Speeches

To Bookstores:

I love doing readings and signings, and I’m eager to visit your store.
I’ll help in any way I can.

When possible, I like to start by showing a four-minute video about the
kids featured in What It Takes to Pull Me Through (if you have a DVD
or VHS player). I give a brief, fast-moving speech without notes, then let the
audience launch a discussion about schools, community, and work-life balance.
And about the challenges of being a kid or raising a kid in a high-pressure
era. And the media that drowns our children with images of sex and alcohol,
then tells them to refrain.

Please note: This is not simply a parenting book. It’s a real-life adventure
story of several kids who are thrown together and have to learn lessons from
each other, as well as a teacher and counselor. It’s a story about the way
we live and the choices we make.

I can help you by providing address labels of leaders of important groups
that are near your store. Some possibilities: middle school and high school
PTAs and PTOs, college classes, teachers’ unions, education schools, mental
health associations and substance abuse programs. I’ll even do a mailing.

Consider: We invited a private elementary school, and the PTO of a
public middle school, and even a bridge club to my appearance at Broadside
Books in Northampton, Mass… Barnes & Noble in Manchester, New Hampshire
worked with a community drug and alcohol task force to set up a reading …
The independent Harvard Bookstore enlisted several departments at Harvard
University to promote my visit … A Smith College graduate-level class for
teachers is being required to attend one of my evening readings (sorry,
teachers, but it wasn’t my idea)… And yadda, yadda.

For my bio and sample promotional flyers, please visit:
www.DaveMarcus.com
I can print out a one-page summary of the main characters, which readers
seem to like. But first click on “schedule” to see when I’m available.

Bookstores should contact Megan Wilson, Houghton Mifflin PR:
(617) 351-3377. Email: megan_wilson[at]hmco.com.

AV requirements: VHS player and screen (if available).

blog

more