BookTour Blog

Feature Update 7/31/07

To wrap up the month, we've got two really cool features. First, you no longer have to sign up to see events near you—all you have to do is visit our homepage.

Second, we've created a sweet mashup for Google Earth. Check it out here.

Other news:
• Above the nearby events listing on the front page, the site now shows where it thinks you are. It's an old feature that's been in hiding for several weeks.
• A typo has been fixed on Profile pages.
• A bug that prevented some users from seeing the link to their Amazon account access page has been fixed.
• A bug that caused some Amazon account accesses to fail has been fixed.

Feature Update 7/30/07

Today brings an especially cool feature. From the bottom of your profile page, you can now automatically subscribe to notifications for every author whose books you've previously purchased from Amazon.com. (This feature is in its infancy, so be sure to use the feedback form if you run into any weirdness.)

Strange Bedfellows...

So BookTour received a nice slice of love this week from Political Books.com, a great blog that keeps the pol junkie in your life on top of the new tomes.

We haven't asked but we're guessing the folks at PB are particularly interested in our new Politics subsection, areas of BookTour designated by book category. We've got Biography, Romance, Humor, Mystery, even Erotica. All are aimed, arrowlike, at making finding the authors you want easier.

The complete list is available on our front page upper right, in the grey area marked "Library." For authors, looking for an even more specific way to reach BookTour.com readers, you can advertise as the featured author.

Feature Update 7/29/07

Today's news: by popular request, an Erotica subsection has been added at http://booktour.com/erotica. It's also available from the Library section of the front page.

You too can be a Featured Author. Here's How...

So here's the thing. We've realized here at BookTour that we're rapidly approaching the point where they'll be way too many great authors on the site for us ever to be able to select featured authors with any degree of knowledge. So we've thought up a couple of solutions.

1. You can now advertise as the featured author.

2. This one's more fun. Each week we're going to have a contest with the prize being the featured author spot for a day (Sunday). the winnner is the author who gets the most other authors to sign up for a BookTour page. No time limit on the referrals so come Saturday, who ever has the most so far and hasn't been a featured author yet gets the spot.

And with that, this week's winner is...

Lois Winston

Lois is the author of two novels "Talk Gertie to Me" and "Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception." She's booked speaking engagements into the late fall.

Congratulations Lois! You'll be our featured author today. Monday, the contest starts anew so start those referring engines!

Feature Update 7/28/07

Continuing with the customizability theme from yesterday, it's now possible to specify the maximum number of nearby authors to display on the front page.

Feature Update 7/27/07

New today:
• The FAQ has been updated.
• In your profile, it's now possible to customize the distance to search for nearby events on the front page.

Feature Update 7/26/07

News:
• http://booktour.com/blog now points directly to our blog.
• A bug that prevented publicists from adding media to their authors' pages has been fixed.
• A new subsection of the site has been added: http://booktour.com/humor.

Feature Update 7/25/07

New today:
• The emails authors receive when they sign up now contain referral links to pass on to other authors.
• The layout of the front page has been tweaked.
• New sub-BookTours have been added for business, romance, women, kids, health, literature, technology, sports, and religion. RSS feeds are also available. Also, all sub-BookTours are now linked to from the front-page Library.
• Venue pages now load faster.
• The weekly email has been redesigned. Events by the same author are now grouped together, and there is also a brief update on the last week's site news.

Feature Update 7/24/07

Today's big news: we have a new homepage just for Canada! Have a look at http://booktour.com/canada.

Feature Update 7/23/07

Lots today:
• A bug that prevented certain location searches by Canadian postal codes has been fixed.
• A bug that caused incorrect text to sometimes appear on the front page has been fixed.
• A brief bug that prevented some US zip codes from signing up has been fixed.
• The link to advertise in the Featured Author box has been moved below it.
• An "Advertise on BookTour" link has been added to the page footer.
• A new sub-front page has been added: booktour.com/politics. The Library has been updated to reflect the change.
• A bug that caused the list of authors on the Advertising page to link to invalid pages has been fixed.
• On sub-BookTours (like /mystery and /politics), the layout of the top bar has been tweaked.
• Venue pages now list all the events scheduled there, not just the first 10.
• The FAQ has been updated.

