Elaine and Bill Petrocelli of Book Passage Visit New York Publishers

The Petrocellis are in New York this week for Book Expo America, the huge books convention. They stopped by Harper Collins to have a chat.

Book Passage puts on about 700 author events in its two stores, one in San Francisco and one in Corte Madera. Elaine says the success of an author event has a great deal to do with how much publicity a book or author has received. She argues to publishers that it's better to send an author on tour a few weeks after a book launches, rather than right away, which is the common practice. That way reviews are out, twitter tweets are circulating, and buzz is building, so more people are apt to come to reading.

The Petrocellis also talk about the genesis of their various conferences -- a children's book conference and a mystery conference. They are thinking about adding a food writing conference.