Orleans as well as Scotland. And all the research I did then when I'd gone out for something else tied in to what I was doing in a book three years later. So it's really useful to look at it because you never know when this is going to come in useful. Even contemporary stuff, it doesn't have to be historical, contemporary New Orleans came into mind as the historical New Orleans. But you know, contemporary antiga could come into it. I don't know, in the future, I could be talking about, you know, a trip to Antigua in a book. And I've got that knowledge at my fingertips. And this is what I'm doing with America, and soaking up the culture. Now you could say, Oh, everybody knows what the culture in America is like, trust me until you go, you do not know, you don't know what the people are really like, you don't know what they sound like you don't know the nuances of the words they use. So I will be soaking all of this up, I will also win it in my research at both of these areas, I'm going to be looking at, you know, the words they used in those days, the way they spoke, and they will have spoken word library in spoken word archives in those libraries. And I will be listening to them. So I know what they sound like. And I know my my chop wasn't, didn't have any slaves in his ships. But slavery was still happening in America then. So that might tie into what I'm doing. It might be something I might go to the the Washington Museum of Smithsonian Museum of African American History and look there because that might tie into what I'm doing. You know, did my chart this plantation, for example, he might have done I don't know. So these are the things when you're on the trip. Don't just dismiss everything else. Get take time to see the country and take copious copious copious notes. And so that's important. The next thing to do is make sure that you put a calendar together of your events, and then get them up on your website ASAP. And get them up as soon as you can. The earlier the better. Get them into your onto your website. So people can look at your website and know where that going produce posters for all the venues so that they've got posters to put up in the Windows Start to advertise when advance you know, there are people who will travel to see you just because they happen to want to. They've heard you, they've seen you on social media or even chat to them. On the plane I had that happened last time I went, I was chatting to somebody on the plane. And he came to one of my book signings, so that can happen. And you know, the quicker you get them up on your website, the better the quicker you get the word out for the book signings, the better so that you will get more people coming. People will No, no. Suppose you're thinking well, you're a Scottish author. So who the heck would be looking in America, your website, you would be amazed in this day and age with Tik Tok with Facebook with Instagram, with Twitter. People are finding out about you in more ways than you know. People. I was doing a tic toc and somebody put on it. My father loves your books. This was in America. You know, can I sorry, it was in Oxford. I'm in Scotland, this was an Oxford and he said she said can I buy st copy. Now I didn't know I was big in Oxford. But I have a reader in Oxford. So I've got readers in America. If you're going to Australia, you'll have readers in Australia, trust me, people will be looking and you'll be getting this out in your social media. Once you've got it up on your social media, you can place a link to that page in every single area that you needed to do. And you know, you can send it on every social media you're on. You can talk about it on tick tock, you can talk about it on Facebook, you can do Facebook likes going to tick tock life into Instagram lives. You can do everything to get the word out about these. So getting the word out is crucial. And which is why I'm doing this podcast today. Because I'm not going to August and this podcast will come out on the sixth of April, but it's never too soon. Never too soon. Now, I haven't quite got my calendar up yet, but I'm hoping to have it up before I go away to Antigua. And then I can chat to people on Antigua, about the fact that I'm doing this tour and it's there. There'll be people from me Get in Antigua, there'll be people who are going on holiday to America in Antigua. That is something that you can do. You know, the sooner you've got it, the better. And then the other thing you need to do, and this is crucial as well is book your flights and hotels and everything you want to do as early as possible. The reason for that is because they will be much cheaper, the earlier you can do it, and the price of flights and things is going up and up and up. It's not cheap. So the sooner you do it, the better. That is my biggest piece of advice here. And if you are with other authors, see if you can stay with people that you know, I know people all over the world. And I would say Have you got a sofa I could suffer on, you know, for a couple of nights or whatever it brings the cost down. But stay in hotels as well, I've never had to stay on a sofa. By the way, I've always had a bed. And people are very, very generous. Wherever you go in the world, people are generous. And they say yeah, I've got a spare room you can stay. I've been offered spare rooms, when I haven't even asked for a spare room, they'll go if you want to come to so and so there's a room available, you can come and stay. And you know people are generous. So you usually find that you end up getting somewhere to stay, you end up not but pay for it else, the cheaper the sooner you do it, the cheaper that is because obviously as the costs go up, you will need to sell a heck of a lot more books to justify it. But it's worth doing. Because it's not just about selling books, it's about promotion. I'm there to promote my books, I'm there to promote me as an author, because I have so many different genres of books. I'm also there to do a bit of writing, I'm going to do some writing while I'm there, because that's crucial. Don't forget your writing while you're trailing around doing this. So I hope you found this helpful. I hope you think about doing a trip abroad, I can highly recommend it. I've done it once already. And I loved it to two months, not two months, I did six weeks in America before this time just happens to be two months. And that was just the way it worked out with everything going on. And I cannot wait. I'm really looking forward to it. So think about it. Is there somewhere you are going that you could be doing a book tour? If so, think about planning it now. And think about not don't just think about it, do it guys, I would encourage you to do it because it is so much fun. So I hope you've enjoyed the episode and I will be back next week with I'm interviewing Melissa Williams Pope and I'm interviewing her we're going to be talking about Sisters in Crime. And that's a fabulous organisation if you're a crime writer. So tune in next week and I will see you then until then keep reading and keep writing. That brings us to the end of another show. It was really good to have you on the show with me today. I'm Wendy H Jones and you can find me at Wendy H jones.com. You can also find me on Patreon where you can support me for as little as $3 a month which is less than the price of a tea or coffee. You go to patreon.com forward slash Wendy H Jones. I'm also went to H Jones on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Thank you for joining me today and I hope you found it both useful and interesting. Join me next week when I will have another cracking guest for you. Until then, have a good week and keep writing keep reading and keep learning