I’m enter the second month of my new book tour for “Second Chance Dog: A Love Story,” and I’m generally pleased with the first phase. Today begins the most important element in the new tour, my marketing of “Second Chance Dog” as a Christmas book, a Christmas gift.

– The book is in it’s third printing, I have been getting generous reviews from the trade pubs – Kirkus, Library Journal, and from the first readers. Reviews in places like Amazon are increasingly important and thanks to those of you who have posted them, it helps.

– The Battenkill Bookstore initiative has been extraordinarily successful, we are close to having sold 1,000 books via Battenkill, if we haven’t reached that mark already, Maria and I go back to the store this afternoon to keep up with the orders. You can order the book – Maria and I will sign and personalize them – and possibly win dog food, photos, potholders, books. Sometimes I feel like Costco, sometimes like Ringling Bros. The book tour has sure changed. I am  on it. I want to keep the Battenkill experiment going, to make some real noise for buying local, personal service, independent bookstores and for my work.  You can order the book on Battenkill’s efficient website (the government would do well to hire Connie and her staff, they are lean and mean), or call the store at 518 677-2515.

– The digital experiments have been working well. Each day on Facebook, I post a topic relating to the book and give a free book away to one of the repliers. I’ve had more than 1,000 replies to the topics so far.  I am also moving towards podcast readings from the book, and will be putting up more videos of Frieda and her life today. I have been boosting some posts (Random House is helping me with this) on Facebook, drawing many newcomers to my blog and Facebook page. Since the tour started, my Facebook “likes” have jumped by nearly 2,000. Mannix Marketing and I are also launching some Second Chance Dog contests via Facebook that will reach 200,000 Facebook users, most of whom have followed my work, love animals, or commented on my social media pages. Facebook marketing can be very precise.

– The energy around the book tour has broadened. Maria is contributing Frieda potholders to the campaign (she sold out her entire stock of potholders on Plaid Friday, good for her) and I’ve annexed George Forss, the brilliant photographer to my book tour campaign, he has already sold more than 25 of his gorgeous new prints of New York City through my blog and his blog.

I believe George’s photos are the great bargain of the holiday shopping season for any photographer, art lover or for anyone who appreciates New York or the urban landscape that catapulted George to fame.  I can’t imagine a better or more original gift at a lower price, his original landscapes sell for between $800 and $1,000.  George’s prints are only $65, he will ship them anywhere. It is time to rediscover this genius and buy a unique gift that will only increase in value. George is a legend. Take a look, I am happy to include him, he is a genie. I’m hoping George can sell 100 prints by Christmas, his time has come again.

So now to me and my book and the next chapter. I think I’ve sold roughly 20,000 copies of “Second Chance Dog,” e-book and paper, that’s good in this insanely competitive book market but not nearly good enough to call my new book tour a success in my mind. I am shooting for one or two more printings, but more important, I am focusing on the appeal of this book as a Christmas or holiday gift. As the reviews suggest, it is an affirmation story, a testament to the power and centrality of love in our lives at any age, and to the wondrous experience of bringing a lost dog back to the world. It ended happily for all of us, and I see that is important these days, those stories are lost in the mad din of politics and media.

I am mulling a “Twelve Days Of Christmas” contest on the blog, winners will get two books, one for themselves, the other as a gift (or both as gifts if they wish.) I see the book as dead-on as a Christmas gift, it ends on Christmas, it is relevant to animal lovers of all kinds, and people who care about love in their lives, and who also struggle for meaning in a world that continuously tries to define them. So here we go, hang on, the Christmas campaign is underway.