This fall,
the "Smart Chicks"--a group of YA paranormal authors--will be visiting bookstores from September 13-25,
2010, on a tour that they
conceived, organized and financed themselves. The main architects behind the
tour: Melissa Marr (the Wicked Lovely series, HarperCollins), Holly Black (White Cat, S&S), Cassandra Clare (The Clockwork Angel, S&S), Jennifer
Lynn Barnes (Raised by Wolves,
Egmont), Kelley Armstrong (the Darkest Powers series, HarperCollins), Jeri
Smith-Ready (Shade, S&S); and Kami
Garcia and Margaret Stohl (co-authors of Beautiful
Creatures, Little, Brown).
The Smart Chicks will kick off at BookPeople in Austin, Tex., on Sept. 13, and end on September 25 with a bang at Indigo's Teen Read Awards (Shelf Awareness, June 24) at the Indigo Chapters location in Brampton, Ontario; Garcia and Stohl, Black, Clare, Armstrong, Melissa de la Cruz and Allyson Noel are nominees.
The brainchild of Melissa Marr, the tour grew out of separate conversations she had with Holly Black at a joint book signing at BEA in 2009; with Jennifer Lynn Barnes as they strolled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, immediately following that same BEA; and with Kelley Armstrong, who had met Marr during a ComicCon signing in 2009, arranged by their mutual publisher HarperCollins. They all enjoyed group tours more than solo tours and liked the idea of planning their own schedule and pooling their relationships with bookstores. As Marr put it, "What we do, we do at home alone. A lot of us have shy streaks. I do better talking about their books than I do talking about mine."
The more established writers also welcomed the chance to introduce their readers to newer writers they admire. "That was part of Melissa's initial pitch, which was very good--she could totally have another career in marketing," said Clare. "She wanted to have established authors and some who were just starting. The more kids are reading, the better it is for all of us. Keeping them looking forward to new books the way they do new movies is good for us." Marr, looking around the group (which gathered at ALA earlier this summer), said, "You're doing more of a ghost thing [referring to Smith-Ready], I've got fairies, you've [Barnes] got werewolves, Holly's got curseworkers. We're each others' read-alikes. If we're going to pimp books, we're going to pimp books we like. We're helping our readers wade through the chaos."
Many of the YA authors also attract adult crossover fans. Clare estimates that roughly 40% of her fans are over 25; and Marr said that about 70% of the people who showed up for her Wicked Lovely series tour were adults. Smith-Ready and Armstrong both started as adult fiction writers, and in Armstrong's case, her Darkest Powers books are also set in the same world. Both Armstrong and Smith-Ready note a difference between the two readerships. "Teens as an audience are very involved," Armstrong said. "It becomes a social thing where they can discuss books, make online sites, create videos and trailers. They're quick to tell you when they like something and very quick to tell you when they don't." Smith-Ready also noticed a difference between her teen and adult readers. "[Teens] think for a living. They're taught to analyze books," she said. "Adults in general are reading for escape; they're not less critical, but they're less analytical." Armstrong also likes seeing mother and daughter, or aunt and niece at a signing, and discovering they're both reading the series. "As a mother of a teenager I know how important that is," said Armstrong, "and how hard it is to talk to your teen."
The tour (and its attendees) benefit from the collective experience of the authors' road trips.
A Smart Chicks Kick It poster. A pdf of the poster will go out to bookstores, so people planning to attend the event can print it out and collect the autographs of all the authors, even if they don't purchase all the books. Marr said this will help teens on a budget and also allow all of the authors to participate, no matter whose fans show up.
A raffle to win a character named after you. At each event, attendees will be invited to enter their name in a raffle, and the winner's name will be a character included in one of the stories in the Smart Chicks' anthology.
Raffle to win an autographed book. An autographed book will be raffled off at each stop on the tour. In addition, Justine magazine and Romantic Times magazine (published by Romance Writers of America) will be running a raffle for a collection of autographed copies of books from everyone involved in the tour.
Indeed, spreading the wealth seems to be the theme of this tour. As Stohl, a 10-year video game industry veteran put it, "We were adopted, mentored and welcomed in such a profound way from day one. The readers are a community, the bloggers are a community, and what I love about this tour is the writers are a community."--Jennifer M. Brown