I have had at least a passing interest in the idea of a book tour for some time; however, struggled to dedicate the time to actually making it a reality. It was a few people who sparked a more solid interest. First Loren Coleman, one of the most prominent cryptozoology researchers posted to me on Twitter suggesting that since my book deals with cryptozoology and craft beer, I should come to the museum for a signing event because there is one place where a cryptozoology museum and a craft beer brewery are in the same area. I liked the idea. More recently, Scott Metzger of Freetail Brewing asked me if his company's beer, Old Bat Rastard, inspired my story or title in any way. I said yes and a short discussion later he suggested I visit the brewery for a book signing. That's great - but how do I do it?

I belong to a few writing groups online and have read many articles. I have found the number of resources to assist self-published authors who really have few connections to be limited. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." I have always thought I could solve anything if given enough thought. I don't have a mentor who can guide me and I don't have a circle of friends who are attempting similar things. But that's cool. I can go at it, learn along the way, and maybe help someone in the future.

To begin I thought it best to look at the books and think about the audience. One of the guiding documents that inspired me to write the stories in the first place was a 2016 Pew Research article that stated 26% of American did not read another book after high school. Most of these were men. It also identified the average reading level to be about the eighth grade. My books are not written with elegant words or flowery writing, but just regular conversational language. They are about mysterious creatures and beer, so maybe those are things guys like. I did have a few friends who were not beer drinkers read the stories, and while they liked the creatures, the travel, and the pop-culture aspects they were bored by the beer-talk.

Thinking about the book tour I wanted to first think of the location. A traditional book store would likely attract avid readers, but that runs the risk they may not like beer and therefore be bored. Since there are few examples of this type of tour I thought that leaves the possibilities open to whatever I can envision. So I thought about Scott and Loren's comments and thought why not have an event in a brewery? Then it could be assumed the patrons are fans of beer and they may find the creatures to be interesting. Yes, I was invited to Freetail Brewing, but why stop at one? Since I am uncertain how it will go it might be a descent hit or it may be a huge failure. If it is a failure, might as well go big. So I envisioned a 17 city nation-wide book signing tour held in local breweries.

With the audience and type of location envisioned, what cities should I use? Since I live in Phoenix it makes sense to have the first one here. Lots of local friends, limited travel, and I know my way around town. I already had the invite from San Antonio and Book 1 is set there, so that makes sense as a stop. The characters themselves are from Austin, TX so I added that as a stop I could combine with San Antonio. Book 2 is set in Burlington, VT but there are scenes in Boston, Salem MA, Portland ME, and Burlington - so Salem, Portland, and Burlington made sense. I added Dayton OH, Columbus, OH, and Atlanta, GA because I used to live in Atlanta and Yellow Springs, OH. Later I added Cincinnati because Book 4 will be set around Cincinnati and I thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce people to me and the series. That might help interest when I get around to Book 4. San Diego and Denver are big craft beer towns, so I added them. I thought from there I could hit Los Angeles with San Diego and Albuquerque with Denver. Plus I have a friend in Albuquerque so I could visit her and her husband. I added Tucson and Las Vegas because they were close driving cities and I thought that would give me three events under my belt before venturing further out of state. The last edition was Tijuana because Baja is growing rapidly as a craft beer producer, it's close to San Diego, and then I could say it's an international tour. I am still working on confirming five of the cities, but overall it is going well. I have approached it by asking on social media if I could hold a book event there. I started sending email, but who knows if they read it. I switched to Facebook messenger because I can see if it has been read. They usually give me an email address to send the request to, but having already made contact it isn't out of the blue now. No one has said no yet, but some have not responded. If I ask twice and have no response, I move on. Good thing about craft beer is there are thousands of locations.

But that brings me to my current challenges. What does the event look like and what are some challenges? I have a cryptozoology presentation that covers the topic, my books, and I envision something local for each stop. But most breweries don't have the ability for that, so the approach is a 2 hour block of time at a table speaking to people who come up. I can introduce the book to them, answer any questions, give background on myself, the characters, the books, the beers, etc. After the two hours I will hang out in the brewery and mingle. I think it best to look at it not as a book selling event, but a chance to meet people and introduce myself. That maybe leads to future readers.

But the business end - I likely have little cash on hand and the bars won't sell the book so I need a way to do transactions. I just signed up for the square and I could do PayPal also. I am thinking I might open a second account just for author stuff and the sales go into that. It would make it easier for tax purposes too. Then I wondered if I need to make the business name an official business? I use a name that I had to create for school work in digital film classes, but it isn't really a business. Maybe it should be. There are a lot of questions there about what is needed, how to get started, etc.

My next dilemma is quantity. I originally thought 25 copies of each book in paperback and maybe 3 copies in hardback. I expected maybe a good day would be 5 copies sold, then afterwards I would reorder 5 copies have maintain a stock of 25. But what if I just happen to sell more? I invited more than 100 to the Phoenix event. I know not everyone will come. Also those who marked "interested" also will not all come, and those who do attend may just be there to say hi and not buy anything...but what if they do? What if on the leg of the tour where I visit LA, San Diego, and Tijuana, what if I sell out during the second stop? Now I don't have copies and it will take about two weeks to get more. My current idea is to suggest pre-sales. Maybe 15% off for buying ahead of time. That would not only give me $ but give me a more solid inventory count. Still working on that idea.

There will also be a t-shirt. Kind of like a concert tour shirt, but with my Chupacabra cover on the front and the back contains a list of dates, breweries, and cities.

I hope to discover the answers to these questions and work out the details before the events. Plus there will be likely on the job learning. Once learned I will share the experience and my attempts with others so maybe if they try in the future it will be easier for them. Until then I will seek to figure it out and leave a trail.

As I said, it could be a good idea or a huge disaster. Only one way to find out...