Feature Update 7/22/07

Lots of news today:
• Loading the front page and sub-front pages (like booktour.com/mystery) is noticeably faster.
• A bug that would sometimes show the same author and book more than once simultaneously on the Mystery page has been fixed.
• An Advertising information page has been added to the site. It's now linked to from the front page, all sub-front pages, and the FAQ.
• When filling out the feedback form, your email address if automatically filled in if you're logged in.
• Each week, the author who refers the most other authors to the site will get the "featured author" spot on our front page for a day. If you're an author, you can find your customized referral link on your author editing page, or in the email that was sent to you today.
• Canadian users can now join the site.

Feature Update 07/21/07

There are no visible changes to the site today, but a number of major changes have been made to the database so it will run faster with more events and zip codes.

Feature Update 07/20/07

New today:
• The front-page author algorithm has been tweaked.
• A bug that sometimes caused an author to appear multiple times on the front page has been fixed.
• A bug that caused some venue pages to redirect to error pages has been fixed.
• The Mystery page now has its own featured author.

Features Update 7/19/07

Today's updates:
• The wording of email notifications has been tweaked.
• A bug that prevented some author RSS feeds from working has been fixed.
• A bug that caused the Random Author link to sometimes go to an error page has been fixed.
• Author biographies now support limited HTML formatting. In addition, line breaks typed into author bios now appear on finished author pages as well. (The FAQs have been updated with details.)
• When clicking a link that opens in a new window (like a link to purchase a book online), the new window now opens properly as a tab when it should.
• More explanation has been added to the event-editing form.

Features Update 7/18/07

Lots of news today:
• The front page has been tweaked with smaller text. As a result, we can now squeeze more authors onto the front page at once.
• The "new authors" algorithm for the front page has been tweaked again to turn over authors more quickly.
• A "Random Author" link has been added to the bottom of every page. A great time-waster.
• The front page no longer mistakenly shows "Thanks for signing up" messages for people who haven't actually signed up.
• Author pages are no longer stale. Some people reported that the site would show author pages that listed "Today" as a day that had already passed. This is no longer the case.
• The front page (and the Mystery page) now have RSS feeds of the newest authors to join the site.
• On the page of an author who can be requested, you can now hold your mouse over the Request button to see how many requests the author has already received.
• In the weekly email notification, author events are now accompanied by the title of the author's book.
• The subject line of the email authors receive when they've been requested to speak has been tweaked.

We're the Smithiest!

BookTour has been the recipient of a little more digital good will when our friends at Smith Magazine wrote up this nice item about the project. To be drawn in with Kurt Anderson (whose novel Turn of The Century, I read in my first book club maybe 10 years ago) is small-world-after-all. After all.

Smith, if you haven't visited, is an excellent publicication focused on personal storytelling that blends user and professional-edited content. Have a look and be careful. This thing could swallow your day whole.

Features Update 7/17/07

Today's fix is that certain publicists who were previously unable to add author events are now able to.

Features Update 7/16/07

The past few days have brought this news:
• A bug that prevented some subject results from appearing has been fixed.
• The first sub-BookTour section has been added at http://booktour.com/mystery.
• A bug that prevented some people from seeing local results on their front page has been fixed.
• A bug that prevented authors who had designated publicists from adding new books to their author pages has been fixed.

We're Freaky. And Freaked Out.

So this morning, BookTour joined the esteemed company of NASCAR, real estate agents and junky chinese imports.

How, you ask? We've been mentioned on the Freakonomics Blog. Freakonomics is a book that came out in 2005 reevaluating the field of data gathering and economics and has sold about 5 kabillion copies. The blog is a much read for those interested in radical reconsiderations of the everyday.

We're honored to be included.

Features Update 7/13/07

New today:
• There's a new algorithm for the authors on the left side of the front page.
• Every author on the front page is now on tour.
• On any page, the upper-right corner of the page now has links to sign up or log in if you're not logged in already.

