Writers Get Close on Web

The Wall Street Journal
March 7, 2011
By Jeffery A. Trachtenberg

Since fewer authors are going on extended tour and fewer bookstores around the country are hosting signing events, Simon & Schuster are hoping to build better reader-author relationships through web interviews in which readers submit questions via email.  This in turn, they hope, will lead to higher sales.  Readers who like a particular book are often very passionate about the author.  This format will be more intimate than a text Q&A.  Authors might also appreciate that video interviews don't take much time, and the ones that can build successful relationships are certainly helping out their sales.