Has the Kindle killed Book Tours?

Hello from my corner of the internet where most, if not all, of my work is done virtually, digitally and intranetly. (Ok I made that last word up but you get the idea.) I work with several clients who I have never met before because I have the ability to work with them online. I would never have met some of my new friends if it wasn’t for Twitter and social networking. I LOVE the internet but maybe “going digital” isn’t good for everything.

At the begining of the month I saw an interview on The Colbert Report, one of the only news shows I watch – The Daily Show being the other – and Stephen had the author Sherman Alexie on to talk about his award winning book “War Dances” and how he believes the digital age will be the end of book tours and personal contact between readers and authors. Sherman believes that once books begin to be made into digital copies for use online, and for digital readers such as the Kindle, authors will start to have less and less interaction with their readers.  He describes his Fall book tour and  how he did magazine articles, newspaper interviews and book signings but not nearly in the amount that he has done in years past. He even jokes at one point about how he is the afternoon matinée now.

Reading a whole book on a little device is just too out there for me so I haven’t jumped onto the Kindle excitement train like some of my friends. I want to be able to move pages and highlight parts I want to remember. I want to be able to “lend” out a book and then have to buy another book because I know I’ll never see the original book again! (That reminds me, I need to get a new copy of “Q-Squared“…)

This got me thinking about my role in all of this. My job is to help authors to share their personality and their work with the world by using the internet. I use social media and tools such as Scribd to help authors take their business to the next level by putting their work out into the internet tubes. I wouldn’t say that by doing that I’m killing off book tours but I would say I’m giving authors a different way to interact with readers. It may not be face to face but Twitter conversations, Facebook updates as well as blog comments can turn into pretty heated exchanges that feel very intimate. Doing a virtual book tour is a great idea as well if authors want to feel connected to their audience and draw in some new readers. Instead of going to book stores and coffee shops, we go to blogs and podcasts and interact with readers in a great new way.  Plus, this way you don’t have to look at the guy who just threw a shoe at you while you were reading a passage from your new poetry book!

This interview has been in the back of my mind all month so I decided to share it and see what you thought!

(When Sherman describes his people as “Paranoid Indigenous” it cracks me up everytime!)

(If you can’t see the video above click here. )