Features Update 7/12/07

Today was "make the site more self-explanatory" day. To that effect, there's now a brief explanation of the site when you first visit the home page if you're not logged in. In addition, there's a new FAQ linked to from the site footer.

Where We've Been So Far...

We've been live about 72 hours now and already some nice coverage has appeared in the blogosphere..

To wit:

• MJ Rose's excellent Buzz Balls & Hype
• Galleycat
• The blog at January Magazine
• The Ficlets blog, part of AOL.com.

Thanks to everyone whose given us a nod so early. We appreciate it muchly!

Features Update 7/11/07

New today:
• A bug that showed an error on the front page for about 7 minutes has been fixed.
• First-time registration emails now links straight to the login page.
• Barnes and Noble is now listed as a store to purchase books from.
• When clicking to purchase a book through an online store, the store will now always open in a new window.
• The front page now loads about 30% faster for logged-in readers.
• Advanced Search results now load about 40% faster.
• There's now a shorter delay before new authors appear on the front page.
• Browsing the library for authors in your favorite subjects is now about twice as fast.

Features Update 7/10/07

New today:
• A bug that prevented authors from adding radio events has been fixed.
• A bug that prevented non-logged-in readers from seeing certain venue pages has been fixed.
• The Library page now loads much, much faster.
• It's now possible to sign up for weekly emails upon signing up for the site.
• Only books with cover images now appear on the front page.

Pre-Launch Feature Bonanza

Wow are there a lot of new features today.

Speed improvements:
• Search results now load about twice as fast.
• The front page loads incredibly fast.

Email notifications:
• You can now sign up for email notifications for any author you want. In addition, any time you request an author come to your town, you'll automatically receive notifications if he or she adds an event in your area. (This has been applied retroactively to people who have previously requested authors.)
• In your profile page, you can now sign up for weekly updates about the events in your area. Strongly recommended.
• A bug that caused request-an-author messages to go to the author and the requestor (rather than the author and his or her publicist) has been fixed.

Author features:
• It's now possible to indicate that you don't know what time of day an event will be. It'll appear in listings as "Time TBD." You can always go back and edit it once you've settled on a time. (This feature works for submitting events through the Excel spreadsheet, too.)
• When an author signs up, the site now redirects to the author editing page so he or she can add events, rather than to the homepage.
• The ability to show HTML in author biographies has been temporarily suspended. Once we find a way to allow the good stuff without the bad (cross-site scripting attacks) we'll turn this feature back on. In the meantime, you're welcome to enter HTML tags in your author biography; they just won't show up on your author page.

Display bugs:
• A Firefox-specific display bug on author editing pages has been fixed.
• A bug that would make long event descriptions flow off the side of the page in More Info panes has been fixed.
• A bug that prevented More Info-style panes from appearing on author editing pages has been fixed.
• A bug that caused Advanced Search results to come back looking strange has been fixed.
• A bug that caused authors' pages to load incorrectly if they didn't have any tour dates scheduled has been fixed.

General site improvements:
• Text has been reworded around the site to make it clearer and more friendly.
• The front page and More Results pages for local events now list the soonest events at the top.
• BookTour will soon appear in search engines with a specific site description, rather than just excerpts of pages.
• A privacy policy has been added to the site. It's listed in the page footer on the signup and profile page.
• On the front page, gray book titles now link to author pages as well.
• The "More" link on the left side of the front page now points to a totally new page, where you can see a list of the most recent authors to join the site.

Oh yeah, and one last thing: You no longer have to create an account to use the site!

Features Update 7/8/07

New today:
• Authors can add "just visiting" events. These are meant for the times when authors are planning to visit a city but don't have any tour events scheduled.
• The site now automatically scrolls up to show any floating panes. For example, if you're at the bottom of the page and click "More info" for a tour date, the More Info pane won't appear offscreen anymore.
• The various ways of subscribing to an author's tour feed have been integrated on each author's page. Note: The "by email" link doesn't work at the moment.
• The "Okay" button on the author editing page has been removed. It's been replaced by the same ways-to-subscribe links as mentioned above.
• If a publicist is already signed up for the site when one of his or her authors signs up, the publicist will now receive a message that indicates the login URL, rather than the create-an-account URL.
• If a publicist hasn't previously signed up when his or her author signs up, the publicist now receives an email with a URL that points to the publicist-specific signup form.
• When the site sends out emails, they now all appears as coming from "BookTour," rather than something@booktour.com
• ABEBooks and Powells have been added as purchase options. For any book, just click "More Books."
• The More Books pane has been tweaked to read more easily.

