The Business of Books

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

Talk of book tours raised a bunch of questions in my mind, and I was hoping the comm could help answer them.

1)  Book Tours.  Who has a say in where  authors go on a Tour?  Is there a way for fans to influence this?

2)  Book Purchases.  Of course buying books from a "brick and mortar" store supports the specific bookstore, but is there an advantage to the author in doing so?  Does purchasing from a specific store encourage the store to bring the author in?  Along the same lines, I buy a lot of books - my available time for reading is to sporadic, and books go out of print and off the shelves too quickly, to use libraries effectively - and for a favorite author, I would like to do what I can to maximize my purchasing powers.  Are there tips to enhance purchasing power?

3)  Helping Out.  What are ways the adoring fan base can help out a favorite author (aside from initiating and maintaining a fabulous live journal comm)?