Author Judy Pollard reads to an engaged audience at the Nakusp Public Library. Photo: Claire Paradis
The benefits of rural book tours outweigh the barriers
by Claire Paradis
“I don’t like poetry but I’ll stick around,” an older gentleman in a ballcap announces, and then sits down for readings by three West Kootenay writers who’d driven up to two hours to the small public library in Nakusp.
Leesa Dean—one of these writers, who has come to Nakusp a couple of times since 2024, accompanied by Jane Byers and either Rayya Liebich or Renée Harper—is ready for the challenge. “I often feel discouraged when I hear someone say, ‘Poetry’s not for me,’” admits Dean, “but trying to change people’s minds is part of the work I want to do as a poet.”
While it’s mostly writing festivals and bookstores in cities that host such readings, in rural areas it’s public libraries—and poetry skeptics aren’t the only barrier. Winter driving or competing events can slim down attendance at these more isolated locations.
The public library in Nakusp. Source: Nakusp Public Library
But low numbers do not make for a bad reading, notes writer Anne DeGrace, who has also travelled to rural libraries. “It’s not numbers; it’s about good engagement.” She finds there is usually good turnout at small library readings, unless you’re up against something like a presentation about owls.
Even then, it’s quality over quantity. Liebich agrees there’s an intimacy to readings in little libraries. You never know who’s going to come to a reading or what they’re going to say. “People are attentive and generous and want to meet and hear you with authentic curiosity.”
Readings and the connections they engender can bring books and conversations to life. “It’s kind of a special event to have an author reading at a small library,” DeGrace points out. “For readers it brings the book alive in a different way. For writers in the audience, it can be inspiring to meet in flesh and blood a person who pulled off that project.”
Obviously, being an author is not only about putting sentences, paragraphs and chapters onto the page. “People have no idea how much business there is in the background of being a professional writer,” says Dean. Pre-tour work means finding venues, possibly booking other authors to read with you, designing promotional materials and of course promoting the event itself. Being online and sharing on social media are particularly important; Dean’s recent urban bookshop readings were full thanks to an active and supportive online community.
“People are attentive and generous and want to meet and hear you with authentic curiosity.”
Finding money for gas, food and lodging for authors to travel to smaller towns can also be a challenge. Tours are expensive, and royalty cheques for book sales are low, with perhaps $2 for each book sold being paid to the author up to a year later.
(The Public Lending Right Program, offered by the Canada Council for the Arts, offers a way for writers to make money through people checking out books at a public library. Dean says she makes more via the lending program than through book sales—although both are welcome, of course.)
Artist touring grants can also help authors get to smaller libraries, and pairing with other authors helps divvy the expenses and is a source of inspiration.
“It’s nice to tour with other people; it’s a great way to grow as a writer,” says Liebich. “You can be a little team. You hear how others answer questions, and find out what other writers are reading.”
Discussions around writing may also break out between authors. The fraught situation for authors within the context of contemporary publishing and with AI looming is something DeGrace has been chatting about with others. As to the latter, DeGrace is somewhat optimistic in that she can see AI killing potential paycheques, but not writing itself.
“It’s nice to tour with other people; it’s a great way to grow as a writer.”
“Writers will just keep writing,” she says. “Overall, it’s rewarding putting that sentence or a paragraph together. People are discouraged that they won’t be able to make a living from writing, but people have stories to tell. The satisfaction is in the writing itself.”
She also hopes that readers will be discerning in their choices and keep supporting human wordsmiths in their creativity.
As for those who claim to dislike poetry, Dean recalls a reading in Revelstoke where a person was convinced to stay by the librarian—and their mind may have been changed, because that person did buy a book of poetry.
But conversion isn’t the primary goal of a tour for Dean; aside from seizing opportunities to share newly published work, she does them for the love of connecting with reading audiences. The writer gets to meet people and learns from every question. And rural community members are educated and interested, says DeGrace. “People bring the world of all their interests and enthusiasms into the room. What more could you want?”
