“I have been able to do all the promotion for everything on Zoom… or on the phone,” says Ms Allende, who is in the midst of online promotional work for her latest novel, Violeta. “It has been great because I have had [more] time, silence and solitude to write.”
Other authors say virtual book tours offer opportunities to those who can’t attend in-person events. One such writer is Angie Thomas, whose young adult fiction books include The Hate U Give, On the Come Up, and Concrete Rose.
“I missed – and I still miss – interacting with readers in person,” she says, speaking from her home in Jackson, Mississippi. “But what I love about doing virtual online events is that readers who maybe wouldn’t have had access before, now have access.
“This includes young readers whose parents might not be able to bring them to in-person events, or readers with restricted mobility. So that’s been a huge advantage, especially for disadvantaged young people who don’t have always the means [to travel].”
