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Funny thing Happened on the Way to the Winery
When Jupiter conjoins Uranus wacky things happen, often out
of the blue. Sometimes they are good things, sometimes not, but it is rarely
boring. This past winter I volunteered at the SF Writers conference, and I
noticed one agent out of many who, when describing their perfect client, was
describing us, professional speakers who author books and create other
products.
For those of you, who know us through our wine tour
business, surprise! Speaking and seminars on quite different topics has been a
core part of our business for many years. So, I approached this agent with a
book and seminar project we’re just finishing up tentatively called ‘Dr. Ralph’s
Ergonomic Work Place Quiz’. The agency director handed our project to her lead
agent.
As soon as she heard that we also wrote wine country tour
books she was off and running. This was her favorite subject, she adores Napa
and Sonoma, had met her fiancé there, and was planning on marrying there in the
near future. Business book, what business book? She looked at our books, set up
meetings and enthusiastically asked to represent us both for publishing and
speaking. Cool!
Two days later she contacted us to say that she can’t go
ahead because she is leaving the agency in the next week. Slam! When asked why
the agency wasn’t picking it up she says that her boss isn’t accepting new
clients. People often lie to be polite but it weakens
the speaker and listener equally.
What’s funny is that I knew she was someone who was having a
hard time balancing between family and work, and that she would change jobs
often. How? Because I asked her the first question on our Quiz: Where do you keep
your family pictures? She kept her photos on her desk directly in front of her.
She might as well work for a Temp agency, because she is spending too much time
focused on her family connections when she needs to be focused on her work.
I had some choice words with her boss that included
‘unprofessional, mean, and dishonest’. Oops, did I say that out loud? At that
point I was ready to give up on agents in general. Our tour books are sold
directly to the wineries and I know that market as well as anyone. Our business
books are sold at the back of our seminar rooms.
But then I had two things happen. Of the five wine books we
introduced this year there was one that I wasn’t planning on printing in large
numbers. Dream Tours of Napa & Sonoma, Third Edition is the most expensive
tour book we’ve done so far. The individual county books will sell better in
the wineries, so I put the combo book on Amazon tied to my Print on Demand printer.
Amazon is a steady, although not huge outlet for us, and I
do appreciate the checks. And then something interesting happened. Online the
combo book is outselling all of our other books 8 to 1. I had figured that it
would be the book people bought to plan their trip, and this area gets 4 to 6
million visitors yearly, but it was nice to see how many of the them were
buying a book that I hadn’t even marketed.
Then the second thing happened. I was talking with my friend
Don Partier, a great person and a great tour guide. He has been prominent in
the wine industry for years and knows everybody. He has been co-authoring a
book about wine country for a while, and he mentioned that suddenly a NY agent
had become very interested in their project. Why? Because a book that I’ve
commented on before, George Taber’s In Search of Bachus, Wanderings in the
Wonderful World of Wine Tourism, has sold 250,000 copies in 3 months. This has
happened without radio interviews, television spots, etc., because social media
rules the wine tourism world, and the enthusiasts are readers.
As I’ve been shouting from the roof tops (of limos and
SUV’s) for the past three years, wine tourism is on the rise internationally.
Wine travel is a romantic adventure that you enjoy with your loved ones, and it
spans the generations, just shy of the young children, who wouldn’t enjoy it
anyway. It is a place where those two huge generations, the Boomers and the
Millennials have a huge amount in common. Maybe I need give an agency another
chance, just not that one.
Ralph & Lahni de Amicis are authors of the Amicis Winery
Guides, and owners of Amicis Tours. They are authors of over twenty books on
health, design, business and travel. Their iPhone Apps, The Napa Valley Wine
Tour, and The Sonoma Winery Tour are a tour guides approach to these beautiful
area, complete with 1000’s of photos and insights. Their articles and products
can be found on the sites http://www.amicistours.com and http://www.spaceandtime.com
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