Features Update 7/7/07

Several changes have been made to the front page today:
• It now loads approximately 25% faster.
• Only authors with biographies show up in the left-side listing.
• For the five left-side authors, book cover images are shown.
• The Featured Author box has been moved back to the right side.

Several changes to the More Info pane, too:
• Authors can now specify more information about an event. The information will automatically show up in the More Info pane for that event. (This feature was previously only available through the BookTour spreadsheet process.)
• A bug that made certain Google maps appear centered on the wrong location inside the More Info pane has been fixed.
• Related links in the More Info pane now appear on a single line.

Other news:
• The bug (mentioned yesterday) that prevented iCal users from subscribing to author calendars has been fixed.
• On author pages, the names of places now link directly to their pages.
• Spacing has been fixed in widgets.
• The Library page now loads approximately 50% faster.
• Many new authors and events have been added.

Features Update 7/6/07

Cool new stuff today:
• When clicking the link for more information on an event, a Google map now shows up if appropriate.
• From the More Info pane, it's now possible to add the event to your calendar program with one click.
• On every author's page, it's now possible to subscribe to all the author's events in your calendar program. Note: This seems not to work in iCal at the moment.
• More events have been added.

Features Update 7/5/07

New today:
• Spacing issues have been fixed on the author editing page. Spacing has also been tweaked on search pages.
• In search results, it's now possible to go straight to the author-request form if an author has no tour dates scheduled.
• Authors can now list radio and TV appearances. These appearances will show up on their author page, in RSS feeds, and in widgets.
• The default option for searching the site is now authors, not books.
• The link in the footer to add events to BookTour now points to a page with more information on options for doing so.
• Wording has been fixed in the Library browser.
• In the Library browser, clicking a subject now automatically scrolls the window to the top so you can see the results from the beginning.
• For any event, it is now possible to see more information at a click. Note that it's not yet possible to see maps in these pop-ups; that's what the blank space is for.
• More author and event information has been added to the site.

Features Update 7/4/07

One new fix today: the list of authors coming to your area no longer shows several instances of the same author if the authors is speaking in more than one place.

Features Update 7/3/07

Two new much-requested features today:
• It is now possible to reset your password. On the login page, just click the reset link.
• Preliminary time zone support has been added. When adding virtual events, you now can (and must) choose what time zone your time is referring to.

Features Update 7/2/07

New today:
• The front page has been redesigned. The featured author section has been moved to the lower left to make room for more local author listings on the right. The title of the featured author section now links to the author's page.
• The footer has been made larger site-wide. In addition, the header now indicates the fact the site is in beta, in anticipation of our upcoming launch.
• A bug that prevented publicists (and a few authors) from adding new books to their pages has been fixed.
• A bug that had previously been fixed (but then reappeared) that prevented authors from adding media links to their pages has once again been fixed.

Features Update 7/1/07

Lots of news today. First off, publicists can now include an author's email address when signing up for him or her; the author will then receive a link to create his or her own account, with the appropriate fields filled in automatically. When the author signs up for the site, his or her information will automatically be merged into the publicist's, so the site maintains only a single copy of the relevant author. (The same only-keep-one now applies when an author signs up after his or her information has already appeared on the site as a result of someone else's entering tour dates.) If a publicist tries to sign up on behalf of someone who has already joined the site, the publicist now sees a message to that effect. Also, publicists can now edit information about authors besides their tour dates, including their headshots, media links, and biographies.

In separate news, the "place" search has been notably improved. It now shows places that don't have upcoming events (but still might be of interest). Spacing issues have been fixed. And finally, searching for common cities (like "Los Angeles") without providing the state now works properly.