So You Think You Wanna Tour
I’ve done it twice! Here are some tips + updates.
Lovers & Friends,
Hey! You there! I see you over there! Did I just out myself as a Black millennial?
Maybe. Anyway, look at lil ole me, actually trying to stay on a monthly schedule with these newsletters! When I said “new year new me”, I meant it (don’t tell my trainer I said that, pls). Since I’m about to be on my 3rd tour once my debut memoir drops in May, and since I spent a great deal of December reflecting, I've been thinking about tour etiquette. What did I learn from the 2 times I funded and co-organized my book 1 and book 2 tours? How does one tour on a budget?
I’ll answer these questions and more in this newsletter. But first, some updates.
My debut memoir, Pretty, is available to order now here. Please make sure I don’t flop! Preorders are really important to a book’s lifespan!
I’ve got a new short piece out in Brevity Magazine’s all-trans issue called “Bad Girl”. It’s about gendered expectations, being an ex-lesbian, and — like any good piece of literature — family trauma. If you like this piece, I think you’ll hella like my memoir.
I kinda, sorta, maybe won an award for Freedom House, my debut full-length poetry book… still floating. Much love to the American Library Association’s Rainbow Roundtable for this honor! Now new editions of the book will have a cutesy seal!
I’ve finally updated my upcoming events page! Namely, I’ll be in the following places in the coming months:
February 1 → a virtual reading with Taylor Byas (!) and Jubi Arriola Headley (!) that you can RSVP for here.
February 7-10 → Kansas City, Missouri for the AWP conference (see my full schedule here!)
February 16-17 → Bedpost Confessions in Austin, TX 🙂 I’ll be reading a funny (sexy?) story from my memoir. This’ll be my first time ever reading from it publicly, & I’ll be joined by Ebony Stewart, Brigitte Bandit, Sumina Bhatti, & more !!! RSVP here.
February 23 → Texas State University (San Marcos, TX) for a Business of Writing Workshop & a Reading/Q&A from the now award-winning Freedom House. 🙂
My first ever solo art installation is happening at Prizer Arts and Letters in March 2024. More on this soon!
Here’s a cute picture of me in these blue pants I bought recently:
Alright, folks. Now that we’ve got that out the way, let’s jump on a bus/car/train/plane & get this show on the road!
***
First things first, you would ask yourself if you’re ready to tour.
This sounds basic, I know! But I think it’s important to start there because I’ve seen tours fail simply because the artist wasn’t actually at the point where touring was worthwhile. By all means, make your own “am I ready” checklist. Regardless, here are some questions to start with:
Have I performed enough?
As in, do you feel comfortable enough on stage to not break out in hives or have a fainting spell every time you touch a stage? These things take practice. If the answer is no, hit up some local open mics. Perform for free with friends a couple times. There’s nothing wrong with getting your feet wet; Simone Biles didn’t just wake up one day and say “I’m gonna go to the Olympics” without doing some training first.
(or maybe she did; I don’t know her life, & most importantly, none of us can be Simone Biles.)
Do I have enough material to perform well for 30+ minutes?
As in poems, stories, CNF pieces, and the talking you’ll likely do between pieces… do you have a 30 minute set that you feel good about? Will said set do well in a bar, & a bookstore, & a university auditorium, & in front non-writers & writers, & in front of memaws & the high-brow art aficionados? In order to have a tour that won’t make you wanna quit writing, nor make you wanna throw away what you toured with by the end, you need to have a tried and true set. If you’re a writer, most gigs are gonna ask you to perform somewhere between 5-20 minutes; you wanna be prepared with enough to make yourself seem cool anywhere. You also don’t wanna do the same thing over and over (trust me: you will get sick of reading the same thing all the time), so 30 minutes minimum!
Hell, if you feel like it, 45 minutes! Nothing wrong with over-preparing!
Do I have enough connections?
