After Guatemala, we had a quick week in Ohio, splitting time between Findlay and Cincinnati. And during that time, thanks to some asking around the community by my parents, we managed to get some great press relating to our adventures and some good promotional stuff for Julie’s book. We even had our first ever presentation, speaking to around 40 kids from St. Wendelin High School in Fostoria, my alma mater.
While we have the website and make our story available, we haven’t been huge proponents of self promotion. It’s not that there’s anything inherently wrong with it, but it’s never been our style nor has it felt right when we’ve thought of doing it before. However, in talking with my Mom about promoting Julie’s book (The Trail Life), she had all sorts of ideas and immediately went to work. When we got home we had interviews lined up with the papers and the school visit. We couldn’t say no and it sounded like it’d be worthwhile.
And it was fun! Our first day home we met with the Findlay Courier and shared our story. It was simply cool to have someone interested in what we’ve been doing and making it out to be a big deal. On our travels, we’re often the boring or conservative traveler compared to many that we meet (Andre the German on his bicycle for one year from Anchorage, AK to the bottom of Argentina!) but at the Courier in Findlay, OH the way we have lived so far seemed pretty neat and it was fun to share it.
We were really nervous going back to my high school and getting up in front of people to tell our story. We spoke for students from various Spanish classes at the school, first focusing on our time in Spanish speaking countries and then shifting to larger adventuring ideas. We had come prepared with candy to bribe them to be interactive but to our amazement, they asked questions and participated for the entire hour unprompted. It was a really rewarding experience.
At this point we have three good articles from NW Ohio newspapers and are proud to share them:
On to the Next Adventure – The Findlay Courier
Globetrotters Land in Fostoria – The Review Times
St. Wendelin grad, wife to share traveling experiences with students – Fostoria Focus
I am also proud to report that Julie’s book is doing well and sales have continued increasing. We sold 110 copies of The Trail Life in the month of March and that is up from 89 in February. We hope to see this continue and say thanks to all that have bought the book or helped promote it in any way. With the book being self-published (we’re inexperienced in the world of book promotion), we are open to any and all suggestions on ways to get the book out there to a wider audience so please contact us with your ideas. There have thankfully been some very positive third party reviews up on Amazon regarding the book and in its book category on Amazon we have seen it as high as #16 in Kindle Excursion Guides. It’s very exciting for us and we’re thankful for all the support we’ve received from around the globe. It’s also been very rewarding to contribute positively in people’s lives through the book, the website, and through presentations. We hope there is much more to come.