The idea of inviting three other authors to join me in back-to-back book signings in two neighboring Kentucky towns began to take shape in my mind. They had to live near enough to my hometown to make it convenient for them.
I live in the western tip of the state so it was easy to include:
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| PAMELA HEARON from SOUTHERN ILLINOIS |
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| LAUREAN BROOKS from NORTHWEST TENNESSEE |
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| DANIELLE THORNE from SOUTH OF ATLANTA |
We agreed on October and promoted our book signings as a four authors from four states event.
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| LINDA SWIFT, COORDINATOR OF BOOK SIGNING, IN MURRAY UNIVERSITY BOOKSTORE |
After many emails flying back and forth, we correlated four busy schedules with the available dates for the Murray University Bookstore on Friday and Etcetera Coffeehouse on Saturday, Oct. 14-15. It was such fun meeting for the first time and matching the real people with our Cyberspace images.
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| BOB-LINDA'S HUSBAND |
Saturday we had an entire room at Etcetera Coffeehouse to display our books and other materials. In the adjoining room customers ordered from the coffee bar and lingered to talk and listen to keyboard music furnished by my husband who volunteered (well, I did twist his arm just a bit) to play for our three hour signing. But after he saw flyer photos of those glamorous authors he was more than willing to join us!
In retrospect, we agree the weekend was a big success. The visiting authors met many new people, made contacts for future sales, and learned of new promotional possibilities. And we are already talking about another event in 2012 and working toward making it even better .
"Caught in the passions of love and war, will Clarissa and Philip be faithful to their vows...or listen to their hearts?"
"Nothing would make Josette happier than to be settled, but dark brooding Captain Carter rides into her life with news that ruins everything."
"No one ever said earning the title 'His Hotness' would be easy!"
"An Inspirational journey about healing after abuse. A young woman struggles to trust, forgive, and open her heart to love."
Thank you for visiting my blog today, and meeting these four talented, very busy authors. Please check out their books--you won't be disappointed!
Celia
Great idea! Hope you all did well!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Celia, for hosting us. You did a great job!
ReplyDeleteLK, we had a wonderful time chatting with people, sharing laughs and anecdotes. We even sold some books.
great idea! of course!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea. We had several booksignings in Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Coral Spring, all in South Florida, attended by 7 to 15 authors at times. We mostly used the public libraries. But yours was like a fun reunion.
ReplyDeleteHello, ladies, sounds like a wonderful event. I only wish to have been part of it. I would love to meet each and every one of you! Best of luck with sales and promoting.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful way to spend a weekend! And a slumber party in the middle? That would be fun, too!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for having us today, Celia. All the authors worked hard to make this event a success. And the hostesses at MSU book store and Etcetera Coffeehouse worked hard on our behalf also. It took lots of teamwork to make this happen and I think all of have happy memories of the weekend. Slumber party, Calisa? Now why didn't we think of that?
ReplyDeleteCalisa, We were having too much fun to sleep, thanks to Linda who did most of the work. Don't know what we'd done without you, lady.
ReplyDeleteLinda, you truly are like a dog with a bone. You hang in there until you "get'er done."
(I'm still salivating over that mountainous hot fudge cake Ruth was enjoying at Etcetera Coffee House.)
Loved this post. Thanks for sharing these photos!
ReplyDeleteLinda and Laurean--I'm happy to have you all on my blog. I'm so impressed with the amazing feat, that I had to tell others about it and how you did it.
ReplyDeleteYes, Linda did most of the work--except drive across the state like you did--and she did a magnificent job.
Yes, she' like a dog with a bone, as you are, too...probably all of us. You are invited to join my DWABS club--that's DogWithABoneSyndrome.
Celia
Lorraine, Annette, and Mona--we're pleased you stopped by to see exactly what these authors did. And...they sold books.
ReplyDeleteSharon and Calisa--Thank you for stopping by. I'm sure they had a slumber party--as I understand it, they all worked pretty hard.
ReplyDeleteUh, did someone say Hot Fudge Cake?
Hi, Gail--glad you stopped to visit.
ReplyDeleteHi, LK. Yes, we felt we did well. In spite of not being able to penetrate the newspaper in my home town where on signing was held, we had a really large crowd the entire three hours. And belatedly, I have now learned some other sources for promo here so watch out in 2012.
ReplyDeleteAnnette, I have learned from this that it is more fun to sign with other authors. But not too many. I have done the large groups before and kind of gotten lost. And it's easier to do promo for others as well as yourself. I didn't feel quite so much like I was soliciting.
ReplyDeleteMona, I've done signings at libraries. I usually offer to do a program in conjunction with the signing. I haven't had much luck selling books in these cases. Can my programs be that bad??????
ReplyDeleteSharon, dear friend. You'd be welcome at our signing anytime. And if you ever venture down here, please bring Oliver. He's make the signing a sellout for everyone. Oliver, are you listening?
