BookTour site

**"* S* <a*@amystewart.com>**

Hi everybody,

I am mostly a lurker here, but I thought you guys might be interested in
this.  For a while now I've been frustrated that there is no easy way for
garden and nature writers to connect with botanical gardens, garden clubs,
and other venues that might want us as a speaker.  I wish the GWA was doing
this, but their speakers bureau service doesn't seem to me to be very
effective.

I read about this site in the New York Times, and since it was founded by
Chris Anderson, editor of Wired and author of The Long Tail, I thought it
would be worth checking out. The site is www.booktour.com and the idea is
that authors sign up, upload a little information, and list their events.
Venues that are looking for authors also sign up.  Readers can search for
events in their area.  Authors can even post dates when they will be in a
particular part of the country, even if they don't have any events, so that
people looking for authors can see who might be in town. They make very
creative use of Google maps, and have other cool high-tech features that I'm
sure you will find as you explore the site.  (It's still in beta, and I
found a few bugs, but I can tell from their blog that they are working on it
everyday.)

Already a lot of literary venues, like bookstores, writing conferences, book
groups, etc. have signed up.  I sent an e-mail to the creators of this site
and said that I would love to help them get some nature and garden venues
signed up.  I think this would be a great site for all of us to use.  I plan
to send out an e-mail to my other garden writer friends, and also to venues
where I have spoken before.  I hope that you will all take a look at the
site and think about doing the same.

The word in the publishing world is that gardening is a losing category.  I
think we can turn this around, but nobody is going to do it for us.  Maybe
this site can be a step in the right direction.  Hey, maybe the GWA could
even partner with BookTour.com, taking advantage of their technology and
funding to help connect garden writers and venues!

Cheers,

Amy Stewart
www.amystewart.com

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