So this month I've been crazy busy with signings, conference appearances, and travel. In fact im writing this post in a hotel room on an ipad... And i have no idea how to do the picture thing to add to the post on this gadget, so you will all have to seriously use your imaginations.
This promotional stuff isn't cheap...as you mentioned, Jenna. And Lois, as you so humorously shared with us, truth is ALWAYS stranger than fiction. So last weekend I was in Florida at Disney, in a far too expensive resort hotel attending a small lesbian writing conference. We have about 150 people attend every year, so we were definitely teeny fish in a very large koi pond.
So the first thing I notice is that this humongous hotel has a great number of conference rooms and the hotel was absolutely maximizing the use of their conference space. Along with us, we crossed paths with a conference of pregnant women. I'm not sure what they were talking about, maybe the best breathing techniques or treatments for chafed baby bottoms. Then as we went down a set of escalators, a new conference was setting up. Sure enough, that sign DID read Annual Meeting of Funeral Directors. This came complete with a room specially equipped to handle vendor displays of the latest in coffins and hearses. Nothing like walking by the room and seeing caskets propped open, just waiting to be filled. Of course, morbid curiosity overcame me and a couple friends one evening when we were coming in from a late supper. No one was around, and the doors to the vendors room of death were closed. Being, shall we say, intrepidly inquisitive, I tried the doors. To my surprise, they popped right open. One of the gals I was skulking around with whipped out her camera and started taking pictures. Just as the flashes began going off, this guy, all dressed like The Men In Black, complete with FBI earpiece, bursts from a door not far away and comes charging right for us. All we could make out before we ran for our very lives was him yelling into his lapel mike, "C3 to base, we have a breach." Needless to say, we busted a move and got our fannies out of there.
The next day, the Boy Scouts moved in on one side of our vendor area. A meeting a physicians filled the space on our other side. Too bad they weren't around a couple of days later when a few of our members were stricken with food poisoning.
The day before we were finished, the hotel came and rudely kicked us out of our vendor area. The same vendor area we were contracted to have throughout the following day. After a heated verbal exchange between the hotel and our con director, the conference bookstore and seven other vendors were kicked to the curb and forced to re-set up in a room that was even further away from the breakout rooms. This was done so a huge wedding could move in where we had been. Then a few drunk attendees of said wedding threatened to come and teach us a lesson. After some very non-veiled threats by one of our board members to the wedding planner, everything remained calm, and no one wound up in any of the display coffins.
So, in the space of four days, I think I have witnessed enough unbelievable, yet true fodder for three or four new books! Reality is absolutely way way way more crazy than fiction ever could be!!!!
Showing posts with label book conferences. book festivals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book conferences. book festivals. Show all posts
Monday, June 20, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
FOR THE LOVE OF BOOK (do something)!
Darrell James
On almost any week of the year there is a book event going on somewhere. A writer’s conference. A book festival. Readers and writers come together for two, three, four days, to share in a mutual appreciation of the written word. Book festival grounds are lined with booths, the aisles teem with book lovers. There are festivities and receptions surrounding the event. In adjacent halls, book panels are conducted and speakers discuss latest works. At conferences there are luncheon speakers, dinner receptions, panels, workshops, author venues, agent venues…
In the next few weeks alone, there will be more than two dozen book events across the country. It’s a glorious thing. And attending one can be inspiring for readers and writers alike.
But how do these events come about? What does it take to pull one off?
In the upcoming weeks alone, we will see The Tucson Festival of Books unfold on the University of Arizona Campus, March 12-13; Left Coast Crime Writers Conference in Santa Fe, March 24-27; the Los Angeles Time Festival of Books will draw more than a hundred-thousand attendees, April 30-May 1; Book Expo will see publishers from around the world in New York, May 23-26; California Crime Writers Conference, June 11-12, in Pasadena, CA.
And that’s but a few.
If you are an avid reader and have never attended a book conference or festival, pick one in your area and attend. I’m sure you’ll come away inspired to read more. Perhaps, even, to write a book or two.
But while you’re there, stop and take a moment a look around at the beehive of activity. Consider the hundreds of organizers, volunteers, workers, and servers, speakers and authors who put their time into making it an entertaining, educational, and motivational experience. And all for the love of the book.
Care to throw your own book festival? Or join us at one of the above?
On almost any week of the year there is a book event going on somewhere. A writer’s conference. A book festival. Readers and writers come together for two, three, four days, to share in a mutual appreciation of the written word. Book festival grounds are lined with booths, the aisles teem with book lovers. There are festivities and receptions surrounding the event. In adjacent halls, book panels are conducted and speakers discuss latest works. At conferences there are luncheon speakers, dinner receptions, panels, workshops, author venues, agent venues…
In the next few weeks alone, there will be more than two dozen book events across the country. It’s a glorious thing. And attending one can be inspiring for readers and writers alike.
But how do these events come about? What does it take to pull one off?
Authors
Juliet Blackwell, Sophie Littlefield, Naomi Hirahara
L.A. Times Festival of Books
My wife, Diana, and I have been part of the organizational planning for a number of book events over the past five to six years. I can tell you it is nothing short of phenomenal, the amount of work that goes on.
Scores of volunteers come together. Committees are assigned. Hotel locations are arranged. Book sellers are identified. Agents and editors are queried. Programming is outlined. Faculty authors and speakers are confirmed. Meals are planned. Someone is in charge of merchandising. Someone else handles registration. One or more prepare raffle baskets and collect giveaways. Sponsors are sought. Programs are designed. Advertising is sold. There are printers involved, attendee badges to be created. Monies to be collected and checks to be written. Caterers need coordinating. Crowds need to be controlled. There’s security personnel, emergency personnel, traffic cops, and venue guides. A team collects trash…
If your head is spinning, consider the chaos that reigns in the months leading up to a single event. Then multiply it my the dozens and dozens of book events that go on throughout the year.
Scores of volunteers come together. Committees are assigned. Hotel locations are arranged. Book sellers are identified. Agents and editors are queried. Programming is outlined. Faculty authors and speakers are confirmed. Meals are planned. Someone is in charge of merchandising. Someone else handles registration. One or more prepare raffle baskets and collect giveaways. Sponsors are sought. Programs are designed. Advertising is sold. There are printers involved, attendee badges to be created. Monies to be collected and checks to be written. Caterers need coordinating. Crowds need to be controlled. There’s security personnel, emergency personnel, traffic cops, and venue guides. A team collects trash…
If your head is spinning, consider the chaos that reigns in the months leading up to a single event. Then multiply it my the dozens and dozens of book events that go on throughout the year.
Jeri Westerson, Darrell James, Diana James, James Lincoln Warren; Left Coast Crmime Writers Conference, Los Angeles 2010
In the upcoming weeks alone, we will see The Tucson Festival of Books unfold on the University of Arizona Campus, March 12-13; Left Coast Crime Writers Conference in Santa Fe, March 24-27; the Los Angeles Time Festival of Books will draw more than a hundred-thousand attendees, April 30-May 1; Book Expo will see publishers from around the world in New York, May 23-26; California Crime Writers Conference, June 11-12, in Pasadena, CA.
And that’s but a few.
If you are an avid reader and have never attended a book conference or festival, pick one in your area and attend. I’m sure you’ll come away inspired to read more. Perhaps, even, to write a book or two.
But while you’re there, stop and take a moment a look around at the beehive of activity. Consider the hundreds of organizers, volunteers, workers, and servers, speakers and authors who put their time into making it an entertaining, educational, and motivational experience. And all for the love of the book.
Care to throw your own book festival? Or join us at one of the above?
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