Why Don’t I Ever Speak/Do Book Signings in Your Town?

I get asked this a lot, and the answer is because there isn’t a newspaper in your city that publishes my work.

When I was starting out, I often did appearances in cities like Durham, NC and Iowa City, lovely places both. But not one single human being showed up. Correct that: only one did. Me. On the other hand, when I came to, say, Dayton, OH or Philly, hundreds of people came. This made the trip worthwhile for me, my publisher and the place sponsoring the appearance. The difference? There was a newspaper there that had made people aware of me and to promote the event.

True, there are other means of promotion–posters, flyers, ads, listings, even planted puff pieces in the paper–but I’ve learned from experience that those don’t work very well. So if you want me to come to your town, the best way for that to happen is for you to urge your local newspaper editor to pick up my strip and/or column.

Reading my stuff online may be fun, but if everyone did that, I wouldn’t be able to make a living doing this.