Why book tours are passé

The Christian Science Monitor Says Author readings and signing sessions, once the staple of publishing publicity, are being usurped by virtual encounters and promotional videos.

“Some authors are really engaging and some authors, frankly, are not,” says Dave Weich, marketing director of Powell’s Books. Video offers a way around that. “There’s a lot of editing that takes place,” admits Sue Fleming, vice president of online marketing at Simon & Schuster. “We can forgive a certain lack of mediagenic-ness.”