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by, Gail, and your compliments on our photos. I know we have more. I only had access to two cameras for this blog and my website Special Events page. I have a cousin who's make a good hero for a Western romance, tall, quiet, ex-highway patrolman who got drafted for photography in Murray. My husband was supposed to make pics in Paducah but then he played keyboard instead so the Etectera owner filled in for photos. We are grateful to all our help.
ReplyDeleteCelia, I'd love to be a member of your DWABS group. My sign is Taurus and it's a predominant trait for us, you know. One dear friend said a long time ago, "The publishers might as well publish your books because you aren't going to let up on them until they do." And I didn't and they did.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Laurean, I drooled over that hot fudge cake, too. But that is no way to lose any pounds. And thanks for all of your "leg work" on the local scenes. We were not shy about asking for promo, were we? Too bad we had to pay for promo time some places if we were not non-profit. But as I told one radio station operator, we could qualify for non-profit but not in the way she meant the word! Oh, well, getting rich and famous is not in the cards for everyone.
ReplyDeleteDanielle, Pamela, did you two make it home okay? I'll bet Danielle is still catching up with family things after leaving a husband and houseful of boys for the long drive from south of Atlanta last weekend. And we met her mom and guest at Murray. Pamela is probably on a plane to the West Coast or someplace by now. She is one traveling lady.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic post, and what a thrilling weekend/event that had to have been! Thanks for the pics, they are awesome! And congrats, ladies, on getting together and selling books, and just having a danged good time! :)
ReplyDeleteGreat idea. Wish I'd thought of that. Hmmm, thinking, thinking...
ReplyDeleteThank you, Miss Mae, for your kind words. And yes, we did have a really good time. We've all lead parallel lives in one way or several and just never crossed before. It really was a joy for me to see this come to pass. And who knows where all our contacts may lead in the future? We gave away books, CDs and other material as promo and that can have far reaching effects, too.
ReplyDeleteCaroline, it is definitely an idea worth thinking about. Get your authors in mind and committed, then choose your venue or venues. Then the fun begins trying to correlate all the schedules to find a workable time. Our target was Sept. but it was mid-Oct. before we could get it together. Wait, you didn't ask for a blueprint, did you? I got carried away. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteThanks for introducing these authors to us, Celia. All of their stories look interesting. I am going to go and check them out. :)
ReplyDeleteCelia,
ReplyDeleteHow cool was this! I'm so excited that you ladies had a chance to meet and participate in an event like this. Thanks so much for sharing!
Smiles
Steph
Thanks for the beautiful blog post, Celia! It's much appreciated. Your blog is so nice--love all the photos!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful event you ladies had. I hope it resulted in many sales. Thanks for the photos too. I hope some day to meet all of you. I'm not too far away, southern Indiana. However, I have not sold a novel yet. Still trying.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for visiting, Paisley. Doesn't Celia have a great blog? It's always such an honor to be her guest. I've read all these authors' books and I can recommend each one.
ReplyDeleteHi Steph, it was fun. Wish you could have joined us. But CA is a bit far, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteDid we mentiong that Danielle writes these wonderful stories with a sea theme in all of them? They include historical, contemporary, Regency and I think she's doing a YA now. She may have been a mermaid in another life?
ReplyDeleteLarry, you are almost neighbors to us, aren't you? Just keep on writing, submitting, and you will be successful. A wise professor once told our class that the only difference between published and unpublished authors is "lunatic persistence." I qualify on both counts.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic idea, Linda - and what a great time you all had!
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful to have the whole room. Also a good setting for book lovers--a coffee house.
ReplyDeleteI wish each of you every success.
Paula, we had two days of getting acquainted and meeting new readers. I hope every one of the authors had as much fun as I did and I hope all of us can repeat this weekend next year. Wish you could have been with us.
ReplyDeleteYes, Sarah, the coffeehouse was a very good place to hold a signing. The atmosphere was relaxed and low-key, people who wanted refreshments bought from the establishment so we didn't have to bother with that detail. And another great thing was that the coffeehouse didn't take a percentage of our sales as bookstores do. So it was a win-win situation.
ReplyDeleteJust getting in on this! Sorry to have been AWOL:-( Thanks you, Celia, for featuring us here on your blog. These ladies were wonderful to work with and we had a fantastic book signing. Linda swift is a himan dynamo!
ReplyDeleteUmmmm, that was supposed to read thank you, Celia and hUman dynamo:-)
ReplyDeleteHi Pam, you're back. I've missed you. Didn't Celia do us proud. And thanks for the compliment. Another thing we have in common. I always send, then check. But readers seem to read between the lines, don't they?
ReplyDeleteHi Celia and friends,
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful post, great photos and text and what a fun, fabulous idea! It was so nice to see this, you all made me feel as if I were right there with you. I'm so glad you had the chance to get together like this and connect! Thanks for sharing...and looking forward to the next one! ;-) Big hugs all around.
Hi Regina, it was fun. We four had a wonderful time and sold some books and made many connections with new people as a nice bonus. And we are already planning a repeat event next autumn. Second time around should be easier to do.
ReplyDeleteJust wish we could include more authors but our space is limited.