Now taking tour bookings…
(excluding London cos that’s where the launch will be)
My next book ‘Plum’ comes out in June and I will be touring it from then until November 2017, two days a week. Tour bookings are being taken from now until mid of April but filling up pretty quick.
The publisher of the book is Picador and they are arranging the tour, with lots of dates already booked in. But I wanted to open it up to not just literature and book festivals etc because I know there are a lot of great theatres and poetry nights across the UK too who have supported me no end and might fancy a reading.
So…if you run a poetry night / run a venue / manage a theatre and would like to enquire about booking me to come and read / perform / do ‘Plum’, please get in touch with Oli@pagetoperformance.org and we can pass the request onto the right person! The tech set up is one microphone on a stand and a light x
If you’re interested at all, here are what we would need from a venue / night / organiser….
1.Set fee: to be agreed with Picador
Basically I mean I don’t do free events or events for peanut butter so please don’t ask me to and force me to feel bad about it all when I know there’s rent to pay and food to buy and so do you. I do a set number of free youth and charity things each year but this is my full time job.
2. The set / reading is 45mins to one hour long. At least thirty minutes reading from the new book. So if you’re wanting me to read mainly from another book, I can’t for this tour. Sorry! If you want me to do a q and a or something else, that’s totally cool.
3. I don’t need any ‘rider’. Or bottled water. Just a pint of tap water is brill x
4. We need to be able to get the bookseller in for a selling / signing after the gig somewhere in your venue.
5. It’s nice to have a support poet on the line up. I have three brilliant poets I would normally use and love to use. But…if you run a night and normally have other poets on / local poets on / an open mic first etc that is also cool. Or just me is fine, but lonely!
6. The venue needs to be licensed because poetry audiences who can’t get a drink don’t tend to enjoy the poems as much (in my experience). And comfy enough chairs (for the same reason). Red velvet is always a winner!
7. Lots of people who come to my gigs have very young babies who they can’t leave at home. I have done a lot of gigs where mums feed babies / parents bring babies to the shows. If you can let me know if this is ok in your venue, great. I’m not talking toddlers / older kids (it’s an adult reading) just those babies hanging off nipples or arms like the ones allowed in over 18 cinema baby friendly screenings. There has never been a problem with this and if the babies start screaming, I guarantee the parent will not just sit there and do nothing! I know some venues legally cannot have babies in them, which is totally understandable.
ps. you don’t have to have baby facilities, just let me know if a few (and it’s hardly ever more) mums with new babies are not refused entry if they bring the nipper
8. Let us know about access to your venue please
9. That’s it! Please don’t message me here about this: email: Oli@pagetoperformance.org.
Thanks!
Pass it on if you fancy xxx
Hollie McNish 