Read (and learn) About it:
Terry Teachout gives an enormously valuable list of advice for authors about to embark on book tours where they will be reading in front of people. Some of these I tell my own clients. Some I hadn’t thought of. I’m now treating this document as sacred.
It never fails to baffle me that authors somehow think it’s either ok or even charming to be shlumpy and dull in front of an audience as if the literary brilliance of what they offer trumps boring everyone to death. The book speaks for itself, yes, which is why I read it. At home. If I come to hear you read it, it’s now a performance and should be treated as such (via Maud Newton).