Y’all, I had a BLAST at the Texas Author & Reader Convention this past weekend (July 19-20) at the Irving Convention Center, in Irving, Texas!
What a fabulous event run by Merrill David! We were on level 3 and at first, in 3 rooms! That’s how big we got. The authors there were fabulous and thank you everyone who visited my table! (Pictures below)
My biggest physical book sales were the anthologies and poetry books. I have short stories in several anthologies and my poetry group and I have contests for school students in Johnson County, Texas, and we put the award-winning poems in the book and published them! We also visit the schools and talk about poetry, writing, and creativity overall. They are a talented bunch of kids and we are so proud to be able to share their creativity with the world. (Check my the MY PUBLICATIONS page for more information.)
Today, I’m thanking everyone and just trying to ride the high that a successful convention brings to authors. If you don’t know, we authors get really excited about meeting our fans and potential fans. Honestly! I had talked to so many great people Saturday and Sunday that my voice was hoarse and my face sore from smiling so much. And I loved it!
And, I’m updating stuff to meet the needs for my next convention table(s). Like, my standup banner, over 6 feet tall, had to go behind my table instead of in front. Simple due to table size and room available. I had put my info and QR code at the bottom of the banner and in this particular situation, with it behind the table, that didn’t work at all! So I went, hmm…
One of the authors behind me had a great setup for his banners (which, I must say, were not as tall as mine, but great banners anyway). He had a portable 3-foot-tall folding table that he put behind his table setup that raised his banners so everything could be easily seen. Duh! So guess what I’m buying from Amazon today? Yew betcha.
And I realized Saturday, because people couldn’t see my QR code on the banner behind the table, I had NO QR code for them to easily snap a pic of! So, Saturday night after the con, I printed out a nice little page with my cover and QR code to go pre-order. But that was a whole day spent without it easily seen. Live and learn, right?
I made a little Power Point presentation on my tablet to try to fix that for Saturday, but the screen does its power saver thing and my iPad is so new, I couldn’t figure out how to make that stop. Even dealing with programs I’ve worked with for ages is so very different when changing from a Windows base to an Apple/iPad base. I’m learning fast!
By my next con, my great and wonderful book cover wizards at Markee Book Covers will have me a short and long promo video! So that will be perfect for the table. Depending on the table setup, I may be able to have a little battery-operated projector showing the video on a screen behind me. Maybe. That all depends on how the setup is done.
I also have planned a huge 10 foot tall and at least 6-foot-wide banner that will go behind my table with some kind of big beautiful image of my books and so on. Those are great for getting attention and helping with the theme setting as well.
So now I have to consider, what to put there? I don’t just want the current book, THE ANGEL PROJECT, as I have more books coming (soon!) and want it to encompass a theme setup, not just a one-time book promo. You know? (Ideas? I’m all ears. Write me at pat@pathaldren.com.)
I’ll be posting a lot more about the convention and the upcoming conventions I’ll be attending this year and the next in following posts. So, stay tuned!
And PRE-ORDER the ebook! Physical book pre-orders coming soon.
THANK YOU ALL!
Pat
