| The Mostly Happy Couch Surfing Tour |
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| Written by Pam Bustin | |||||||
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An author plugs in to her network of friends to create a book tour out of thin air. Any fool can write a novel but it takes real genius to sell it. - J.G. Ballard (American Novelist) Selling it--"Ahh," as Shakespeare would say, "there's the rub." We write a story, we get it published, and we send it off like a message in a bottle. Then...we wait. Wondering if there's anyone out there to catch it.  In February 2008, Thistledown Press published my first novel, Mostly Happy. It's the story of Bean E. Fallwell, a white trash kid who loves grilled cheese sandwiches, old movies, her best friend Goose, and God (off and on). We follow Bean from her conception in the back seat of an off-duty cab in Regina, Saskatchewan to a bus station phone booth in Cheyenne, Wyoming thirty years later. I love Bean, and Goose, and all the other people she meets along the way. I spent six years constructing, tearing down, and reconstructing their world. Six years. That sounds crazy, right? But I had to do it. I had to explore this voice that kept talking in my head. I wanted to write a book. A long book, about a whole life. I wanted to write a story that would make people smile and cry and crave Kraft Dinner with wieners. I just had to let Bean have her say. I did that, which is cool. Yay me. I told Bean's story as clearly, cleanly, and honestly as I could. I was blessed to find a publisher and now the book is out there on bookstore shelves and in libraries, waiting to be found by someone who is hungering for a good tale. Awesome. But what about that little part of me that wanted to write a best seller, go on Oprah, buy a houseboat, and live happily ever after? Hasn't happened yet. As I sit here, typing this, I'm living on my line of credit and the kind support of my partner, playwright Mansel Robinson. Here's the thing. According to the Association of Canadian Publishers, approximately 10,000 books are published each year in Canada. Bookwire.com has the number at 50,000. It's easy for a book to get lost in the shuffle--especially a first book by a relatively unknown writer, published by a small press in Saskatchewan without adequate funding to allow cross-Canada touring. So, what's a gal to do? Ya gotta do something, right? You spend six years creating a world. You're proud of it and the horrifying reality is that barely anyone will ever read it. So, I gathered my resources and tried to figure out what I could do to help launch Bean into the world. Before I wrote Mostly Happy, most of my work was in the theatre as a playwright and an actor. I've been on stage. I've worked the Fringe circuit. I've worked tiny theatres with three people in the audience and I've had a good time doing it. When I started writing, back in university, I had a Creative Writing prof tell me that I read better than I wrote--meaning that even if the piece wasn't that great, I could sell it when I read it aloud. The novel is good. Bean's voice is great. I knew that if people heard me read Bean, they would buy the book. That sounds egotistical, but then, so is writing a freaking novel. I've done my battles with that psychotic little critic that lives in my brain and constantly tells me that I shouldn't say that, do that, think that, and that I sure as hell better not write it down. I fight that monster every day. This one time, for this one thing, I told the little beast to shut the fuck up. I marched on down to the Thistledown office and said, "I'll tour it. I'll grab a Greyhound Bus Pass, sleep on friend's couches, and do readings and signings at their favourite bookstores, or bars, or WHEREVER."  And thus, The Mostly Happy Couch Surfing Tour was born. Thistledown pulled together the cash to buy me the bus pass and friends across the country offered up couches and spare rooms. The amazing Taylor Leedahl, Thistledown's publicist, booked me into bookstores across the country. I lined up a few readings at bars, and one private salon in Saskatoon, for the cast of Cheryl Jack's play At the End of Her Rope, who missed the initial launch because they were onstage. Together, Taylor and I booked twelve events. Then, we had to figure out how to get more than three people to attend. We did the regular stuff--sent out press releases and so on. But I knew I had to do more. It was time to get plugged in. I turned to the internet to spread the word about the novel and the book tour. I don't have enough (meaning any) money to set up my own web page, so I jumped onboard MySpace and Facebook, the top social networking sites on the web. I started on MySpace, which caused a serious pain in my brain. I had to learn how to code in html (at least a bit), how to format text and slip in pictures and make the page look...decent. I spent hours searching for ways to "pimp my profile." The results are okay. I have little sparkling stars for a background, which matches the beautiful cover Jackie Forrie designed for the book. I figured out how to blog, post photos, and create a calendar of events. I created a couple of videos and posted them