Francis Hamit’s very enjoyable Civil War novel Shenandoah Spy deserves all the accolades it’s received. And Hamit’s online analysis of his publishing and publicity strategies is an incredible resource for professional writers.

Just today he pointed out (via Chaos Manor) a website any writer can use to publicize his own schedule of appearances, BookTour.com.

For example, Hamit’s own page shows his next signing will be Saturday, July 26 at 3 p.m. in Russos Books (9000 Ming Ave., Bakersfield, CA 93311. And there will be a string of future stops in Texas and New Mexico.

The page design is simple and uncluttered: appearance info on the right half, author and book info on the left. Next to Hamit’s picture is a brief biography. Below it is a thumbnail of the book cover, which is a link to Amazon.com. (That link, actually.)

I wondered how widely-accepted BookTour.com already is, so as an experiment, I name-searched some of the sf authors most adept at promoting their work online. My first attempt drew a blank, but my second attempt returned Cory Doctorow’s page. This is a site fans will rely on increasingly as time goes by.