BY KATHI KAMEN GOLDMARK AND SAM BARRY

The Author Enablers are here to answer your questions about writing and publishing. Together, Kathi and Sam have more than 25 years of experience in book publishing. Kathi is an author, radio producer and former publicist; Sam is a marketing manager at a major publishing company and a freelance editor. They are also proud members of the Rock Bottom Remainders, the all-author rock band founded by Kathi in 1992.

Should I stoop to book club visits?

Dear Author Enablers,

My book is about to arrive in the stores, and my publisher has asked me to go around leading discussions at private book groups. Giving up a whole evening to talk to eight people in someone's living room feels like an enormous waste of time—I had been hoping they would concentrate on getting me interviews on television and radio, not arranging visits to people's homes. How can I tell the publisher that I'd rather they forgot about the book groups and concentrated on the "Today" show?

-An Author on the Rise

Dear Author on the Rise,

You didn't say what kind of book this is—fiction or nonfiction—or what demographic you're hoping to reach. But if your publisher is asking you to visit book groups, we're guessing you've written a book, whether fiction or nonfiction, that is aimed at a broad, popular audience, and that it is being marketed to women age 35 and up. If that is indeed the case, don't be so quick to write off book groups: the word-of-mouth buzz they create can be powerful, especially if you are an absolute sweetie-pie when you visit. (If your book is a thousand-page tome about Sylvia Plath's preschool years and you're not interested in being polite to ordinary readers then you might have a point, but you're not likely to get on the "Today" show, either.) Ideally, book group visits are part of a comprehensive publicity campaign that should also include print reviews and media interviews, but there is no question that they are an increasingly important part of the fiction landscape, especially for first-time authors.

Kathy Patrick is the owner of what we believe is the only bookstore/beauty parlor in the U.S. (www.beautyandthebook.com) and founder of a book group called the Pulpwood Queens of East Texas. These fabulous women wear rhinestone tiaras and leopard-print finery to all their meetings, but they take reading—and family literacy—seriously. We asked Kathy why she thinks author visits are important:

"Readers will interpret the same book differently according to their own experiences; it's so wonderful to be able to ask what an author really intended to communicate," says Kathy. "Visits not only make for memorable dialogue between authors and their fans, but in this age of media overload, book groups can be most effective in spreading the word about a new book."

Kathy, who is a one-woman force of nature, chooses the monthly book group selections for a growing number of readers. These days, her choices translate to hundreds of units sold to members of Pulpwood Queen chapters all over the South. Maybe it's not "Oprah", but maybe it doesn't have to be to make an impression on your publisher's regional sales figures.

Even smaller book groups—those with eight to 10 members meeting in suburban homes—are worth your effort. You'll meet nice people who will probably feed you lovingly prepared snacks and will think of you as "their" personal author, buying every book you write from now on. You'll get a chance to practice your author spiel in front of readers who are not your relatives or editor, a skill that will come in handy if the "Today" show does happen to call. And if it's a slow news week, you might be able to coax a reporter from the local paper to cover the event.

Call us old fashioned, but we think there's another good reason to bring the same enthusiasm to small book groups as you would to something splashier: put simply, it's the right thing to do. We think writers have a responsibility to reach out to the readers of the world, without whom there would be no need for authors or publishers or bookstores. Most of the time it's a darned good gig to be a published author, and with the role comes a certain obligation to represent yourself, your book, and your publisher to the world with dignity and charm.

Remember, for all the numbers we like to talk about in the book business—thousands and even millions sold—most book sales are done one book at a time, and every reader counts. Think about how you heard about interesting books before you became an author. In addition to reading reviews and seeing authors interviewed on TV, we bet you've read books because they were handed to you by a friend who couldn't wait to share a wonderful new discovery. Book groups work in much the same way.

Thanks for writing,
THE AUTHOR ENABLERS