I would imagine they were already doing so. NYC book stores in general. And most of the ones still standing are on the famous end. There’s cache to appearing at a NYC bookstore, but especially to appearing at The Strand, or Midtown Comics. So it happens a lot. Like there was a Shakespeare specialty store, and Al Pachino “stopped in” to buy a copy of Merchant of Venice when he was in Merchant of Venice. Because he needed a copy of the play he’d already been in for months.
The specialist ones are usually pretty plugged into whatever scene their involved in. Like the Mysterious Book Store, which only sells mysteries, thrillers, and true crime books. Especially rare and out of print ones. Is pretty central (along with a handful of other book stores around the country) to the whole True Crime Boom. Anyone of significance in that scene has started a book tour there, or done a live podcast there. Or recieved an unsolicited box of research materials as a form of advertising. There’s almost always some weird murder related event at that place.
And from what I remember this place was similar. I think what changes is you go from “The cast of Cats is signing subway maps at this weird bookstore where theater students buy their homework” to “Good Morning America now takes you live to the cast of Star Wars singing show tunes at that bookstore Hamilton owns.”
All the people involved with Hamilton have been pretty agressive about this sort of thing. During the height of the craze they were doing most of their press events from their own neighborhood bodegas, and public school playgrounds and shit.
