Two Authors – Two Weeks – 2326 Miles

From April 20th through May 3rd, two authors, Kim McCollum and JB Harris, will be hitting the road on a book tour, the #Getafterit Book Tour, which, according to Harris, “Aims to Change The Face of Book Promotion,” One of the first stops on the tour will be at Sheridan Stationary in Sheridan on April 20, from 4-6 p.m. where the two authors will be signing books and talking about promoting their first novels.

Authors Kim McCollum What Happens in Montana published by Black Rose Writing,and JB Harris The Immigrant’s Wife (Milford House Press) will drive from Montana to Maine, appearing at venues that are willing to support their efforts to make great books available across the country despite the challenge it presents to the little fish in the huge ocean of the publishing/media industries.

McCollum said that she and Harris met in New York a few years ago at a Pitch Conference, where they were both pitching their books to agents, and they both received publishing contracts from small publishers.

According to McCollum and Harris, the average author does not get promoted the way the breakout authors of the big five do, with their books in windows across the country and on multiple media outlets. It is nearly impossible to get read by The New York Times, USA Today, Oprah’s book club and the like, unless you have one of the big five behind you.

McCollum said this about the upcoming tour.

“Mainstream media is locked up by the big five in publishing. Books are selected from their lists with big money behind them to make sure those books appear on the influential lists, shows, book clubs and in every bookstore window across the country. Those doors are locked to the rest of us despite our books being as good or as hard to put down. We have to resort to guerrilla marketing to get our books into one store let alone all of them. It isn’t right,” said Harris.

McCollum echoed this in her interview.

She added that an author almost has to be already famous, or an ‘influencer’ with a lot of followers, sometimes as many as 10,000 before a publisher will even look at manuscript or the author must already have a best-selling book. With self-publishing and so many other venues, the market is crowded.

McCollum published with Black Rose Writing, and she said they publish around 3500 books, and they did a nice job with her book. She said much of the publisher’s marketing is on the internet, so it is up to the authors to make sure the books get into the brick and mortar stores.

The bookstores on the tour will order in the books, and she said they are doing a mix of large stores, like Barnes and Nobel, as well as the smaller, independent bookstores along their route. They start in Billings, Montana, and go through Sheridan, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, and ending in Portland, Maine.

McCollum says. “But we aren’t doing this just for ourselves,” she adds. “We want to bring awareness to the inequities in hope that the media take notice and help bring about change.”

Both authors are promoting their debut novels on the trip, although both have published short fiction.

Kim McCollum has settled in Montana very near where her novel takes place. She graduated from Barnard College. Her book What Happens in Montana is about a girlfriends’ reunion at a haunted, holistic hot springs retreat in Montana leads to spilled secrets and betrayal, but does it also lead to murder? What Happens in Montana explores friendship, betrayal, and forgiveness with blunt truth and witty insights. Join Maude, the nearly eighty-year-old chef at the retreat, and her newfound friends as they confront the challenges of life, love, and the occasional poltergeist. Is their friendship strong enough to get them through it all.

JB Harris, is a writer from Massachusetts. She holds an MFA from Emerson College. Her book isThe Immigrant’s Wife, and the premises is that not all men who abandon their families are scoundrels. It is a story of love and perseverance set when consumption ravaged America. Anna Patrinos is deserted by her husband. What she doesn’t know is he was anonymously exiled to a TB sanatorium to protect her and their unborn baby from the deadly disease and the ruinous cost of his care. Harrowing but ultimately hopeful, The Immigrant’s Wifeis a compelling story of self-sacrifice, resilience and devotion.

Join them at Sheridan Stationary on April 20 to talk to them about their books.