The Long Tail

July 10, 2007

BookTour.com is live!

I'm delighted to report that at 12:01 this morning, my side-project/startup, BookTour.com, went live. We've been in a closed beta since announcing the company at BookExpo in June, and the progress our CTO, Adam Goldstein, has made on site since then, with invaluable help and feedback from our beta testers, is nothing short of amazing.

Here's the way we describe the site on our about page:

BookTour.com was founded in late 2006 by three authors who believe that technology can transform how authors find receptive groups of readers.

We're a free online service that connects authors and potential audiences of all sorts, from book groups to civic organizations, from bookstores to corporate events. Authors create their own page (biography, books, tour dates and availability) and any group looking for speakers can find them and contact them directly to arrange for an appearance. Relevant information for both authors and venues can be added in minutes through a simple fill-in-the-blanks interface. Connecting authors with potential audiences then becomes as easy as searching (by geography, book titles, subject, dates of availability) and sending an email.

For authors, BookTour.com serves as a one-stop tool for book promotion, allowing authors at all levels of their careers to locate receptive live audiences. For readers and audiences, BookTour.com makes finding when a favorite author is coming to your town as easy as checking the weather.

BookTour is based in San Francisco, the city that buys more books (and wine) per capita than any in America.

At this point the site is fully functional and, I dare say, even useful. Check it out, type in your zip code, and see what turns up. You may be surprised at how many interesting people are touring the country to speak about their books and are looking for audiences just like you.

There was just no good way to find out about these events--or, just as importantly, request one yourself--before. Now there is. We've got a good fraction of the current authors on tour and their existing events in our database already and we've adding dozens of new ones each day. Someday we hope to have them all, both in the US and elsewhere. But for now, I'm proud as can be about what Adam and Kevin Smokler, our other co-founder, have done.

The powerful web tools available today, from Ruby on Rails to MySQL, are just astounding--what we built in three months and at the cost of a few thousand dollars would have taken years and millions of dollars in the mid-90s. I'm still not quite sure what Web 2.0 means, but if this is what it enables, I like it!

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Comments

(1) The layout needs to be clearer (no space between the Author's Name and the "at" for several people).

(2) I find it difficult to believe that there are no readings this coming Saturday in the entire NYC area.

Looks as if it will be useful.

Posted by: Ken Houghton | July 10, 2007 at 11:47 AM

Chris -

Not sure if you've seen the continued problems with ads on your site... http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2007/07/mileage_software

I get an ad for some olympus camera that floats and covers the screen - and the close button pops up a new screen, not closing the ad. I can't read the article!

Just thought you might like to know...

Tony

Posted by: TonyLeachSF | July 10, 2007 at 12:13 PM

I'd like to sign up (I'm an author), but I live in the United Kingdom (England), so don't have a US Zip Code.

I'm definitely at the long end of the long tail of authors, but we do have authors over here who are in the head, let alone the "fatter end of the long tail".

Posted by: Mark Harrison | July 10, 2007 at 12:20 PM

Chris, love the site, as an avid book reader will definitely use something like this. I just ask for one change, in the list of authors after doing a search, please include a description of what they will be talking about or a small blurb on who they are. Don't want to keep clicking on every name to find out. Apologies if I'm being dumb and missing something.

Posted by: Paul Soldera | July 10, 2007 at 01:30 PM

Tony:

Thanks for the head's up. We pulled that ad.

Ken and Paul:

Thanks for the good suggestions. I've passed them on to Adam.

Posted by: Chris Anderson | July 10, 2007 at 03:30 PM

Very cool idea - hopefully I will show up on it eventually!

Posted by: James Taylor | July 10, 2007 at 10:12 PM

Nifty! Is it rude to ask a bit more about your development process? Did you contract it out to a Ruby on Rails shop, hire a developer yourself, or are Kevin and Adam coders? This is a terrific elaboration on the original virtual book tour idea.

Posted by: Stephen Fraser | July 11, 2007 at 10:02 AM

Coolio! OK, so I fibbed and gave a friend's zip code in the NYC since I'm based in Perth, Australia. I have done author appearances in the US though, and at least 90% of my readership is there, so I figured a little fib would be forgiveable :)

Speaking of authorship, I'd love to get a signed copy of the Long Tail to give as a prize at the Byte Me! Digital Content Festival I'm running in December, since it was largely inspired by the Long Tail. How about it, Chris? You're welcome to come over and be a Guest Speaker if you like - we have no budget, but we have lots of sunshine and very nice beaches!

best, kat =^..^=

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Posted by: fgfoere | July 17, 2007 at 01:37 PM

I'd love to get a signed copy of the Long Tail to give as a prize at the Byte Me! Digital Content Festival I'm running in December, since it was largely inspired by the Long Tail. How about it, Chris?

Posted by: versions | July 17, 2007 at 01:45 PM

Chris site looks simple and neat. I browsed the sub pages, when I tried to go to homepage from sub-page I found that there is no 'home' link then I found that we need to click BookTour title to go to homepage.It'll be easier if you provide the 'home' link in every sub-page....
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Posted by: sakthi | July 18, 2007 at 12:59 AM

Is there an error on page 165, as the increase of commercial time is up over 77%, not "nearly 50 percent", as stated?

Posted by: Scott | July 30, 2007 at 05:51 PM

What an interesting idea.

Posted by: patricia | July 31, 2007 at 12:36 PM

Hi Chris,

As a potential user, I would like to be able to simply search by ZIP code without having to register. For some reason the site thinks I am Chicago, when I am in Virginia and my ISP is in Arizona. When I clicked on "change it" on the main page, I was presented with form to fill out. I think the site should show you the info about appearances without having to register and then require registration if something whets your appetite. I'm sure this will also generate more interest on behalf of your authors.

Regarding the form - I'm not prepared to give up some personal information to a new site without knowing if it will benefit me - even though it is one of yours. And I'm certainly wary about giving information to a site with a data entry form that isn't secured with https!

Hope this helps!
Sian

PS - I emailed you directly on another topic tonight - hope we can talk about that....

Posted by: Sian Simon | August 02, 2007 at 09:09 PM

Booktour.com is a company and in the end company's should be profitable. I am the first to admit I don't understand much about all the new business models and stuff. So please, can anyone explain to me the business model of Booktour.com? How is the company going to generate income? I'm puzzled but intrigued.

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Posted by: wowgolder | August 04, 2007 at 07:44 PM

Hi Chris,

Why limit your scope to books alone? What about the (long tail?) of articles published in academic journals (that may or may not sink without trace, cf. here: http://interorganisational.org/2007/08/02/is-that-bloody-mary-lacking-a-tabasco/)

Academics are often asked by companies to give a key-note speach at business seminars, to provide provocative session or simply to address a particular topic at a breakfast meeting for employees, customers and suppliers. Currently, companies must contact academics individually, usually from a local university not knowing that there may be other speakers of interest in that city at a particular date. This may indeed also work the other way around.

Árni

Posted by: Árni Halldórsson | August 06, 2007 at 12:27 AM

I don't know if you have seen this,
http://blogs.smh.com.au/entertainment/archives/undercover/014948.html?page=fullpage#comments

and I noticed this article as well

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/009263.html

If this is the way some bookstores are going to do business in Australia, there may not be any where for Book tour to send us.

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