Was Wilkie Collins's American reading tour a success? Unfortunately, that question cannot be answered in an unequivocal affirmative. Whether it met his expectations will never fully be known. We have seen that his own descriptions of his public reception often contradicted the tone of newspaper reviews. His account, in a letter to Dion Boucicault, that he ‘riveted’ his Albany audience contrasted with the newspaper review of that event that questioned his success as a speaker. The reviewer in a New Bedford newspaper observed that Collins had ‘no power of voice’ and that it was lost to ‘the ill-mannered crowd’ while the same article reported that Collins was ‘delighted with his audience’. In a letter written in 1874 by Mary Bradford, wife of painter William Bradford whom Collins had visited in New Bedford, she alludes to Collins's acceptance in America:

He did not get to San Francisco to see his cousins, the Grays, and he did not even get as far as Utah, as he had written optimistically to Fred Lehmann. In spite of his allusions to the positive effect of the American climate on his health, he complained of the train journeys that sacrificed his ailing back to ceaseless jostling and his eardrums to the incessant clacking of the rails. He used the hardships of train travel as an excuse for the reduced number of speaking engagements he could consecutively manage.

Collins believed he had been cheated by the American Literary Bureau and had confronted unappreciative audiences and critical reviews. His problems with the American Literary Bureau had resulted in far fewer speaking engagements, and thus far less income, than he had anticipated. Bad press, both in reviewing his readings and in reporting exorbitant ticket prices and failed appearances, left a bad impression for both reader and audience.