The FAT TALK Book Tour!
Plus bookclubs, preorder bonuses and the messy inside of my post-vacation/pre-launch brain.
Hello, hello, I’m back! I missed you!
Before I left for spring break, I’ll be honest: I was fried. You’ll hear a bit of it in Thursday’s podcast, which we recorded right before I left. I’d been persistently almost losing my voice for several weeks between the constant onslaught of children germs and lots of audio recording (for the audiobook, our podcast, other people’s podcasts). One week I recorded seven podcast interviews in three days, which was a choice! I think I’ve now done about 20 altogether. And that’s on top of other media requests, editing excerpts, reviewing marketing materials and press releases, and nailing down so many other tiny details. None of which will make or break the book in the end but all of which feel crucial in the moment.
Yes this is very humble brag-y and annoyingly hustle culture of me to talk about! I am so, so excited for this book and I love that other people seem excited and want me to talk about it. But I am also an introvert who works from home and has a delightfully routine life most of the time, so the energy shift into launch mode is something I’ve been feeling. Sara Petersen (my book birthday twin with whom I panic text about our respective launches most mornings by 7am) summed up the messiness of the liminal pre-launch state perfectly here:
And this is where I tell you that living my dream of writing a book feels sorta like living my dream of becoming a mother because both dreams were based on nebulous imagery and foolish beliefs in the ability of the external to fundamentally change or improve the internal. Motherhood did not imbue me with radiant strength or peace. Mothering meant that my days and skillset drastically changed but I was shocked to realize that my many human frailties and vulnerabilities remained, despite the fact that I’d attained Madonna status. I fear that being a published author who has written A Book might be the same. Maybe, despite having become this person I’ve dreamed of becoming, I’m still me. Middle-of-the-night anxiety sweats and all.
We are still us. Oh, and in the middle of it all, I also packed my whole family up for a long-anticipated trip to Costa Rica, planned to celebrate my mum’s 70th birthday before I knew my pub date would also be this month. Nbd!
But! The vacation turned out to be the perfect way to pull myself out of obsessive pre-launch mode for a week (when nothing much was happening anyway and if I had been home, I would have been worrying that not enough was happening). I read 4.5 books (this was the best one), drank gallons of mint lemonade, and saw so many monkeys, macaws and hummingbirds. Here I am, thoroughly in vacay mode, floating down a river where many crocodiles lurk beneath the surface, and being fully chill about it. Let’s pretend there’s a decent metaphor in there somewhere?
TL/DR: I’m back and I feel ready, now, to GET INTO IT. Which is good because we are two weeks from launch! And there are some very cool things coming up that I want to tell you about.
But first: Let’s talk a little about our ratio of editorial to marketing because clearly, book launch is it’s own mode here, and you’re about to get a lot of marketing. I’ve been debating behind the scenes is how much to keep this newsletter business-as-usual while taking on the added workload of book launching. I’ve seen other authors take this approach, as if their book exists quite separately from their newsletter work and should only be mentioned in an offhand, apologetic way that could never be misconstrued as promotional. This might work great for them? Or they are not sleeping because they’re also doing all their (for some reason stealthy) book launch work, just now on top of the already full-time job that is running a Substack (or being a freelance writer in any other capacity)? I have no idea.
But I know it won’t work for me. So I’ve decided to trust that you will all understand if the book takes over the newsletter for a minute here, because I only have so much bandwidth to go around. And also because, as I keep saying:
This is the book Burnt Toast built. I wrote it for you, I wrote it with you, and I want to celebrate it with you too.
So here’s where I’ve landed: For the next few weeks, you’ll notice that either the essay or the podcast each week will be fairly book-focused. But we’re also going to keep the other work going the rest of the time. By which I mean: Podcast interviews, Ask Virginia, mailbag episodes, etc. You will notice less on the intensive reporting front but don’t worry, I have a few good features percolating for later this year. And Corinne is conducting more Underwear Science and may be back with a second installment soon.
If you are especially excited about FAT TALK and wouldn’t mind even more book content, I’d love for you to also sign up for Team FAT TALK. This is a special newsletter section I’ve made for folks who are super curious to know more about how a book launch works (yes we can talk about the bestseller lists! And how this launch compares to my first one! And other gossip-y things!) and who would be down to help with some additional asks for book launch support.
It’s all easy stuff (think: Writing reviews on GoodReads and Amazon) and to be honest, I’ll be making the same asks of the main list over the next few weeks. But Team FAT TALK will get these nudges a little more often (and possibly for longer), and we’ll have some cool thank you perks for you too.
