Cutting their own checks: authors seek help to plug their own books after cuts by publishers | Publishing | The Guardian

Katherine Reay has written a dozen novels. When The Berlin Letters, her most recent, hit the shelves earlier this year, she embarked upon a 30-stop promotional book tour.

"I love the personal connection," she says. "So when I was given the opportunity to hire someone who had a specialty in bookstore events - events that I did not have the time nor the knowledge to plan myself - I thought that was a good use of my time and resources."

The tour was not organized by Reay's publisher, Harper Muse, an imprint of HarperCollins, which organized its own promotion of the book. Reay footed the bill for the tour herself.