Tomorrow brings the next of my traveling signings. So far this year I have been a part of several new events. Back in February I joined authors from the Las Vegas Coffee House Tours in sharing a booth at the Tucson Book Festival and then headed east to Michigan and Ohio to take part in the Authors and Dancers Against Cancer signing and dance recital. Both of these events, and the ones that followed, brought learning experiences and a chance to grow personally and professionally.
In Tucson I was with authors with different backgrounds and genres not to mention varying approaches to customer / reader interactions. There was a bit of a learning curve for everyone to try and get along, support each other, and make sure all voices were heard when there was a problem that needed to be addressed. There was also the driving there and back plus figuring out the logistics that added stress to the weekend. Even with the issues we faced it was a great time and a successful signing for many of us who attended.
Authors and Dancers gave me a chance to do something I rarely am able to enjoy, dance in front of an audience. I trained in modern, ballet, jazz, and hiphop for years growing up and while I am fortunate enough to join a local group once a year I don't perform nearly as much as I would like. I loved being in front of the audience but was exited to share the signing part of the trip with my mom acting as my assistant. She had never been to that type of event with me and it was a pleasure having her by my side. I learned, however, that I misjudged the books for that event. Being from Las Vegas and having a humor book based on casino life I assumed it wold be the big seller like it is closer to home. What I didn't do is take into consideration one of the themes of the event (dancing) and the book I have with a dancer on the cover. Never Give Up was in danger of selling out for a bit.
Using my knowledge I have gained serving as the Marketing Director of the Coffee House Tours group I set up additional signings while visiting Michigan and seeing family and friends. Most of the signings were quiet and slow but just the fact the shop owners were welcoming and happy to have me was a success as far as I was concerned.
I had another couple events that involved travel as well. I went to Salt Lake City for the Live Literately Literacy Summit. That signing is organized by friend and fellow author David Michael and I wanted to support the evolution of his charity signings. In the past he has organized a signing to bring funds and awareness to a charity in Mesquite, NV but this past year he began his own literacy program. He is from the SLC area and so those of us who wanted to keep being a part of his generous journey travelled to join him there. That signing I drove alone the six hours north and learned how much I enjoy audio books giving me the idea to look into turning my books into possible audio files eventually.
A month after Salt Lake City I again drove north and found myself in Boise, ID. While I made the trip to Utah alone, in Boise I was joined by another author and her daughter acting as our assistant. We drove through the night and stopped to take pictures at some beautiful spots. The event was unfortunately very slow and somewhat disorganized but no experience is wasted if you learn from it and we were able to take away the lessons of how well we work together as well as the fact it takes a lot of planning to make sure we could get ourselves and our equipment safely there and back and keep our spirits up when the event was much slower than what we hoped for.
When my alarm goes off in a couple hours to leave for Kingman, AZ for the Kingman Area Books Are Magic festival I will not only be putting into practice all I've learned so far but looking for new information I can add as well.
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