Wisconsin Book Tour Wrap-up

Thank you all for following me along my green, sparkly Wisconsin book tour. As you know, it was a mixed bag, but here is what I learned:

• I'd make a crappy rock star. It only took until day three until I was singing that angst-ridden, "Somewhere on the highway, east of Omaha...here I am, on the road again, there I go, playing star again," song about the tribulations of life on the road. And I was in an RV with my mom and dad and two kids.
• I enjoy presenting to people in libraries. The audience is usually decent-sized (at least ten), the people there are receptive, and I feel like I am giving people something in exchange for their time and money--the presentation is entertaining (my seven-year-old daughter disagrees), and I share what I've learned about writing and publishing fiction. Most people in the audience are either mystery readers or aspiring authors. As a side bonus, I've noticed a disproportionate number of journalists (um, one) in most audiences, and have snagged a couple interviews/articles out of these.
• Bookstores that just sell mysteries are the most fantastic place to be, even if not so many people show up to get their books signed.
• Chain bookstores are not a place to sign, unless you're already famous. As an author, your time is better spent stopping by to sign their stock and chatting for five or ten minutes with the people who work there as they slap on the "autographed copy" stickers.
• May Day's amazon.com ratings were taking a dip before the book tour, and have been raising steadily since the day of my first presentation on the book tour. Now, I know what supposedly smart people say about these rankings and their meaninglessness, but I'm addicted to the rankings (and you will be, too, once your book gets published), and since I've taken a statistics class in my lifetime, I feel qualified to say that they are an accurate quantitative measure of the overall success of the book tour. Whee! Oh, and I still like my family, even after ten days in an RV with them.

And, in a fun twist, I am scheduled to sign books at the Art of the Lakes Gallery in Battle Lake, Minnesota, setting of the Murder by Month Mysteries, from 1-3 on Saturday, July 22. This is my first Battle Lake outing. Want to come and get my back? Oh, I forgot the best part. That weekend is Chief Wenonga Days. You better be there!