Me with A CAKE OF MY BOOK at a party my friends threw for me. They’re the best.
In Roads of Adventure, the author and journalist Ralph D. Payne wrote: “[T]he zest is in the journey and not in the destination.”
With respect to Mr. Payne—and the many, many writers who have paraphrased this thought—I disagree. Sometimes, the zest of life lies in both spheres.
Between July 28 and August 27, I drove a rental car from San Francisco, CA to my home in Washington, DC. Part of this time I spent seeing friends and family and graduating with my Master of Fine Arts from the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe. The other part I spent ferrying between ten cities for book events celebrating my debut novel, D.J. Rosenblum Becomes the G.O.A.T., published on August 5.*
I organized this tour myself: Most publishers don’t think book tours are worth their costs, which is probably right. (The writer Peter Mountford, one of my former professors, explains this well.) Still, I had the time (self-employment), resources (savings), and motivation (cosplaying as an author whose books actually pay my bills) to give it a real go. Not to mention significant three non-book reasons to travel: I needed to escape DC summer, I had a giant painting to transport, and I wanted to see the adorable products of a baby elephant boom at U.S. zoos. So, I spent five months brainstorming stops, emailing potential hosts, mapping out a route, emailing the hosts again, publicizing on social media, and emailing more hosts to get my road trip the green light.
The result? I learned a lot. I gained some tangible benefits. And I’ll probably never do this again.
That third point is quickest to address: Driving across the United States is hard. This is not France, where someone once told me their grandma lived impossibly far away and meant the drive took five hours. (Somewhere, a Midwesterner just snorted.) I-80 East, the most direct route from San Francisco to DC, spans more than 2,800 miles. That’s almost 50,000 football fields. My dad joined me for half the trip and split the hardest drives. We still spent multiple eight- to ten-hour days in the car, grappling with boredom, burnout, and our bladders.
I simply don’t enjoy driving enough to do this trip again. But I am glad and grateful I did it, in part because of all the things I gained. Just look at my road trip in numbers:
5,000+ miles driven, because we did not always take the direct route—to put it lightly.
10 cities visited, half of which I had never seen before.
13 bookstores visited, all but one of them new to me.
68 new followers on Instagram, my main professional social media account.
230 signed copies of D.J. Rosenblum, as best as I can estimate.
11 baby elephants witnessed—as old as three years and as young as two months.
1 3-feet-by-5-feet painting transported damage-free from Reno to DC.
As for my lessons? You can consider these reflections on my road trip or advice for yours:
Everyone is correct when they say only people you know will come to your events. OK, “only” is a little strong: I met some amazing people who I hope love D.J. Rosenblum. Still, even the most sterling bookseller recommendations won’t necessarily bring folks to an event. I didn’t have any zero-person events, but I did have a couple one-person showings—both of which I’m actually grateful for. (More on this shortly.) Yet my most reliable audiences in every city were people I knew and people they knew.
Have a reason to travel besides the book. There were a few points during my road trip where I could’ve felt dismayed by a small audience, an onsite miscommunication, or a bookstore not stocking D.J. after all. But my commitment to seeing baby elephants ensured I could never ask myself, “Why did I do this?” Because! Baby elephants!!! And a painting I adore that now hangs in my home! Not to mention seeing more of our flawed, beautiful country firsthand. For any of those alone, the drive would’ve been worth it.
Not all successes are sales—and they may not pay immediate dividends. I did not sell many copies of D.J. Rosenblum on this trip. Still, I succeeded in half a dozen major ways: I introduced my book to areas that might not have heard about it otherwise. I met and began to build relationships with a dozen incredible booksellers. I did enough cool things to fuel a month of content—the most traffic my social media has ever had. I learned new social media tricks and content creation skills. I did four different styles of book events, practicing enough that I can do them at the drop of a hat. And I mastered my talking points about D.J., so all my events and interviews will be better from this point forward.
None of those successes will bring me immediate dollars or acclaim. But all of them helped me feel rewarded by my events, even when only one person attended. And all of them, I think, will pay dividends for my next books—helping me forge a sustainable career as an author.
Will I reread this post in ten years and curse my naïveté? Maybe. Still, I’ll take that risk. Call me crazy, but I think this life is worth it.
*Technically, my tenth and final book event happened on September 4, because 48 hours after I got back to DC, I had to leave again for a four-day trip. Travel! Woo!
Abby’s Pop Culture Pop-Up
I hold irrational levels of care about three early-career actors/singers/artists:
Rachel Zegler. She is one of the most talented people alive and many people have decided to hate her for no good reason. Y’all, we are not going to do another Hathahate. Leave Rachel alone and stream her rendition of “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” with a box of tissues, like an adult.
Cooper Hoffman. I’ve only seen one of his movies. He was good in it. But how can I not root for him to achieve everything in this world and more? His father, Philip Seymour Hoffman, left him and us (but mostly him) too soon. I was thrilled to read Vulture’s rave review of Cooper’s latest film—and hope this is just the start of a long career for him.
Olivia Rodrigo. Her music is so consistently creative and excellent that I forgive her for making me feel ancient. She should have a minimum of six Grammys by now. Every day, I give thanks that young people have her to soften and score their generational crises. I cannot wait for her live album.
I am also obsessed with Taylor and Travis’s engagement. Which just makes me a sneak millennial, I guess.
D.J.’s Digest & Miri’s Music
[I’m workshopping these sections given D.J.’s publication and the fact I’m reworking Miri’s novel, so I want to keep her to myself. So . . . TBD what’ll happen here! If you have any ideas or requests, let me know in the comments.]
This Month’s Favorites
BABIEEEEEEEEEEEEES
Coziest Coffee Shop goes to… the atrium at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. A bit of a cheat, but this is me and my mom’s favorite place to hang out where she’s in town.
My Kind of Kidlit goes to… Philip Pullman’s The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage and The Secret Commonwealth, narrated by Michael Sheen. My dad and I listened to these audiobooks while driving and—wow. Sheen’s performance is enough of a tour de force for me to recommend these books even though, arguably, neither one is kidlit. (Oops.)
The Most Excellent Elephant goes to… Every single baby elephant I saw on my road trip. But especially the four- and two-month-old baby elephants at Kansas’s Sedgwick County Zoo. (See above.) And my newly housed gigantic painting that is, of course, also an elephant. (See below.)
She’s as tall as I am!!! The incredible painter is Evelyn Crumbaker, based in Reno.
Announcements
D.J. Rosenblum Becomes the G.O.A.T. is available wherever books are sold! Please buy it! Borrow it! Gift it to your friends, family, and total strangers!
I’ll be doing more events in October and November—including one in my hometown of Shaker Heights, Ohio! Stay tuned for a more formal announcement, but in the meantime, you can see all the events I have scheduled here. I hope to have at least one more soon.
Does a library or bookstore near you not stock D.J. Rosenblum? Use my handy template here to recommend it. Besides buying the book, encouraging booksellers and librarians to sell it is the best way you can help make D.J. a success.
Thanks so much, everybody!