Publicists: Conventions

If you ever want to attend one or more of these big conventions, whether you have a new book coming out or had one in the past, start contacting your different publishers and see if they can pay for tickets for you to come. Sometimes a publisher has this in their budget and sometimes they don't. In the past years, when our two sons were still living at home, I was able to get various publishers to pay for various members of my family to attend so we could all go together and celebrate the newest books released that year.

One year, we arranged our vacation plans to include ALA in Washington, DC. Other years, we've attended IRA, ALA, BEA and CBA when they've been in Los Angeles or Ontario, CA.

Why are these conventions so important? For one thing, it's a big event in the industry. It's where all the bookstore owners and librarians and people who purchase books go to see what new books are out. These folks often have huge budgets they're working with to BUY BOOKS!

So you really want to connect with the people who are attending these conventions in a big way.

Also, it's a place where you as an author can meet with all the different publishers and lots of editors. You can schedule individual appointments with editors or browse through their booths and see what kind of books that are hot off the press that they're releasing.

And if you've never been to one of these conventions, it's a real eye-opener as to how the book industry works.

These conventions usually also have tickets individuals can purchase at the door either for the whole event or one day. One year, my critique group purchased tickets and we all went together as a field trip. It was an awesome experience!

So, check these conventions out…each and every year. Keep an eye on them. See if you can ever work it out to attend. You'll have a new understanding of the book industry and how it works from the inside out.

And in my next post I'll tell you something else very exciting that Mary, my marketing manager, is working hard to set up to help launch my new book at ALA 2012!