Finally, a central place where authors and audiences can get together. If you need to stay on top of various book tours (to get signings for those first editions ), or just want to stay on top of the industry, this is the site for you.

Here is the official launch press release:

BookTour.com, a free online service connecting authors and audiences, announced its public launch today. In private beta since June 1, BookTour.com has been showcased at Book Expo America 2007 and the first O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference, where company chairman Chris Anderson (Editor in Chief of Wired Magazine and author of The Long Tail) was a featured presenter.

“BookTour.com uses what’s best about the Internet—decentralization, low barrier to entry and universal access—to create a one-stop tool for book promotion,” said Anderson. “For authors, BookTour makes locating speaking venues totally painless. For the community at large, there’s now a single site for information on when a favorite author is coming to town.”

To take a look at the site, and start marking your calendar, click here.