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Where is Rita Now? National Nomad Tour
- Tour Itinerary
(May '01 - Mar '02) It sounded simple until I began to look at it seriously. Talk where? Sell where? Stay where? Why would anybody come to hear me talk or buy a book from me if they’ve never heard of Rita Golden Gelman? The only community of people who have heard of me are first and second grade teachers. And for the most part, it isn’t I they’ve heard of, it’s MORE SPAGHETTI, I SAY!, or some of the other children’s books I’ve written. I’m sure it would be easy to find classrooms to talk in, but that won’t do TALES OF A FEMALE NOMAD much good. Maybe a deal, the classroom during the day and the parent organization at night. The more experienced people I spoke to were not very enthusiastic about the PTA. Clearly if I was going to organize a national tour, there had to be some serious advance promotion before I arrived -- on radio, local TV, newspapers. And I would have to contact the appropriate organizations well in advance of coming so they could notify their members. The whole thing was way beyond my organizational skills. But I liked the idea. I even added to it. If I set out to visit every one of the 50 states, I would have an angle to pitch to the press. I’d be an interesting story beyond the book. And that’s about where I am at the moment. It’s April 21st. I am about to hire a publicist to get me radio interviews around the country. And I’m talking to a friend who might be willing to manage the rest. It means serious money, at least as much as they paid me to write the book. But I know I’ll be furious at myself if I just move on with my life and don’t even give this a shot. It represents more than two years of writing. I hate to think that its will go the way of most books and be out of sight and print a matter of months after it is published. When I get playful about the idea, I see myself in a Nomadmobile, checking off the states as I hang out in general stores (if there are any left), go to pancake breakfasts, and country fairs. I’m going to try. I’ll keep you informed, frustrations and all. I hope I’ll get e-mails from readers offering to help, especially mentioning the names of the most-read local papers and the most-listened-to radio stations. And perhaps even organizations that might be interested in a speaker. The organization can even use the event as an opportunity to raise money. They can order books from the publisher and get 40% off the cover price of $23.00. For every book they sell at full price, they will make $9.20 |
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Previous Journal Entries 2007 March
13 -
Seattle, WA 2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
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