Cob Cottage Company

Slideshows and Book Signing Tour, The Hand-Sculpted House, November 2002

This is a first draft of what we hope will be very helpful to anyone in the Natural Building movement planning a lecture, slideshow or booksigning tour.

Ianto Evans and Linda Smiley completed a slideshow/booksigning tour, 20 stops in 26 days, from Arcata to San Diego.  This was our first book tour, so we were a little unprepared for the potentials of such an event. It felt like a great success.  It's clear from the early feedback that this was an important step, the effects of which will be felt for years.

We've seen authors who just sat in a bookstore and signed books for customers. What a waste of our efforts! We're working for free for the bookstore, but a lot worse, missing the chance to perform, to provide a lot of information, to fire up a crowd, make cross-connections between people and help create community around Natural Building.

Overall, we had a wonderful time. People were enthusiastic, hospitable, generous, excited.  At a time when so many people feel trapped and powerless, it was wonderful to see people come alive, make positive plans, begin to take charge of their fates and live according to their conscience.  It was a month's work for the two of us, plus untold preparation and arrangements on the part of local organizers, so we want to maximize the output by making our learning available to anyone else planning a slideshow or booksigning tour. This sort of event has tremendous potential for the Natural Building movement. We would encourage other authors to do similar trips.

We signed over 300 of our new book, The Hand-Sculpted House, sold over 100 of other titles, talked to more than 1,000 people and hopefully seeded new outgrowths of Natural Building in most of the communities we visited.

Perhaps the most useful product was learning how to make tours like this even more valuable and how to cut down on the work involved. Here are some hints and observations.  We'd appreciate comments and feedback to incorporate into a later version.

Plan ahead

• Begin planning 2-4 months ahead, contacting local sponsors and helpers, booking presentation rooms, ordering stock.
• Write down your goals and what exactly you want to accomplish.  Prepare in advance for those things, e.g. I want to sell a lot of books or I want to provide information or I want to help reinforce community.
• Consider different ways to accomplish your goals.  This is Performance Art, be ready to show slides, talk, demonstrate, teach, play games, etc.
• There should be two of you; you'll need an accomplice to do all the other things needed while one of you is performing, to help read the map, to be company, to bounce ideas off. Don't try this alone.
• Stack functions. Figure out in advance how many things you can accomplish at the same time, then prioritize them. A book tour can be exhausting, expensive and a lot of work for a lot of people. Have it pay for itself as many ways as possible. Examples: generate a mailing list, advertise upcoming workshops, get people to work together on a local practical project.
• Have a short descriptive title for your show, to be publicized in advance.
• Use existing networks to publicize.  e.g. permaculture, green building, internet lists, specialist newsletters and journals e.g. Hope Dance, New Settler, The Last Straw, The CobWeb and The Permaculture Activist.
• Decide in advance if you want to make deliveries to book retailers.  Get lists of local retailers from local organizers and make prearrangements to carry extra books.
• Contact all local hosts and organizers well before leaving home.  Reconfirm with them details from your checklist.
• Have a reliable backup switchboard, all hours.  Give the phone number to all organizers.  Our office might be prepared to offer that service if you don't have your own arrangements.
• Choose a suitable vehicle for carrying a large amount of books, other goods, for sale or displays.
• Advance publicity: Help all sponsors with a poster they can print off the Internet, a brief description of your book and slideshow.  Design it to be striking in black and white, but color is possible.  Have local newspapers carry an article a few days in advance, perhaps a phone interview of you, the author. Try local radio.
• Create generic announcement poster, listing each gig but with space for a big splash on the current one, location time, etc.  Describe the book, describe the slideshow.  Have a catchy title.  Say that you will have several titles for sale, that prices are CASH, with a surcharge for checks.

Venues and Locations

• Don't run a tour more than 2 weeks without a break.  (Ours was 4 weeks, much too tiring.)
• Try to do 2 or more shows clustered in the same area.  Encourage people to bring friends to the next slide show. Then take a day off before driving to the next town.
• Set up venues where you can retail your books yourself.  Church halls, private homes and public libraries are perfect. Avoid bookstores, they'll take your profit. Colleges and universities are hard to deal with (finding the room, parking tickets, impersonal, uncomfortable).
• Schedule slideshows 6 or 6:30 workdays, 7 or 7:30 weekends, no later.  Try to arrange supper or a potluck in advance for everyone interested.  Social time is very important.
• Start slides 20 to 30 minutes after announced start time.  Use preceding time to sign and sell books.  Warn hosts to be prepared for late endings; people hang around to ask questions, share enthusiasms, socialize.

Daily Rhythm

Be realistic about how much you can get done. There's a lot to do each day apart from signing books and showing slides. You will need time for:

• Hanging out with hosts.  Often they are the most interested, interesting, kind, hospitable people.
• Local sightseeing.
• Visiting local bookstores, making sure they stock your book.
• Phoning ahead to the next organizers/hosts/venue, to confirm.
• Getting precise directions, finding the site.
• Organizing your display material.
• Driving between towns (we were on the road an average of 3-4 hours per day).
• Unforeseen opportunities, breakdowns, traffic jams, etc.
• Extra sleep (sometimes you get to bed very late).

