Tour Day 10, 11, 12, and 13

Day 10

I hit Atlanta, signing at 11 bookstores and attending a book party hosted by my friends Linda Darter and Jim Coursey. Several fans of mine showed up to have me sign their books, which never ceases to amaze me. I'm tickled any time anyone wants me to sign a book, and if they actually hunt me down to get a signature, I'm truly humbled.

One of the high points of the tour so far was meeting bookseller Paul Pessolano at the Borders in Snellville Georgia. Paul confided that he'd hand sold over 150 copies of Whiskey Sour, and surprised me by having 68 copies of Rusty Nail on hand for me to sign.

Paul will have a character named after him in an upcoming book. I may also name a child after him as well.

The stores I visited include:

B. Dalton Peachtree Center

BN 2900 Peachtree Road

BN 2852 Cobb Pkwy

BN 120 Perimter Center

BN 5141 Peachtree Parkway

BN 50 Barrett Pkwy

Borders 650 Ponce de Leon

Borders 1745 Peachtree

Borders 3637 Peachtree

Borders 3101 Cobb Pkwy

Borders 4745 Ashford Dunwoody

Borders East Cobb Marietta

Waldenbooks 3393 Peachtree

Chapter 11 220 Johnson Ferry Sandy Springs

If you live in the area and missed me passing through, please visit one of the above stores for your autographed JA Konrath needs.

Day 11

I got up early to get to Nashville, and managed to hit 10 bookstores during the drive. The lovely and talented Tasha Alexander played tour guide and took me around to of these, including Davis-Kidd where I ran into the lovely and talented JT Ellison, who also bought me dinner. JT, as you should know, is one of the gurus behind Killer Year, a blog that has been getting a lot of well deserved press lately. JA says: link to them.

Tasha then took southern hospitality up to the next level by offering to let me stay in her lovely home. I owe her and her husband big thanks. Buy her historical mystery And Only to Deceive, then buy copies for everyone you know. I really don't care for historicals, but this one I loved.

Other talented and lovely people I got to hang out with in TN were mystery author Chris Well, his wife Erica Well, and SinC Chapter Prez JB Thompson. I also had a chance to give a short speech to the Sisters in Crime group, as I am also a proud sister.

Stores I visited include:

Davis-Kidd 2121 Green Hills Village Dr, Nashville

Waldenbooks 1800 Galleria, Franklin

BN 1701 Cool Springs, Brentwood

Borders 2501 Westend, Nashville

Borders 330 Franklin, Brentwood

Waldenbooks Kenneson GA

Books-a-Million Hixson TN

Waldenbooks Hixson TN

BAM Murfeesboro TN


Day 12

I was in the car a whopping 14 hours today, and managed to drop by ten stores along a circuitous 600 mile route from Nashville to my home in Schaumburg, IL. Stores include:

BAM Clarksville TN

Borders Clarksville TN

Borders Champaign IL

BN Champaign IL

Waldenbooks Champaign IL

BN Bloomington IL

Borders Normal IL

Borders Peoria IL

Waldenbooks Peoria IL

BN Peoria IL

By the end of it I was pretty wiped out, and managed to get five hours of sleep before heading to Madison in the morning.


Day 13

I'm here today the the University of Madison Writer's Insitute doing some lectures on--what else--writing and marketing. After I got into town this morning, I taught a class on creating salable series characters, then managed to visit four are bookstores:

Borders 3759 University Dr

Borders 2173 Zeier Rd

BN East Towne Mall

BN West Towne Mall

I'll be back to the conference for a group signing at 5pm, and used the small amount of free time I had to write this blog entry.

TOTALS:

Miles driven so far: 2713
Bookstores visited so far: 108
Books signed so far: 705
Books hand sold so far: 70
Bookstores remaining: 392

TOUR THOUGHTS:

So far, so good. While there don't seem to be enough hours in the day to catch up on my email (or my sleep) I'm already starting to see some positive results of this tour. I'm asking booksellers to order more copies of my titles, and they seem to be responding (at least, according to my Ingram numbers). Many folks appear to be very happy to meet me, and I'm happy to meet them as well.

I'm also seeing some fans on the road, and a lot of folks are helping me out in many different ways, from food to lodging to touring advice and tips to simply wishing me luck.

As far as bang for the promotional buck goes, and can't think of anything I've done that has been as effective as this tour, and I'm only 1/5 done with it.

This next leg of the tour takes me through New York and the Backspace Conference, where I'm doing MC duties, but after the Big Apple my schedule will be a lot less hectic, and I should be able to slow down my pace a bit.

Tomorrow (July 14) I'll be signing at Booked for Murder in Madison around 4pm and Books and Company in Oconomowoc around 6pm. On July 15 at 7:30pm I'll be at Foul Play Books in Ohio. Hope to see some of you there!