Today I’m excited to add a personal
feature to my posts here on GLIAS, one I hope to post in a regular rotation
with my usual author interviews. I’ve been lucky enough, and still am lucky
enough, to spend a lot of time on the road in fun places (and somber places,
too) where I've learned and experienced so many things that add to my writing
and my books. Naturally, sometimes my adventures distract me from my writing
and I use that excuse a lot when I've procrastinated and am butting up against
a deadline, but in the end, every experience helps answer the question readers
ask me more often than any other: where
do the ideas for my stories come from?
People also want to know exactly
what it’s like to BE an author. Even though I’m not sure they truly want the
answer to that question because it scares even authors, I’d love to share some
insights
One thing is all the rage for
getting authors and readers together lately. Book signing events are being
planned and held all across the country in hotels, festivals and book stores so
regularly, you can find one almost any time of year. These get togethers
can be simple, hours-long signings, they can be several days long and include
reader activities, and they can be expensive, elaborate parties where readers
get to share lunch and goodies with a specific author.
I've recently taken part in several
of these author/reader events. There’s a fun one every June in Deadwood, SD
called Wild Deadwood Reads. There’s a regional one that just had its debut in
Minnesota at the Mall of America. My most recent event was in Madison, WI
called Mayhem in the Midwest. At each of these I’ve had the chance to meet
readers—if even for a short time—and since I’m a total extrovert who gets
jazzed up talking to people, I love it.
What readers may not know is just
what goes into getting ready for an event that looks fairly simple and
straightforward from the outside. I won’t even talk much about the actual
organizers’ jobs—booking venues, arranging tables and seating charts, making a
budget, sometimes choosing a charity to give proceeds to, not to mention
herding the squirrels that writers turn into when allowed to congregate!They
all deserve medals!
For an author, the weeks before an
event are spent gathering book inventories, putting out pre-order forms,
posting on reader groups, promoting, deciding on swag, making or ordering that
swag, and designing a table arrangement that will attract new readers. For
those of us (ahem) who aren’t the best at getting things done ahead of
time—this presents a challenge and requires the equivalent of a business degree
and part time job hours.
True confession: more times than once I’ve had bookmarks
delivered TO the hotel. This last time, I learned how quickly a 6-foot banner
could be ordered and delivered to a hotel, and how much extra it costs to ship
it rush (answers: in four days and $8.99).
It’s always hard to tell if going
through the contortions of booking tables, reserving hotel rooms, paying for
hotel rooms, and setting up hours ahead of the event has a good return on
investment. What I do know, is that it’s always fun for me, and I hope
every time I participate that I’ll find a new reader or meet someone who’s read
my books and is looking to meet me. Those moments make everything I do as an
author totally worth hassles and deadline angst!
I’d like to know whether you’ve ever
attended an author signing event and if so, did you enjoy it? Did you go to
meet a certain author or did you go just to browse for potential new books? If
you’ve never been, do they sound fun to you? How far would you travel to see a
favorite author?
All of us here at GLIAS have been at
book signings, and some of us have met our fave GLIAS readers while doing so.
This is one of the things that’s now part and parcel of being a writer and I’d
love to take you all along to my next event. Hope you’ll look one up and
consider coming to say hi in person!
Check out my latest two books--the ones I'm touting at my author-reader events!
"Betting On Paradise"--Book #4 in my Seven Brides for Seven Cowboys series. And "Missing By a Heartbeat"--my addition to the Chandler County series!
See you on the road soon!!
