Bookstore Tourism Blog Will Offer Tips, Updates, Insights and Humor About Grassroots Project for Book Addicts

Harrisburg, PA (PRWEB) April 15, 2005

Larry Portzline, creator of the “Bookstore Tourism” concept and author of the book by the same name, has launched a blog to share updates about the project, tips and ideas for booklovers, and insights about the bookselling and publishing industries.

Portzline said the Bookstore Tourism Blog will serve as a companion to his website, BookstoreTourism.com, and will give him more flexibility to reach out to fans and invite them to interact and share their ideas.

The blog’s address is bookstoretourism.blogspot.com.

“The blog is a great way to keep the information flowing in a timely way,” said Portzline. “It’ll be very interactive, so I’m hoping to hear from booklovers across the country and around the world who want to start Bookstore Tourism efforts of their own, no matter how big or small.”

Posts from the blog’s first week include an update on Portzline’s efforts to promote the project; tips for starting “Bookstore Adventure Clubs” and “Bookstore Exchange Trips”; a list of author homes that literary travelers can visit; some advice about self-publishing; and a humorous piece called “The Hazards of Giving a Presentation Facing Backward on a Speeding Bus.”

“The majority of posts will be very useful, but some will be just for fun,” Portzline said. “It’s tough to be serious when you’re talking about someone throwing up during your prepared remarks, or about the bus almost leaving somebody behind at a fast food joint.”

Portzline says future posts will address a wide variety of topics, from competition in the bookselling industry to publicizing his book, from working with travel agents to anecdotes about what goes wrong or right along the way.

A writer and college instructor in Harrisburg, PA, Portzline was a jury member for Publishers Weekly’s 2005 Bookseller of the Year Award. He is the author of “Bookstore Tourism: The Book Addict’s Guide to Planning & Promoting Bookstore Road Trips for Bibliophiles & Other Bookshop Junkies" ($10, Bookshop Junkie Press, ISBN 0-9758934-0-8).

The Chicago Tribune said, “This little volume might be just the thing to get people not only reading again but visiting their local independents. Spread the word.” USA Today called it “A charming alternative.” The Boston Globe said, “Larry Portzline has taken a novel idea on the road.” Publishers Weekly said “Bookstore Tourism might be the beginning of a new concept in bookselling.” The Midwest Book Review called it “as much fun as it is informational” and “one of the most inexpensive and useful book-oriented resources.”

New articles about Bookstore Tourism appear in the May/June issue of Pages magazine and the May issue of Newsweek’s Budget Travel.

Portzline plans to release a companion book, “The Bookstore Tourism Travel Journal for Book Addicts on the Go,” this summer.

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Contact:

Larry Portzline

(717) 541-0710

info@bookstoretourism.com