I&#039;ve done a lot of travel these last couple of years and hope to cut down next. Mainly that&#039;s been because I have to support a lot of different publishers in different languages. And it&#039;s to do with the career stage too. Mostly I go to festivals though, not book stores. Festivals and conventions generally speaking are worthwhile - should have emphasised that more perhaps. It varies from country to country. Book store events are just about alive in the US I guess. Pretty much moribund in Europe in any meaningful way. Festivals on the other hand seem to be going from strength to strength here.