Book Tours 2.0

"I thought to myself that they weren’t a standard literary audience, they were better," author Stephen Elliot remarks in Sunday's New York Times Book Review, describing the groups he encountered on a rather unconventional book tour. In 33 cities, Elliot read not in bookstores or other typical, public venues, but instead in the living rooms of existing and potential readers. He explains:

Before my book came out, I had set up a lending library allowing anyone to receive a free review copy on the condition they forward it within a week to the next reader, at their own expense. (Now that a majority of reviews are appearing on blogs and in Facebook notes, everyone is a reviewer.) I asked if people wanted to hold an event in their homes. They had to promise 20 attendees. I would sleep on their couch. My publisher would pay for some of the airfare, and I would fund the rest by selling the books myself.

Booksellers, see an opportunity here?

For all the good will and conversation fostered by successful in-store events (not to mention the foot traffic), the troubles, as Elliot notes, are many. Tours represent an expensive enterprise for beleaguered publishers in an era of ruthless cost-cutting. Crowds can be sparse, despite free admission. And when seats do fill up, it's often not fans you'll find in them but aspiring writers (the same faces again and again) in search of inspiration, advice, or connections. While hosts are thankful those folks attend, the truth is that they rarely buy books. (What's the old saw about poetry? If every aspiring poet actually bought a few books of new poetry every year, the form would thrive.)

Bookstores pride themselves on being community centers. As they should. There's a danger, however, in interpreting the role too literally. The desired third place need not be the store, itself.

Lease these opportunities to your book clubs. Reward your best customers with the chance to host an author. Impose requirements similar to Elliot's — minimum attendance, for example, and overnight lodging — but let go of the reigns. Not every author will submit to this, of course. But some will. More than you'd think, I bet. Enhance your privileged position as a partner with authors and publishers by leveraging local expertise and personal relationships. (Isn't that what you do already?) Bring these parties together in new and constructive ways.

Last year I attended a like-minded function staged by an entrepreneur who lives just a few blocks from my house. Molly hosted, in her home, the season's only Portland appearance of Kristin Hersh, founder of the bands Throwing Muses and 50-Foot Wave. Hersh has been traveling this way for years now, using the connections she established over the course of her former, traditional touring career to support more recent, independent pursuits. Early one Sunday evening, we mingled with Kristin, snacked on hors d'oeuvres, drank wine...and then sat down for what must have been the most intimate musical event many people in the room would ever experience.

To this day, I still tell friends about that house concert. And I always mention Molly, who pulled the whole thing together. What if your store created such memorable, personal, and distinctive experiences? Imagine how far the kind of passionate, word-of-mouth publicity that they generate might spread.