Algonquin “has been hit by a remarkable string of bad luck this spring,” according to a Publishers Weekly report by Steven Zeitchik. “First, Heather Lende, author of the small-town-Alaska memoir If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name got into a terrifying bicycle accident, getting hit by a truck just days before her tour was to start. (She’s recovering, but doctors have said she may have to spend up to a year in a wheelchair).” Then, reports Zeitchik, “just three days before her own tour was to kick off in June, Betsy Carter, author of the first novel, The Orange Blossom Special, . . . was felled by Lyme disease and advised to stay home. Her tour has been cancelled pending further notice.” Algonquin has made author tours a key element of its fiction campaign, notes Zeitchik, and “Its current struggles highlight how, even in the age of satellite media and remote publicity, small publishers still depend heavily on in-person events.”