August 5, 2011 Most book tours take authors only to stores in cities—and only really big cities, if publicity departments have anything to say about it. It’s a tried-and-true tactic that increases book sales and author renown: fans come to hear their favorite literary voices in person, and the bookstore’s more oblivious customers discover a new talent to add to their shelves. There are always losers to every winning strategy, however: in this case, it’s the fans who live in more rural areas where authors wouldn’t normally travel.
Myra McEntire, Victoria Schwab, and Beth Revis—three YA authors—are upending this formula.
Using Asheville and Nashville as the beginning and ending points of their new tour, the “Ash2Nash” these authors intend to take a more scenic route from A to B: their eight stops include cities like Knoxville, but also lesser-known towns like Morganton, North Carolina, and Kingsport, Tennessee. The tour’s website explains the plan: “Starting near Asheville (Beth’s homebase), the three would travel together to Nashville (Myra and Victoria’s homebase) and stop at many bookstores on the way—also inviting along many other local authors to join in the fun!”
The invitation of local authors is a particularly intriguing twist that should make for great fun—twice the fun with regard to Nashville, where the list of scheduled authors doubles to include Rachel Hawkins, Julie Kagawa, and Ruta Sepetys. (The Knoxville stop includes a reading by Alan Gratz, as well.) For more information about Ash2Nash, visit the tour’s website here, and click here to read about the inventive approach to fundraising that Schwab and McEntire took to aid Nashville flood victims.