online (MySpace and Facebook). I created a YouTube site as well. Just for kicks. The Facebook page for the novel was the easiest site to set up. It's not as fancy, I suppose, but it does the job cleanly and clearly and, most importantly, it actually connects me, personally, to the most people. They can write on the wall, or contact me via private message. I can send updates to folks who sign up as fans of the page whenever I post new info, photos, or reviews. We can chat. It's fun. So far, the Facebook page has had 2212 visitors, MySpace 415, and the videos have been viewed 220 times on YouTube. How this will affect book sales remains to be seen. What I know is that the web presence helped get people out to the readings and find the book in the first place. I had 222 people at 12 events, which means I averaged around 18 people per event. Which is, actually, pretty decent. When I hit each new town, I sent out a reminder of the reading to all my Facebook and email contacts in that city. A lot of them said, "Thank god you reminded me." It didn't always work, but I'm pretty sure it helped.  My largest crowds were at the two readings that took place in bars...go figure. I booked the Regina launch of Mostly Happy into the basement "birthday room" at the Bushwakker Brewpub. I worked at the Wakker for five years, back in the 90s. When I left, the waitresses used our "party fund" to buy me an incredibly expensive Watermen fountain pen and told me to, "go write something." I used that lovely green pen to scribble down the first draft of the novel. It was great to be able to celebrate its publication among friends at the Wakker. The other bar event was at the Studio Bar at Factory Theatre in Toronto. Taylor tried, valiantly, to find a Toronto bookstore that was interested in hosting a reading, but we got no takers. So, I called up a friend, Bill Lane, at Factory Theatre and asked if we could hold an event there. He found me a space and I enlisted two friends, Marion DeVries and Victoria Goring, to read with me. It was a fabulous night. Victoria read a hilarious, heart breaking, story about being a single mom and we all joined in to present some scenes from Marion's new musical, Kitchen Radio.  A few things I learned on the tour: 1. I'm not as young as I was. Riding The Hound wasn't as much fun as it was ten years ago when I did my last cross country trip looking for a new place to live. I got a little stiff, but heck, what's a few days of discomfort compared to actually getting to go on your first book tour? 2. Promoting yourself on the internet will suck up as much time as you let it, and you may get the distinct impression that you could very well be simply talking to yourself. In order to generate some excitement about the tour, I started a countdown to launch date on Facebook and MySpace. Every day, for 47 days, I posted a small excerpt of each chapter online. I got a few comments on each, but overall, I thought no one was reading them. I've since learned that people did read them and loved them. They just didn't comment, which made me feel like I was whispering into a void. Just goes to show that you can't always tell who's listening. 3. I should've tried harder to hook up with local writers in each city to join me on the tour. The night in Toronto was fabulous. Having others on the bill makes for a fuller night of entertainment and, of course, it makes for a bigger crowd as each author brings in more people. 4. The best thing I did was focus the tour around my friends, plugging in to the web of amazing people that I am blessed to have in my life. Like I said earlier, as an actor, I've played shows to three people, and enjoyed it, but I know I would've gotten downhearted if I was touring the country for over a month via Greyhound, sleeping in hotels, and reading to three strangers every night. Staying with friends made the tour a real celebration. People I love and respect were there, with me, every step of the way and I cannot thank them enough. And the new friends I met? The ones who found us online and came out to meet me in person? I say, welcome to my world. I'm glad we met and I hope to see you all again, somewhere down the road. There's more I could do, of course. There always is. I could/should seek out book clubs online and let them know about Mostly Happy. I should go forth and seek new contacts on MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube. But for now, I'm turning my energies back to writing. There's a new gang of people talking in my head and they are clamoring for my attention. Thanks to Thistledown, Bean is out there in the world. This fool wrote a novel and is trying her damndest to help sell it. I'm no genius, but I do what I can. I take heart in the words of English novelist, E.M Forester: The final test for a novel will be our affection for it, as it is the test of our friends, and of anything else which we cannot define.  I hope you meet Bean someday. And I hope she makes you laugh and cry and crave a grilled cheese sandwich. If, or when, you meet her, come find me online and drop by for a chat. I'd love to shoot the breeze. 'Til then, go easy. Pam. Comments (5)
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