AuthorsDen.com Archives ⋆ Be the Cat

I Wanna Balloon!

Liana Gardner — Sun, 10 May 2009 19:55:19 +0000

One thing that happened at the San Diego Children’s Book Festival, which I forgot to put in my recap of the event had to do with the AuthorsDen booth. As with the Los Angeles Time Festival of Books, Matt and Jackie Miller brought balloons to hand to children who came by the booth. Their sons worked all throughout the festivals blowing the balloons up with the helium tanks and tying the ribbons on. Early on in the day, Jackie had a handful of balloons and was standing outside the booth, hoping to draw attention to the AuthorsDen booth and provide additional exposure for the authors who were conducting signings. Well, one of the festival coordinators stopped by to let them know that an ordinance had recently passed in the city of San Diego banning balloons. It was very strange because while they could not stand outside the booth and hand out balloons, it was ok to have the balloons inside the booth as long as they tied it to something prior to the departure of the balloon (and attached child) prior to leaving the booth. The ironic thing was that Jackie had already tied the loops into the bottom of the ribbons so that when giving the balloon to the child all she had to do was slip the loop over the child’s hand. One of the lessons learned from the LA festival.

I do understand the environmental concerns with balloons escaping into the sky, but what would a childrens event be without balloons? And, it may only be me, but seriously, an ordinance governing balloons? There was one other booth that had balloons and that was the booth making balloon sculptures, so being one of the few places to get a balloon made the AuthorsDen booth very popular throughout the day.

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LK Griffie
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit: Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
For other e-book formats, visit Smashwords.com
To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

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The Trip to San Diego

Liana Gardner — Sun, 10 May 2009 05:16:46 +0000

The day dawned gloomy and overcast. After the mini-heat wave which gave us a taste of the summer weather to come, we were glad to have a bit of a chill in the air. After loading the car up, Denny and I headed out to make the 80 mile drive down to the San Diego Children’s Book Festival. I, for one, was hoping the weather would stay a little on the chilly side. A little gloom never hurt anyone, and I tend to melt in the heat. As we were approaching San Diego, horror of horrors, precipitation was falling out of the sky and landing on my windshield. I didn’t want the weather to be that gloomy.

We arrived at the book festival, which was held in a location where no GPS could find, nor MapQuest or Google Maps. According to one of the other authors who attended, the only site which had proper directions was Yahoo. I put the approximate address in the GPS and decided that once we got off the freeway, I’d pull off and we could pull up the internet really quick to see if we could find better directions. It turned out that wasn’t necessary as the festival coordinators had the way marked very well with signs. We parked at the Library and then walked across the street. Although a short distance, the walk was quite lengthy as the area was fenced in and there appeared to be one way in and one way out, which included going to the far edge of the parking lot (for authorized people only), then back through the parking lot to the stairs (or ramp) and then to your booth. The AuthorsDen booth was along the backside of the park where the book festival was being housed, and toward the street end, so as the crow flies it wouldn’t have been far at all. We dropped off the first load of stuff and I sent Denny on ahead and told him I’d meet him at the car. He had quite a bit of a headstart and decided to go back the way we came in. I figured there had to be a shorter way, and sure enough I found it. Denny was surprised to see me coming from the opposite direction and catching up to him as he prepared to cross the street.

The weather did manage to make a turn for the better during my signing and the gloomy clouds gave way to sunshine and a nice breeze. Denny and I found a nice table under an awning to have our lunch to get me out of the sun for a bit. I also had to go back to the car and get my floppy orange hat that I wear to the Titan games on Sundays to keep my from getting too much sun on my face. (We had already put sunscreen on before arriving at the event.)

My signing times were 10:00 – 10:30 and 3:00 – 3:30, so since the festival opened at 10:00, I was the first one up. I brought my laptop so that I could play my book trailer for Misfit McCabe, which worked out fairly well. Unfortunately, unlike the LA Times Festival of Books, at the opening of the San Diego Book Festival, actual customers were sparse. Afterward people did start coming in and there were a fair number of people in attendance. There were a lot of families with young children, moms and their small children, and babies in strollers everywhere. What was interesting was that while there were children’s books and children’s authors there, we did see quite a few young adult books on display and young adult authors, however, the actual young adults in attendance were very meager.

Denny and I took the opportunity of this being a smaller venue than the LA Times festival and caught a few of the featured talks on the stage. DJ McHale spoke about his Pendragon series and he was quite entertaining to listen to. DJ also read an exerpt of chapter 1 from a new series that he is working on. To me it sounded much more like a prologue than chapter 1, but as he explained it was a very rough draft. I gave him credit for having the guts to share something at that stage of the writing process, something he confessed he had never done before. I’m not sure I would have the courage to do that. We also sat in on the session of Mad Science, and that had a great deal of audience participation. The Mad Science guy (sorry I don’t know his name as we caught it after it started) was choosing kids from the audience to come up and help him, and every time he asked for volunteers, a young teen in a bright pink shirt with a paperbag hat decorated with caution tape practically leapt out of her chair to stick her hand in the air. Unfortunately, he simply was choosing from the next to the back row, and her hopes of being selected continued to be dashed. As he was winding his show up, he asked for volunteers, and of course, her hand shot straight into the air, and Denny and I then put our hands in the air and began to point at her. She was so excited to have been chosen for the task. So, you’re welcome, Danielle.

