Are You On BookTour? I Am

As an author, I want to constantly work to raise my visibility in the marketplace. This principle is true whether you have one book or many books in print. Or whether you are dreaming about getting your book in print.

In the last few weeks, I stumbled across Book Tour, Where Authors and Audiences meet. I checked out the "About Us" section of this site and learned the chairman is Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired and the author of The Long Tail (a book which continues to stir people).

Whether you are a reader or an author, you can register for this free service and use the tools. I found them flexible, menu-driven and easy to use. Here's my profile. While my Book Proposals That Sell has been out for two years, I'm still promoting it and "touring" with it. I added the various dates where I will be at writer's conferences in the next few months. My profile includes the Texas Christian Writers Conference in Houston where I'll be on Saturday.

I didn't take much time to experiment with Book Tour yet I did notice several factors which will improve your listing on the site. Notice the links in my profile and in my events are "clickable." If you drag your mouse over the profile or the event, you can click a link which will take you to another website. I used a simple HTML link inside my entries to get them to be clickable. I found a number of well-known authors who are using this site--yet aren't adding this additional exposure.

If you love books, I recommend you check out Book Tour.

For the Sharp-eyed Reader

Some people are natural proof readers. They are the ones who read with a pen in their hand and correct the typos and missing words that they find in books. At small gatherings, these people always have some horror story about a printed book which was missing something.

I know the publishers attempt to be as careful as possible in the creation process. The majority of publishers have a series of checks and balances in this part of the process with the attempt to catch every error before the book is printed. Yet still mistakes slip through the process. Maybe the words are spelled correctly but something is missing in the context.

What action do you take (if any) when you spot such an error in a printed book?

Most authors and publishers are keeping track of such errors. When the book comes up for reprint. You can write the author or the publisher with a helpful tone saying, "Next time you reprint your book, you might want to fix…" During the rare times that I receive such a suggestion, I appreciate it and always thank the individual.

This morning I'm thinking about this element because I noticed an error in a printed book. It’s not necessary to tell you the book but it's a beautiful hardcover which will hopefully go through many printings. It is a shame when it happens but the good news is that if you let someone know about it, it can be fixed. The choice is yours. Are you going to continue grumbling about the state of book publishing or be a part of the solution? For the error I spotted, I chose to do something proactive about it and write a kind and concerned note to someone in the publishing house who can get it fixed on the next reprint.