The annoying part: Substack is still working out the kinks on how you do a newsletter-within-a-newsletter, so if you want to join Team FAT TALK, you’ll need to visit your Manage Subscription page (which is accessible via your avatar in the top-right of the screen if you’re reading this in the app or the website). Then scroll down to Notifications and move the toggle for Team FAT TALK to "on.” Here’s a help article if you get stuck, and a maybe useful visual:
Sorry, I know that’s finicky. But sign up! It will be easy and fun from there! OK, now onto the news you can use.
Announcing: The FAT TALK Book Tour!
Even though I’m an introvert, I learned during my last book launch that I absolutely love in-person events. It is so, so special to meet readers in real life! So here’s what we’ve got coming up. I’ll let you know as more get added, and don’t worry if you don’t see your location or you aren’t feeling in-person events these days—we have at least one virtual option and hopefully more in the works!
1. Saturday April 22, 3pm ET (Garrison, NY)
The official launch! This event is hosted by Split Rock Books (where, as you may have heard me mention, you can preorder your signed copies) and will be held at the Desmond-Fish Public Library in Garrison, New York. And the very best part is that my beloved Julia Turshen is joining as my conversation partner!
Register here. (Yes, you can come even if you forget to sign up but it helps them know how many chairs to put out.)
2. Tuesday, April 25, 7pm ET (New York City)
Pub Day! I’ll be in New York City, at McNally Jackson at the Seaport (4 Fulton Street), in conversation with the fantastic Kelsey Miller, author of Big Girl, one of my favorite fat liberation memoirs.
Register here. (But mark your calendars!!)
3. Wednesday, April 26, 7pm CT/8pm ET (Virtual)
A virtual event! Hosted by Women’s and Children’s First in Chicago; I’ll be in conversation with Christy Harrison, MPH, RD celebrating BOTH of our new books (Rethinking Wellness and Fat Talk also share a birthday! April is an excellent month for books!)
Register here. (Yes, you DO need to register for this one so you get the Zoom intel!)
4. Tuesday, May 9, 7pm ET (Madison, Connecticut)
I’ll be in Connecticut, in conversation with Crystal Maldanado, author of one of my favorite YA novels, Fat Chance, Charlie Vega, and several other wonderful books. (Here’s Crystal on the Burnt Toast Pod, back in the day!) This one is hosted my hometown bookstore, RJ Julia Booksellers! It’s always super special to do a book event there because I worked at RJ’s all through high school and college (a million years ago now).
This event is co-hosted by Country School. Register here.
5. SAVE THE DATE: Wednesday May 10 (Boston)
At the Museum of Science in Boston. Time TBD! Conversation partner TBD! But it’s gonna be good!
Reminder: FAT TALK Preorder Swag Giveaway!
As a thank you for preordering FAT TALK, we’re raffling off two boxes of cool FAT TALK swag. You’ll get:
A copy of FAT TALK (of course)
A box of Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Brownie Mix (world’s best brownie mix, IYKYK)
A limited edition set of five FAT TALK postcards
For a chance to win, just preorder FAT TALK anywhere you buy books (here’s where to preorder your signed copy, here are all the other places to order in hardcover or e-book, and here’s the audiobook, narrated by me!). Then fill out this Google Form or email your receipt to virginiasolesmith.assistant@gmail.com.
The post cards are super fun. Some are blank and some contain suggestions — like write a breakup note to your diet, or a love note to a fat kid. You can mail them, write them for yourself, or post them on social media with #fattalklovenotes.
Everyone who enters will get a digital set of the postcards to download, and we’ll draw two gift box winners at random on April 25. (Digital downloads are for everyone but we can only ship boxes to US and Canada, sorry!)
AND: FAT TALK Bookclub Giveaway!
I know, I know, two giveaways. Things are getting wild. But this one is REALLY FUN if you are thinking about reading FAT TALK with your bookclub, because if you preorder your copy, you can then enter to win five more copies for your bookclub, plus three other cool books! Enter here, you have until April 24. And stay tuned for my bookclub discussion guide.
Whew! If you read all the way down here today, you are already a winner in my heart. Have any questions about book publishing/launching that you’re hoping I’ll cover in the Team FAT TALK updates? Or thoughts about the business of book launching and the balance of content in this newsletter? Hit reply or post a comment on this newsletter. (Commenting privileges are for paid subscribers only, so here’s how to do that.)
"We are still us." (heart emojis)
Just wanted to say yay for book release month and I can’t wait for my preorder to arrive!