Even though I didn’t make any sales, the day was not a total loss. I was glad to have the chance to reconnect with children’s author Mary Coe and to meet her family, as well as meet and talk with authors Janice Lease, Gayle Martin, and Shirley Woods. I also made some additional contacts while handing out more bookmarks. As with most things in the authorship game, you cast out your offerings and don’t know whether or not there will be any returns until later. One good contact made was with Edward Pyne of the Union Herald Tribune. Edward saw Denny and I walking by with our t-shirts which have the Where in the World is Misfit McCabe? map on the front, and a picture of the cover for Nowhere Feels Like Home on the back, and he was intrigued. We chatted for a few moments and the end result is that Edward is in the process of starting up a new website which will have author interviews, and after he gets the website up and running, he would like to interview me. Which, if it comes to pass, will be quite exciting.

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Signing Times Received

Liana Gardner — Fri, 08 May 2009 05:54:03 +0000

This is going to be a very short post to let everyone know the times I will be conducting signings at the San Diego Children’s Book Festival.

I will be signing from 10:00 – 10:30 and then again from 15:00 – 15:30 (3 – 3:30 PM for those of you who have difficult with military time). So, I will pretty much be starting off the festival and closing it down. That gives me a nice chunk of time in the middle to get out there and try and hand out some bookmarks and other handouts to hopefully drum up a few sales.

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LA Times Festival of Books – Day 2

Liana Gardner — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:33:10 +0000

Day 2 of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books continued what day 1 had started. The sheer volume of people was incredible. When Denny and I took a stroll throughout the entire campus to see what the festival had to offer, we were in awe. The children’s book area in particular was a mad house. For A Whale of a Tale Bookshoppe, the line was at least 25 deep, shoulder to shoulder. It was kind of difficult to tell though because one line blended into another and took on the amorphous look of a mob. I think the pictures help illustrate the volume of people. Of course, I couldn’t actually get the pic I really wanted. At the top of the stairs between clumps of tent cities that dotted the campus, there was a great shot looking down at the tops of the tents, and nothing but a solid mass of people in between. Incredible. If I had stopped to try and take the picture that I wanted, I would have been knocked down the stairs by the throng behind me. Not a trip I wanted to take.

I kept my eyes peeled as we walked through the festival looking for new and different ways to market books. There were a few eye-catching displays, but overall, much of the same from booth to booth. One booth pushing a book on tennis and life had a tennis racket at the corner and you could try and hit a tennis ball into the holes in a brightly colored wooden stand inside the booth. While it drew quite a few people to the booth, I’m not sure asking people to swing a racket while surrounded by so many people was the brightest idea.

Our booth was actually located very well. We were directly across from the Culinary Stage, so we had lots of people coming by to watch the cooking demonstration. Plus, the $5 bookstore booth was just past us and we were on the way in (and out), so did actually get quite a bit of good foot traffic. Instead of watching the culinary show while I was conducting my signings, I had Denny take a book and some bookmarks to try and direct some traffic my direction. It did work. He started targeting those he thought were tweens, and they were very pleased to think that someone had written a book just for them.

I was pleased enough with the event, that I am going to participate in the AuthorsDen.com booth for the San Diego Children’s Book Festival coming up May 9th. More details to come later. This time I’m going to bring my laptop and have my book trailer running during my signing times to help draw attention. I have a few more pics, which I will share in a later post.

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LK Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit: Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
Own a Kindle? Download Misfit McCabe in an instant.
For other e-book formats, visit Smashwords.com
To read book reviews by LK Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review

The post LA Times Festival of Books – Day 2 appeared first on Be the Cat.

LA Times Book Festival ~ Day 1

Liana Gardner — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 06:32:48 +0000

The day was absolutely gorgeous. Sunlight streamed down from blue skies and the air remained cool from the breeze that blew through the campus. We could not have asked for better weather to join several thousand visitors and exhibitors on the UCLA campus today, to celebrate the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Denny and I arrived just shortly after the opening of the festival and Denny was completely awestruck with the number of people who were already there. We first wanted to get the lay of the land and determined that we should first find the booth in which I would later be conducting a signing and then find those essential items, such as food (Denny) and bathrooms (me).

I participated in the event with the AuthorsDen.com online literary community. AuthorsDen.com is an online community of authors where registered authors can post their books, publish articles, update people on events that they will be participating in, etc. AuthorsDen.com garners the traffic of over one million readers per month and provide the authors with additional exposure and web presence. I have personally found that the more content I have on AuthorsDen.com, the more people click through to either other articles or to my external links that I scatter judiciously through all of my content, such as to my website, blog, and traveling book site, as well as to the locations to purchase Misfit McCabe. AuthorsDen.com has just decided to start becoming involved with events, and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is their first venture. Matt and Jackie Miller were very welcoming to all of the authors, and I can’t thank Jenny enough for all of her assistance throughout the day. The tent was one of the larger ones, and we were located directly across from the culinary stage, and right by one of the food courts (which solved Denny’s issue of where we would find something to eat.)

My signing time went very well. I had steady traffic throughout my time and spoke to quite a few people, handed out lots of bookmarks, and even sold a couple of books. If tomorrow goes as well, I will be quite satisfied with the weekend. I brought along not only copies of Misfit McCabe in the original cover, but I had a few books printed with potential new covers to see what people seemed to be drawn to. So far the results are not conclusive, but there is still tomorrow. Interestingly enough, younger children and boys in my target age group were drawn to the original cover and grabbed the marketing materials I had on hand with the original cover picture. Starting with my target age girls and all adults were drawn to the new covers.

I had a nice chat with Chareline Sanders, who is currently taking some business classes, and she purchased a signed copy of Misfit McCabe in one of the new covers. She will be sharing not only my book, but the marketing materials, including a poster, as well with her instructor, so I am quite excited by that. I will go into some of the marketing things I have seen at the festival as well as posting some pictures that help to illustrate the sheer volume of people attending this event. I will just say, the children’s book area was nuts!! As it is now late, and I am worn out, it’s time to call it a night so I can wake up fresh in the morning and start the process all over again.

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