Virtual Book Tours

It is April 2020 as I am writing this blog post. COVID 19 or the Coronavirus is impacting everyone’s lives in various ways.  People are experiencing sickness, unemployment, financial struggles, and change in routine. Non-essential workers have shifted to working from home, music artists have canceled their tours, and travel has significantly decreased.

Ashley Spivey is a former Bachelor contestant, NYC nanny, and avid reader. She has always shared her favorite books on her social media accounts and in 2017 she created the Spivey’s Book Club group on Facebook. A virtual book club is held within the group with selections chosen by Ashley and group members. The group is a place for book lovers to share their favorite reads and discuss them with one another. As of this month, the group has just under 17,000 members.

On March 16^th, Ashley Spivey tweeted, “I know this isn’t much but I would like to offer my book club’s Instagram account and Facebook account to any author who had to cancel their book tour due to the virus. You can do a digital book stop by doing a takeover for the day, a Q&A session, or even a giveaway!” It has been under a month since this tweet was published and there have been 14 of what she is calling “Book Tour Stops.” The books being highlighted include novels, memoirs, thrillers, and self-health (no, that is not a typo!). The authors have the opportunity to introduce themselves and their books, ask questions, offer a giveaway for the book, and share where the book is available for purchase. Each post has copious likes and comments. Some people commented that they were adding the book to the ‘to be read’ pile, some asked questions about the book’s plot, some asked questions about the author’s life. In an article written by Casey Mendoza on Newsy, she explains “For authors, in-person reading and signings are important to drive book sales and grow fan bases. But they take months of planning and cost thousands of dollars in travel expenses,” (Mendoza). It is well known that concerts and variety shows are cancelled or postponed for now, but the dissolution of present book tours is not as talked about.

A cookbook author that I follow on Instagram, Laura Lea released a cookbook, Simply Laura Lea, this past week. For the past two years, Laura has shared the recipe testing, photography, tasting, editing, and planning that went into the creation of her cookbook. She had events planned to meet followers and readers, demo recipes, and promote the cookbook. Now those events have been cancelled. Watching Laura go through the writing and publishing process of her cookbook on Instagram made me appreciate the time, energy, and passion goes into writing a book. After all of her efforts, it must be disappointing to have to cancel the events. This is why I find Ashley’s idea to offer a virtual book tour stop on her Facebook and Instagram pages so encouraging! She is offering a place for authors to share their works with her generous audience. In a time with so much bad news in the media, Ashley’s innovation and generosity to authors is refreshing! Ashley tweeted that it “isn’t much” but I think it is significant to authors and readers alike.

Mendoza, Casey. “Self-Quarantined Authors Are Pivoting To Virtual Book Tours.” Newsy, Newsy, 6 Apr. 2020, http://www.newsy.com/stories/self-quarantined-authors-are-pivoting-to-virtual-book-tours/.