WHEN the coronavirus pandemic struck in March 2020, Elliott Bay Book Company, like thousands of other book stores around the United States, shut its doors and moved most of its sales online. The year before, the venerable Seattle bookstore had hosted 550 live author events, but for five months after the original shutdown order, the store held only virtual book events, roughly twelve per month.
Like many others in the book industry, Elliott Bay’s general manager, Janis Segress, feared the tradition of the author book tour, which Elliott Bay itself had helped to innovate in the 1970s, might fade away—or return in some greatly altered form.
The good news is, that hasn’t happened. After some initial enthusiasm, interest in virtual book events has softened—“Everybody got Zoomed out,” Segress says—but in-person events have come roaring back, with Elliott Bay hosting roughly 520 author events in 2023, the vast majority in person.
But while the overall numbers may have returned to prepandemic levels, Segress has noticed a subtle shift in the kinds of authors publishers are sending to her store on tour.
“They’re being smart business-wise,” Segress says of publishing houses, “and you can see the money being spent for the big names and the sure audiences, which makes a hell of a lot of sense. The big names, they’re still getting the money behind
