nce upon a time, a long, long time ago, publishers would send their authors out on a bookstore tour to publicize their new book. A driver would meet them at the airport and shuttle them to the hotel and bookstore. The authors would speak, maybe do a reading, and then greet their fans and sign copies of their book. Then one day, the dragon publishers began devouring each other. Money became tighter as profits slumped. COVID darkened the land, and people stayed home. Many authors turned to self-publishing, feeling that since they weren’t receiving extra perks (like book tours), at least they could control their own destiny publishing their own works, moving faster than the normal glacial speed of traditional publishing houses. The fairy tale days of the book tour were over … and eventually, authors came to realize that they not
