Perry:

Last decade I wrote a nautical novel back in my liveaboard sailing days, SoBe Boatees, and spent half a year doing a half-#%& job of promoting it. The only time I was ever 'asked' to speak was at a book club, and I paid all expenses, even down to the glasses of wine I was drinking during my talk.

Mostly I generated (the few) sales on the 'boat show' circuit, hawking it at a free table given by the organizers of the events, catching the eye of the few passersby on their way to the lavish Latitudes & Attitudes tent in that fantasy world created by the magazine's publisher, Bob Bitchin.

I paid all expenses to get there, no fee of course -- even for giving the free tent lectures -- but it was worth it 'cause I was given free admission to see all that boating junk and I met some great fellow boating authors, several that I'm still friends with. It was a fun experience, but in the crowded world of modern publishing, certainly not lucrative. Gershon and his discussion of electronic books are where it is at.

I hope that Wandering Daisy gives her insight, and Sarbar, too. Their hiking/camping related books certainly aren't in my 'lark' category.' I think the sales of their books to those attending an author event, who attended to improve their hiking and backpacking experience, might be the reason for those two speaking without a fee.