Cross Country Road Trip Encourages Writers

The Great American Writing Road Trip Adventure (RTA), sponsored by Writer's Digest Books, an imprint of F+W Publications, is making its way around the country in the Road Trip Touring Van, with bookstore events in over 30 cities. The Road Trip van is also making unscheduled stops at libraries and college campuses along the tour route, dropping off materials of interest to writers or prospective writers.

The trip, which began in June and ends in late July, encourages -- would-be, might-be, and already-are -- writers, to improve their skills and to network using Writer's Digest resources. On the Writer's Digest Web site, www.livetowrite.com, opportunities exist to join a database of people interested in forming writer's groups in different areas of the country and to post messages for other interested writers.

Tour stops on the RTA have connected aspiring writers with published fiction writers, such as John Biguenet and Marcia Thornton Jones, and authors of writing guides and manuals, such as Michael Larsen, who wrote How to Write a Book Proposal (F+W). Constant riders on the RTA have been Steve Koenig, F+W national accounts manager, and Scott Francis, F+W national accounts assistant manager. Other F+W staff are rotating into the tour for short hops.

Carla Jeffries, Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop events coordinator, and the Road Trip touring van.

Local participation has been excellent, according to many booksellers, with up to 100 people attending workshops at Village Books in Bellingham, Washington, and at Joseph-Beth Bookstores in Lexington, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio. F+W publicity manager Greg Hatfield, told BTW that the RTA launched at BookExpoAmerica in Chicago, with the first stop at Barbara's Bookstore, and the next at the Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Carla Jeffries, events coordinator for Schwartz's Shorewood store, told BTW that the visit was terrific. "We were lucky to have an actual editor do the presentation. That was especially helpful for our customers who are working on books," Jeffries explained. "She [Jane Friedman, executive editor of Writer's Digest Books] answered all kinds of questions, like how to write a good cover letter. The whole thing was great fun. Scott and Steve [had] decked out the van with a pizza delivery type sign, and we drove around town telling people about the Road Trip."

At Vroman's in Pasadena, California, Linda Urban, the store's promotional director, noted that the RTA event tapped into the area's large base of writers and want-to-be writers.

Outside of Barbara's Bookstore in Chicago.

"The tour stop was great. We already have a summer writing series that attracts 75 to 125 people a week, so we thought this would work well," said Urban. "Our event focused on children's books, and we had 75 people, standing room only. Nancy Lamb [author of The Writer's Guide to Crafting Stories for Children, Writer's Digest] answered all kinds of questions -- the kind I always hope people will ask, about craft, and the ones many people ask, about how to get published and how to get an agent. The people who came were really happy about it. We had a number of professionals in the audience -- people with book contracts and published children's book writers."

At Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington, Kentucky, PR events coordinator Heather Lowcock told BTW that at the event the store sold over 100 books to an equal number of participants. "Not only was the event wonderful, but as a result, we started an in-store writing group. The RTA sparked the desire with our customers; we were on local TV about it. We've had lots of writing events, but this one blew us out of the water."

For photos, a complete tour schedule, and RTA diary, visit www.livetowrite.com. --Nomi Schwartz