Virtual Book Festivals Run By Major Publishers Take Off in UK

It was a risk as to how the virtual festival book would be perceived by fans, authors and publishers,' admits Sam Missingham, the new head of events at HarperCollins Publishing and the driving force behind the first-ever virtual Romance Festival, a two-day event that was held in cyberspace this past June.

"But my remit was to develop ideas to engage readers with authors and if you are genuinely going to be fan-facing then it has to be like this.