Today is day 3 at Armchair BEA and we have been asked to share a positive “real life” experience with books and/or bloggers.
I have one experience that I can share. There is an independent bookstore near me, called Books and Greetings, in Montvale, NJ that has author visits. I’ve had the opportunity to go to a few. The first one was for Jane O’Connor, the author of the Fancy Nancy pictures books. Then I went when Nicholas Sparks was promoting Safe Haven and while he was only supposed to be doing a book signing, halfway through, he did an impromptu talk. I also attended when Elizabeth Berg came to speak while promoting her book Once Upon a Time There Was You. And finally, I saw Lisa See when she came to speak while promoting her book Dreams of Joy. There have been many other authors that have had book signings there, including Molly Ringwald and Ricki Lake, but unfortunately I was unable to make those.
So there you have it. Now I turn it over to you. What do you do to network? How can I become more involved? Where do I start? Any suggestions/tips/feedback would be most appreciated!!!
Wow! You have met some famous (and very talented) authors! I have not done enough "in person" networking with authors; my contacts have been mostly online.
I have been lucky, but I wish there were more!
Some very cool authors came to your area! My niece would FREAK about the author of Fancy Nancy 🙂
Happy ABEA!
Unfortunately, all Jane O'Connor did was sign books. I would have loved to hear her speak.
I love going to author visits. Wish more of them came to Colorado but alas we are not on the coasts.
Thanks for participating!
Here's my networking post
Valerie
StuckInBooks
I just wish there were more near me. I don't live that far from NYC but sometimes it's just too much to get in for an event that only lasts an hour.
Those are some very famous authors! What did Nicholas Sparks talk about?
I think he was talking about how the book was a little different from his usual style and also about his travels during promoting the book. That was actually the second time I've seen him – many years ago when Nights in Rodanthe came out, he was signing books near me and I went.
You should see about getting on an advance email notice for those events or seeing if you can write a review of the event for a local newspaper, magazine or the store's newsletter. That's a great way to get your information out there. More ideas over at Tattooed Books
That's a good idea…I'll have to look into that. Thanks!
It's so awesome that you have a few that you can attend. Honestly, I never even thought about attending signings before getting more into book blogging. And like you said, trekking into the city can be a hassle sometimes – but that's the closest any signings ever get to me.