Unfortunately, you can’t tour if nobody knows you. Sure, you can crash open mics within driving distance for 6 weeks and call that a tour — I’d even say that’d be good practice! — but your bank account with CRY if you don’t at least break even, friend. So ask yourself: do I know people who work at: bookstores, bars, universities, specialty centers (for queer writers: LGBTQ+ centers, for BIPOC writers: Asian American Resource Centers, Multicultural Centers), university departments, etc? If not, hold your horses. You likely need to do some more networking so that you have more possible yes’ when you make those asks for stops. Pay yourself, king/queen! Nobody should go in debt tryna tour!
If all else fails, set up your own tour spots at bookstores with friends. Ideally, said friends would be in different cities!
Do I have enough material online for bookers to access?
When you reach out to a place asking them to book you, they will likely wanna see “what you’ve got”. Do you have poems/stories/CNF pieces online that you can link in that cold email? Do you have videos of you performing (and slaying the house down boots)? People will not book you if all you have is “trust me bro”. It just don’t work like that, unfortunately.
Do I have the skillset?
Listen. When we say we’re writers, what we really mean is that we’re writers, administrative assistants, social media managers, graphic designers, publicists, tour managers, submittable queens… the list goes on. These days, unless you’re famous and can afford a full-time assistant, most of the labor of the business side of writing will fall on you, including touring! So: do you have a good grasp on how to use your preferred social media as a writer? Do you feel an aversion to “promoting yourself”? If so, you gotta get over that shit, & QUICK. If you don’t know what graphic design is, I suggest you get a little familiar with canva. There will come times where you have to double-email someone in order to get paid. Do you know anything about Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets? You likely will need to keep tabs on when events are and when you should be expecting payments somehow. It’s a lot! So just be as ready as you can be!
Shameless plug: I’m happy to consult 1:1 about this realm of things. Just contact me!
Do I have the money?
I wanna be able to say that touring is this beautiful, financially rich experience. I wanna be able to say you can tour no matter your income or class. I want to! But I can’t! What I mean by this is it’s likely that, on your own tour, you will break even; hell, you might even go in the red unless you snag some college and university gigs. You may go in the hella red because colleges and universities (among other venues) notoriously take 30+ days to pay you! Even if you get paid for every gig and they also pay for travel and lodging, you’ll likely have to pay for food, or that checked bag that you really need to bring. So save up. As in… $100 per stop if you won’t be staying somewhere overnight, and $250 per stop otherwise. If you wanna go on a 30-stop tour for 6 weeks and ½ of them are outside of a walk/bus ride/drive, well… you do the math. This is me being frugal btw.
You can, of course, disobey this suggestion. Just don’t end up stranded in Des Moines, Iowa with $50 to your name.
Do I have an occasion?
Do you have a “why now” behind your tour? Did you just drop a book/chapbook? Did you just graduate & wanna show the world how cool you are? Did you just get divorced? Bottom line is: your tour should have a theme. You could be touring aimlessly, OR you could make people who book you feel part of a larger purpose. We are a family & all that. Also, it helps you a ton to be able to use the same color scheme over and over in canva.
My second suggestion would be to have some standards. I really, REALLY wish I listened to this earlier. You don’t have to say yes to everything! Hell, you don’t even have to say yes to ½ of the things! I’d make a list of your non-negotiable needs, and also a list of needs that you’re willing to budge on within reason. For example:
I NEED: a venue with a good sound/PA system.
I NEED (will budge): a sweet tea available for me once I get picked up from the airport.
I NEED: everyone who will be around me to test for COVID the day before I land.
I NEED (will budge): a hotel with a gym, or a gym within walking distance from it.
Really: list them out! And once you do, consider making what’s called a rider. Here’s a COVID-19 related portion of mine. Your standards are your standards; never apologize!
***
Imma stop this right here. Wasn’t that so fun? I think I’ll continue talking about touring in my next newsletter. Hopefully by then winter will be on its way out of Texas (I’m intolerant to anything under 70 degrees)! Till next time.
Love, Peace, & Chicken Grease,
KB
This was DOPE. I’m gonna read it 5 more times now!