Supplies

• Make sure you're well supplied with everything you'll need before you leave home.  Don't count on finding things on the road. Here are some obvious ones: colored felt pens, markers, clear tape and scratch paper; a box with change in it; colored tablecloth, flowers, vase; folding table if possible; white double bedsheet for the screen, thumbtacks, duct tape; standup signs for prices; flyers for distribution; notebook for signups and mailing lists; drinking water and snacks; flashlight; maps and directions; projector, spare bulb, spare slides, extension cords, slide trays, spare projector if possible.
• Take other titles to sell (we started with 8 titles, sold some of all of them).  Some people are in a mood to stock up on the subject.  A few bought one of every title we sell.
• Have extra books and other gifts ready as thank you presents to helpers, hosts, etc. You may need quite a few. Overestimate optimistically how many books you may need. We took 320 copies of The Hand-Sculpted House, never expecting to need them all, yet returned with only 9 copies.
• Have backup boxes of books for wholesale sales.  Make sure you have your own name and contact information taped to everything in case you lose it. It can cause a lot of confusion otherwise.
• Have duplicate backups for all contact information, times, dates, phone numbers, etc., stored in a different place, also backup in your home office.
• If you're short of room in your vehicle, have extra books or other heavy items shipped ahead to pickup points, allowing extra time for slow deliveries.

Advance Preparations

• Send sponsor/local contact a checklist to get back to you on.  Their address, phone number, possible changes; address and phone number of venue, directions to get there; is there free parking for delivery; screen size (clear white wall is our preference, or large rolldown screen at least 12 feet wide). How good is the black out, both daytime and night? Is there at least one large display table available? Are the chairs movable? Is there a fee and do they need advance payment? When would you have access to the venue? You need access at least 1 hour ahead. Make sure there's no early closing time. Dealing with an irate janitor can put a wet blanket on everything.
• Check in with overnight hosts; make sure you have directions and if possible a map.
• Carry your own bedding. It may save your hosts washing bedding.
• In the room, set up display table by the door so people have to pass it coming in.  Put stacks of books for sale on it with other display material. If you have free handouts, try to keep them separate to avoid confusion. Have someone greet everyone, get their contact information and remind them that a donation would really help with expenses.  Have an open-topped donations bowl so people can make change themselves.
• Be prepared for sudden changes so they are not disasters. We had flat tires, car breakdown, difficulties finding places, a power blackout, etc.

Slide Show

• Have 2 half slideshows, each of which stands alone but which together make a whole, between 1/2 and 1 1/2 hours total.  Decide if the slides can tell their own story, or if they are diagrams of your explanations, stories and thought chains. The latter is better.  Don't automate the slideshow; you are the key performer, as author, not the images.  Keep it mechanically very simple, e.g. single screen, but offer complex viewpoints from your own experience. If you read from your book, keep readings short (1-5 minutes each). Set up to get as big a picture as possible and stand in front of it, facing the audience. Arrange seating as close as possible to the screen; you want people to feel they're in the picture like the movies, not looking at a tiny image like TV. 

  Select only horizontal slides as most screens don't accommodate verticals. None too dark as there may be blackout problems.

• Have a checklist of what you want to communicate: announcements, commercials, announcements from sponsors, the fact that you have an exciting book for sale. Ask if anyone else has announcements
• Plan slideshow to be thought-provoking and inspiring. At beginning, define essential terms, eg cob or Natural Building. Introduce yourself, your background and credentials.
• Make your show as dynamic as possible.  Pass around anything relevant for inspection, e.g. samples; involve as many people as possible in setting up; involve your audience however you can.
• Limit questions from the floor, e.g., 'I'll take 3 questions of general interest.  If you have issues specific to your situation, take with me later,' and police big talkers. (You're the performer, not them.)
• This is an opportunity to build community and set up local projects. Plan for and announce followup local events, eg a breakfast planning meeting the following morning, potluck and ovenbuilding the next Saturday.  Emphasize practical, dirty-hands events. You don't need to be there, but make sure you give contact information for one or two people who are really enthusiastic, and have them speak briefly about their own event.

Booksigning

• People sometimes need to leave before the end of a slideshow.  Start selling books when you arrive, then in a 10-15 minutes break between carousels, then sell them after slides. Announce several times what you're doing.
• Presign each day at least as many books as you think you'll sell.  At the table you can personalize them. Say something like, 'What name would you like me to sign it to?' and add special messages.
• Have a special colored pen that you really like to use, to sign books with. Choose a number of personal phrases in advance in case you don't know what to say.  Don't just sign your name; make it as personal as possible.
• Prestuff books with other current information, upcoming workshops, information about other books you sell, etc.

After the Show

• Try to take photo of each sponsor/host/organizer, make sure you have name spelling correct and have contact information complete.  You may want to thank them formally later. Ask what expenses they have and settle up with them right then.
• Ask for feedback from hosts, sponsors, or anyone you meet later who was at your show. Be prepared to change your act.
• Send thank you cards/make calls to all helpers, within a few days of getting home.
• Lick your wounds and congratulate yourselves.  It was hard work but oh so rewarding!

Our biggest regret was that we didn't have enough time to hang out with so many fascinating people who came to see us. The schedule we set ourselves was too exhausting. Some days we had 8 hours of driving, then 4 or 5 hours of setting up, showing slides, questions, booksignings, then getting to know unfamiliar hosts and sleeping in a new place.  Don't be so ambitious; leave plenty of time to relax between shows.

We can't given enough credit to Wes Roe and Margie Bushman of Hope Dance magazine, who coordinated the whole tour.  They did an amazing job, during weeks of preparation, then being our backup throughout the trip.

Feedback?  Call Ianto Evans or Linda Smiley, 541-396-1825.