In addition to being one of the best fiction writers of our age, Margaret Atwood is a savvy blogger and social media maven. She’s got a dynamite Web site for her new book, The Year of the Flood,  is active on Twitter and knows book tours like no other writer.

On her blog, Ms. Atwood gives 15 helpful tips for surviving a book tour, all of which I can endorse. I’d also add a couple of my own, including:

16) Always carry two copies of your book, one to gesture with and/or prop on the table in front of you during your speech, just in case the bookseller hasn’t arrived when you start.

17) Carry an extra day’s supply of anything important — meds, socks, underwear, chocolate — in case of travel delays. You don’t want to be without your essentials.

Thanks for the suggestions, Ms. Atwood! Here’s hoping some of your great good fortune rubs off on my modest book, too.

Looking for a personalized gift for the business book reader in your family? Interested in something unique to give your clients? I’ll be happy to autograph copies of The Selling of the American Economy. Send an email to michelinemaynard at gmail dot com for instructions on how to obtain them.

This week, I’ll be visiting one of my favorite places, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Michael Useem at Wharton has always provided helpful insights for my stories in the New York Times, and I’ll be speaking to his students about NUMMI, the soon to be defunct joint venture between G.M. and Toyota in Fremont, Calif.

The U.A.W. is pushing to land new work at the plant, which is scheduled to close by spring. Here’s a story about their efforts from the San Jose Mercury News.

I’ll be headed west — to the Midwest — on the next phase of my book tour.

On Tuesday, Nov. 17, I’ll be visiting the University of Missouri, a very special place to me. My papers are part of the National Women and Media section of the Western Historical Manuscript Collection, which is housed at Columbia, Mo. It’s an honor to be included with outstanding women like Suzanne Levine, Sarah McClendon, Geneva Overholser and Sylvia Porter.

I’m speaking at 1 p.m. to students and the public at the Physics Building, with a reception and book signing to follow.

On Wednesday, Nov. 18, I’m back in Chicago to speak to the Labor and Employment Relations Association, which meets at 11:30 a.m. at John Marshall Law School.

And on Thursday, Nov. 19, I’m taking part in a panel discussion at 2 p.m. as part of the US-China Chamber conference on finance and investment. It’s particularly timely session given President Obama’s trip to Asia.

Hope to see you at one of my appearances.

Thanks to everybody at Dartmouth, Columbia and especially the Japan Society of New York

At The Japan Society of New York

for hosting me at my first round appearances to talk about the book. The conversations have been lively, to say the least, and your questions have been thought provoking. Clearly, foreign investment in the United States is something we can talk for hours about.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be speaking in Ann Arbor, Mich., Columbia, Mo., and Chicago about the book. Check the schedule and please come join the debate.

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This week, the book was featured on two NPR programs: All Things Considered and The Takeaway.

I talked with Robert Siegal about the book on Tuesday evening’s program, which you can listen to here.

And on Wednesday, I visited the studios of WNYC in New York for an interview with John Hockenberry and Celeste Headlee. The show also featured Amy Lindsey, who is featured in the book’s introduction. You might remember her as the “Estee Lauder lady” who traded a cosmetician’s smock for an assembly line uniform.

My book tour officially kicks off on Monday at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Dartmouth’s associate dean, Matthew Slaughter, was an advisor while I was working on The Selling of the American Economy, and I’m looking forward to seeing him, meeting with students and talking with faculty.

On Wednesday evening, I’ll be speaking at The Japan Society in New York, and holding a book signing. On Thursday, I’ll meet with journalism students at Columbia University. Both those places were instrumental in my career. I was a Japan Society media fellow in 2002, and a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Business and Economics Journalism at Columbia.

There will be interviews, too. I’m scheduled to appear on The Takeaway on WNYC, on CNN and on MSNBC. I’ll post info and links as those approach.

This week, former auto czar Steven Rattner writes in Fortune Magazine about the Obama Administration’s decision to rescue General Motors and Chrysler. The toughest decision faced by the president’s advisors, he says, was whether to let Chrysler go under.

Too many jobs, and auto suppliers were at stake to let that happen. “Yet Chrysler’s cupboard was bare. We did not believe we could under write its viability without a strong corporate partner, so we turned our attention to a single possibility, an overture from Fiat.”

The story of how an Italian auto company came to the rescue of an American icon, with the blessing of an American president, is an example how foreign investment has become an integral part of the economy. Read more on the Chrysler-Fiat story in the book.

My colleague Michelle Higgins writes about the $100 million renovation of the Pierre Hotel on the Times’ InTransit blog. The Pierre is managed by Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, one of the most important companies in India’s Tata Group.

You can read more about Tata — and Raymond Bickson, the CEO of Taj Hotels — in The Selling of the American Economy.