Togather Helps Authors Connect With Readers IRL

AUSTIN — After Andrew Kessler published his book Martian Summer, the story of the year he spent shadowing NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander mission, he was eager to do anything and everything to promote it.

"I got a lot of non-specific advice to connect with 'my audience' and build 'my platform,' but everyone in the publishing industry tried to dissuade me from doing a book tour," he told Mashable. So instead, Kessler tried other stunts last year like giving away one million digital copies of the book in a single night and opening up a pop-up bookstore for his book and his book only. While these efforts got him a fair amount of press, Kessler found it didn't do as much to sell copies of the book as good old fashioned readings.