The Five Stages of Book Touring

I'm currently on my fourth book tour in Germany, where people value books and authors in ways you don't find in the U.S.

I'm reading from my memoir My Germany in German and English, and the tour is going well, with enthusiastic audiences. But there's also an inner tour I'm on, one that has five stages I am very familiar with. I think other authors will recognize them.

First comes exhaustion. The time change is brutal, but even worse is the long flight. Even when you fly business class, if you'r...