Best-selling author Elizabeth Berg to visit Eola Road Branch Library Aug. 18
Author Elizabeth Berg is taking a road trip this summer and will make a stop at the Eola Road Branch Library in Aurora at 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 18. She'll be traveling with her partner, Bill, and her dog, Gabigail Starletta Buttons. (You can call her Gabby.)
Berg, who has penned more than 25 books, says this trip is a departure from her usual book tours for Random House, her publisher. This excursion is being billed as the "Tales and Tails Tour," which will feature Elizabeth reading from her self-published book of Facebook and blog postings, "Make Someone Happy," as well as a sneak preview from her upcoming Random House novel, "The Story of Arthur Truluv." (Due out Nov. 21.)
"When I go on a book tour for a novel, I'm the same person, but it's a different kind of thing (from the 'Tales and Tails Tour,')" she said. "If I'm on the road for Random House, I'm presenting a book with the hope people will buy it. This journey will be different. It has a vacation aspect to it, in that we will be away from the house and seeing other parts of the country. I love driving the back roads. And Gabby will be with us." (Berg's cat, Gracie Louise Pawplay, will not make this trip.)
Berg said Bill does most of the driving. "Truth be told, it's because I'm not a good driver," she laughed. "He's a real people person. Just like a big teddy bear. He sets up all the books, sells them during the events and helps facilitate everything. When I got the idea that maybe we should do our own tour for this, he was the contact person for everyone who wanted us to come."
And in fact, 18 libraries are on the itinerary for the road trip. Berg and her crew will be visiting libraries in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio and Michigan.
For this tour, she is only visiting libraries - no bookstores. "I love libraries, as anyone who has a brain does," she said.
"I have found that libraries who don't get authors all the time are the best hosts. We've gone to tiny little towns. We got an invitation out of the blue from Stair Public Library in Morenci, Mich., and we accepted. They really put on the dog. They had a banner up, and they had 200 people come.
"I wrote 'Make Someone Happy' to fulfill requests from people on Facebook, frankly," Berg said. "Enough people asked that these postings be collected in a book so I said I would do it. I didn't publish with Random House; my friend and I just did it and the response has been wonderful. Other authors on Facebook should do the same thing. Like Anne Lamott. I would love to read her postings.
"For me as a writer, it's so joyful to know that someone hears and responds to what I write."
Berg said there's "nothing like Oprah Winfrey's Book Club for selling books," but the personal connection between writer and reader is not there.
"Just because she picks your book for her book club, it doesn't mean people know and remember you," she said. "They remember Oprah."
On the other hand, she said, she sold "a bunch of copies of her book, 'Open House' because it was an Oprah pick. The movie based on the book came out in 2010.
"But in terms of hoping people will become familiar with your work, the best thing is word-of-mouth," Berg said. "We are victims of an onslaught of information 24/7. Sometimes the best reading comes just by accident. Someone talks about a book or you're just wandering the stacks in the library, and you find a book that you love."
Berg is especially excited that each library host will have a tie-in to pets and pet rescue. She recently lost Homer, her 14-year-old golden retriever.
"One thing people are asking for is for me to do a book about Homer. In the next book, there will be a book of Homer in one section of the book. In 'Make Someone Happy,' there are postings about my mom that belong together. These books are like verbal scrapbooks and they are sharing private parts of myself. It's just these pictures of someone's ordinary life and people respond to that because they are living the same kind of life.
"There are some sad things in the book - that's life - but what's really helpful for me is to know I'm not in this alone. In the end there's something to be said for being honest about what's going on and sharing the triumphs and challenges in your life. That's been most rewarding."
Her next book based on her Facebook posts will be called "Still Happy," Berg said, adding that she's thrilled to the opportunity to do another tour. "It's like meeting a lot of friends and it's very special."
"Tales and Tails: A Reading and Signing by Elizabeth Berg" will be held at 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 18, at Aurora Public Library-Eola Road Branch, 555 S. Eola Road. For details, call (630) 264-3400 or aurorapubliclibrary.org.