Lessons Learned: College Tour for Authors
Global: An Extraordinary Guide for Ordinary Heroes
Unlike my other blog posts, this one is less directed at global citizens and more so at fellow authors or aspiring authors. Serving in the diplomatic corps, I’m not in the United States very often and, when I am, it’s usually during summer vacation – not during the school year. Because of that, I wanted to take advantage of a recent trip to my hometown, Portland, Oregon where I went for my 20-year high school reunion (time flies!).
I wrote Global: An Extraordinary Guide for Ordinary Heroes to inspire and empower Americans to get more engaged in the world and to help make the world a better place. My target audience is college-age Americans and the book provides a great overview of global affairs, so it can serve as a really awesome resource in college curriculums, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to speak to college students while I was in Portland. That way I could inspire young Americans and share with these colleges about my book. During just over a week spent in Portland, I spoke at five colleges (two of them twice) and my old high school (three times), so I had 10 speaking events and got to reach hundreds of students. Though traditional book tours are a thing of the past, there’s still nothing like engaging directly with your audience, so I wanted to share some of my lessons learned in case you want to arrange your own college tour to promote your book.
Reaching out
The first step is to reach out to every college in the city you’re going to be in – or, of course, the city where you live. Because I grew up in Portland, I knew all (or the vast majority) of the colleges off the top of my head, but a quick Google search will help you come up with the list. I didn’t actually have any contacts yet at any of the colleges, but definitely use a contact if you already have one. At my reunion, I learned that a high school classmate of mine taught at a local college and he invited me to come speak to his class, which I happily accepted. So, you never know when you will stumble upon a contact.
Target reaching out to college contacts relevant to your book topic – mine is about global affairs, so I focused on international affairs teachers/section heads and career centers since my book also provides career advice. I suggest that you contact several people on one email to increase your chances of someone responding. And don’t be afraid to politely follow up after a week or two of not hearing back. Emails get buried, sent to the spam folder, etc. and sometimes a nice reminder email is just what someone needs to respond. I did notice it was a lot more difficult to be in communication with my college contacts during the summer months – which is completely understandable, so keep that in mind when you’re scheduling your tour – don’t rely on the summer months for arrangements. Also, I had to be in Portland right after school started, but several people said that it would have been better if it weren’t at the very beginning of the school year. So, if you have the freedom to schedule your college tour, do it at a time that is conducive for the school year – not at the very beginning or end and not right around finals.
[image error]Get prepared
In my initial email contacting colleges, I explained in general what I could talk about and provided a link to some sample chapters on my website. This was a way to make initial contact, but also to share information about my book, so even if they didn’t ask me to come speak, they’d still know about my book. Once I got a positive response from a college, I would then ask the contact what specifically they would like me to talk about. Even though some of my events were a bit different – like an international affairs class versus an open-invite career advice session – I came up with a general outline of what I wanted to talk about and then slightly redirected it for each event. That way, I didn’t have to come up with 10 different talks, but rather just one that I got really good at and was able to tweak as needed. And the talk definitely evolved as the week progressed.
One helpful part of this was that, at two of my initial talks, I had someone with me (my Mom was one of them!) who was able to provide me feedback – things that seemed to really resonate with my audience or ways to engage them better. Having someone that could provide that feedback gave me the opportunity to revise a few of my points. At the beginning of the week, I wasn’t reading an excerpt from my book, which is something that I started incorporating a few days in, which I definitely suggest doing because it connects your talk very clearly back to your book. It’s one thing to mention that something you’re talking about is in your book, but it’s great when you read from it because then your audience can hear the voice your book is written in and get them excited to read it.
In talking with college students, I made sure to not use jargon and to use straight-forward language, but also never to talk down to them because college students these days are super sharp. In order to get them comfortable and hopefully more engaged, I would ask them some questions and then randomly call on someone if no one raised their hands. And I tried to not be too rigid in my presentation so that if I started talking about something that the audience seemed interested in, then I’d let myself go down that rabbit hole even if it swerved off course of what I had been discussing.
Something I didn’t do, but wish I had, was mention to the audiences that they could follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn – this is a great way for people to follow your work and get advice without having to directly contact you. But I didn’t think about it until I was heading back to Armenia!
To sell or to not sell
I initially thought that I wanted to bring copies of my book to sell at the events, but then I realized that it was more important for me to get my message across than to sell a few books. So instead of bringing books to sell, I brought enough to give one to each group I was speaking to and I wrote a note on the title page specifically to that group. Since my ultimate goal is to get my book taught in colleges, hopefully my contact would be interested enough by what they heard at my talk or peruse my book and get inspired to use it in their class.
[image error]One of the classes I spoke to was actually already using my book, which was super exciting to show up to the class and to see my book on the classroom desks! Make sure to bring a few extra copies of your book in case you pick up more speaking events during your tour. If you do decide to bring copies of your book to sell, I suggest you ask for a student helper to sell copies so that you don’t have to deal with taking cash while talking with students and signing your books. But, I definitely think it’s better not to sell – that way it doesn’t seem like you’re there just to sell your book – make it more about the students and less about you. An awesome option is if the college stocked your book in their bookstore, so it’s worth asking if they’d be interested in that. Also, some colleges offer a very small stipend, but I suggest not asking to be paid and/or waiving the payment if you’re offered since the point is really to get the exposure to your book.
Get the logistics down
Before heading out on your promotion tour, print out the college campus maps, make sure that you know how to locate where you’re supposed to be, and write down the address of the college and the name of your contact. You don’t want to be figuring out logistics on the way to your event. Also, make sure to get there early to have time to locate where you’ll be speaking.
Be flexible and be willing to take on more speaking commitments in case people are inspired when they hear you talk and want to get you more events – this also requires keeping your schedule open enough that you have time to incorporate more events. One event a day is good if you have enough time. The most I did was three in a day and that was a lot! I spoke at my high school’s assembly, to a class at a college, and then to a group of students at another college. I got through it, but by the third event I was pretty tired and it was a little more challenging to keep my talk fresh.
A few final thoughts
Colleges will most likely either have you speak to a relevant class or at a college-sponsored event. You should let it be up to them about their preference and some will ask you to do both. If you are talking to a class, I suggest that you ask the professor to encourage their students to come with some questions. I personally prefer a more interactive discussion rather than me talking at students, but it can be hard to get students to warm up enough to ask questions. If you’re speaking at a college-sponsored event, don’t let it hurt your feelings if tons of students don’t show up. But do encourage the college to advertise your event to maximize the chance of more students coming. Also, encourage them to invite specific classes to your event – that way you have a guaranteed audience.
[image error]Most of my events were an hour to an hour and a half. This is a good amount of time for you to read from your book, give a talk and answer questions. But it’s good to be able to scale your talk to fit into a smaller timeframe if necessary because you won’t always get a full hour and a half.
After your event, make sure to write follow up thank you emails to your contact at the college. That way you’re reaching back to them, acknowledging the effort they put into arranging your visit and hopefully building a contact with someone who will continue to share with students about your book.
One last thing, I had business cards made specifically to hand out during my college tour. In addition to (of course) my name, the cards had my website, the name of my book and a picture of the cover, and my email address. I handed them out to all of the students at my events and encouraged them to follow up with me if they had any questions. This serves two purposes: (1) I want to be a resource for young Americans interested in making the world a better place and (2) it serves as a marketing tool for my book.
So these are some of my thoughts and observations, please send me an email if you have any questions. Happy touring!
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