Tour Without End

Thriller writer J.A. Jance stopped by Book Review on Monday after delivering the keynote speech for this year's Festival of Women Authors. This sold-out event, hosted by UC Irvine, drew 500 readers to hear Jance, Cristina García, Carolina Aguilera-Garcia and other authors, as well as a panel on Nancy Drew.

Although Jance is successful enough to enjoy some perks -- a corporate jet, for instance, to make it easier to zip in and out of appearances -- she has no intention of relaxing any time soon. Even with a lucrative new deal with Touchstone, and with her 35th novel, "Justice Denied," about to be published, she says the lesson she's followed since her first books appeared in the mid-1980s is simple: One needs to always be out there, seeking new audiences.

"You can't stay in your rooms, like a hermit, and expect people to find your book," she says. "Even if I show up for a reading and I find only two people sitting in the room, it's worth it."

Some novelists shrink at the idea of continual promotion. But with publicity departments devoting most of their resources to only a hand-picked few titles each season, what choice do authors have?
"Who knows my books better than myself?" Jance asks. "It makes sense that I should promote them. To anyone who doesn't want to do that, I have one thing to say: Stop your whining."

Jance has a few more events scheduled here and in Washington state over the next couple weeks; and then, she says, she'll finally take a break. For how long? Just until July, when the tour for her new book begins.

Nick Owchar
5/15/07