A book advance is no free lunch! Authors who actually sell lots of their books find that the promotion song-and-dance is eating up more of their time—and possibly, their dignity! When will they find time to write—instead of, say, appearing in a Bloomingdale's advert or making a cameo on a soap opera?

From the Boston Herald:

Best-selling author Jennifer Weiner, ("Good in Bed" and this summer's release "Certain Girls," Atria, $26.95) admitted it is an interesting time in the book world, adding that publishers expect and sometimes require an author to be an integral part of branding.

"And that, in doing so, you'll help them earn back the advance they gave you," Weiner wrote in an e-mail. "They expect that you'll sit for the video interview at Barnes & Noble's Web site, that you'll build a MySpace [website] page for yourself and maybe even for your characters, that you'll do phone-ins with book clubs and online interviews with lit blogs and write magazine pieces about your lifelong struggle with enlarged pores, provided the magazine will mention your latest book in the tagline."