McCain on Front Lines of Media Attention at Changing Hands

Changing Hands in Tempe, Arizona, launched Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) national book tour for Character Is Destiny (Random House) this past Saturday to a standing-room-only audience. McCain spoke to the crowd for a half-hour and then autographed 400 books. "This was his third time here," said Yvette Roeder, Changing Hands' public relations coordinator. "He loves our store. I'm so glad he kicked off his tour here."

Sen. John McCain

When McCain's office called Changing Hands and asked if the store could schedule an event for Saturday, the bookstore had just two weeks' notice to put together an A-1 event. "When he calls we move events around," said Roeder. "He sells a lot of books." The store quickly fired off press releases and had an immediate onslaught of media attention, including coverage in the Arizona Republic. "From there everything fell into place," Roeder said.

McCain draws a large audience and much media attention at Changing Hands.

Changing Hands tried a new method for organizing the reading. In addition to giving customers who purchased the book a numbered ticket for the signing, they got a reserved seat for McCain's talk. "It worked really well," said Roeder. "It was a way to say thank you to our regular customers." In fact, the entire event went very well, thanks to the bookstore's careful preparation before the senator's arrival and McCain's ability to please a crowd. "He's very good," Roeder said. "He's definitely a politician. He had an answer for everything."

Roeder said McCain always begins a book tour in Arizona, where he is the senior senator, and always draws an appreciative audience. Changing Hands sold all of the 400 books it had ordered, and it now has another 100 on the way, half of which are presold. "And McCain's aide said if we send the [additional 100] books over to his office, he'll sign those too," said Roeder. --Karen Schechner