My apologies to those readers who have been waiting for the tour details for A Changing Land. They have been a little delayed, mainly due to areas that were affected by flooding. I actually put one third of the tour on hold and expected some events to be cancelled. Having experienced our own difficulties in this part of the world I even considered shortening my trip however most of the dates were firmed a couple of weeks ago with only a few cancellations. From my own viewpoint clearly it’s important for businesses to get back to normal, hence the length of the tour – it’s difficult for me to say no to people who have been affected by tempestuous mother nature. Not all tour details are finalised as yet, however I expect every thing to be listed by weeks end (apart from Melb/Brisbane which will be around May). In the meantime if you visit http://nicolealexander.com.au/tours/ you will see a ‘near complete’ listing. I hope to catch up with some of you, ’round the traps’. I had a great time last year meeting new people and catching up with old friends, and was interested to hear book and marketing opinions. What did I learn? There is a lack of interest in facebook and twitter from a lot of people over the age of 45 years (This is Nicole’s Bernard Salt demographic survey via a show of hands at events). ‘Been there, done that,’ was a common refrain, as was ‘time-wasting’. If you’re under that age it’s a slightly different story. The show of hands test weighed heavily in favour of ebooks  for long commuts and overseas holidays, which clearly isn’t a startlingly fresh piece of information, however it does give weight to the type of changes we can expect to see within the book industry over the next decade.The difficulties that Borders and A&R  are experiencing are a progression of the changing face of publishing. On-line retailing, independents and the discounters will have the market covered in the future. How that will pan out for authors in terms of sales will undoubtedly depend on both profile and the quality of the product.