Why Trade Shows Are Important

This week the largest book trade show in the United States will take place in New York City called Book Expo America. I'm looking forward to attending this event. While I've been going to trade shows for many years, I know many writers have never been to one nor understand why they are important. In this article I'm going to cover some of these basics.

Almost every field has trade shows which are closed to the public but draw thousands of participants. Librarians, booksellers, retailers, publishers and many others attend these closed events. The first step is to make sure you can get into the event. By closed, I mean it is not open to the public.

Last week one of my Morgan James authors from California, planned to meet at Book Expo, had booked his plane ticket and hotel, then emailed me that he wasn't sure how to get into the event. We worked out the details to get him into the event but you should take care of first things, first. Can you get into the event? Publishers, exhibitors, vendors and media are all ways you can get into the closed event. Often in years past, I've registered as a journalist, writing for a particular publication.

When I arrive at the event, I find the media or press room to get my credentials to get into the show. When I say the event is closed, there is someone standing at every entrance checking badges and credentials. If you don't have the credential, then you can't enter the event. The registration place is different for different categories of participants.
Ok, so you know it is difficult to get into this event but why do you want to get inside this closed trade show?

Book publishers and others related to the publishing industry exhibit their latest products at Book Expo America. There are miles (no exaggeration) of exhibits.  The publishers are giving out books which will not release to the public until the fall. Most of these books are marked as “advanced reading copies” and not for sale. It is a way for you to read books before their actual entrance or launch into the marketplace. Publishers give away bags so you can carry these giveaways.

Over the years, I've learned the hard way to execute some common sense with these giveaways. Why? The exhibit hall is a long way from your hotel room. You have to figure out what to do with these bags of free books and whether you want to lug them all over the event with you.

Literary agents and editors are attending Book Expo. I've reached out to a number of people and scheduled meetings during the event. Also from my planning, I have learned about agents who are not attending and I will have to meet with them in another way (phone, email, etc). These face to face meetings can be a productive aspect of attending the trade show.

During the event, I will bring lots of business cards and exchange them freely to form new relationships. Also I've learned to keep my eyes open because you never know who you will see at such an event. I've seen editors and publishers who I've known many years. I've seen celebrities and well-known authors at this event.

Your activities after attending a trade show are also important. I'm talking about the follow-up on ideas and connections and new projects. I've formed many important relationships at trade shows and understand the importance of them for my writing life. There are several keys:

1. Work it out so you can attend — i.e. get inside.

2. Form new relationships and connections

3. Follow-up on the opportunities.

One of the reasons I enjoy Book Expo is the entire trade show is focused on books. For many years I attended the Christian Booksellers Trade Show which was renamed the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS). With the name change, ICRS grew their gift (non-book) aspects until it is almost 50% of the exhibit floor space. ICRS has grown smaller each year and for the last two years been held in Cincinnati, Ohio or a venue which it could not have done years ago. I haven't been to the ICRS event for at least seven years.

Trade shows can be valuable to writers but it takes careful planning and follow-up. Let me know in the comments if you have been to a trade show and what you have gained from it.

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4 Ways NOT to Be A "Lost Author"

Last week I attended Book Expo America, the largest trade show for books in the U.S. I was there because of my work as an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. Thousands of booksellers, media, librarians and others from the publishing industry were showing their latest and forthcoming books. It was exciting to see bestselling authors and enthusiastic readers of books.

This massive event can be overwhelming—especially to the new author. Several times during the week, I met authors who were “lost.” Now to be honest some of them didn't know they were lost. From my interaction with them, I knew they were in this category.

In different places of this trade show, there are small booth exhibitors. One booth was attracting people with fresh cookies. I stopped but didn't eat a cookie. I listened to the author. This former journalist had written a novel. I recognized the book was self-published from a company where I've met authors who have spent $20,000 with them and the books are only online and not inside any brick and mortar bookstore. I asked if she fell into this category in terms of her personal investment. To my relief, she had not. Wisely this author had spent most of her budget on editing her book.

As I listened to her pitch about the book, I learned she had written a civil war historical novel based on her part of the South. The cover was a “different” looking drawing (not your typical eye-catching book cover). I could hear the passion in this author's voice. It was not only a historical novel but a young adult time travel fantasy. See the challenge for booksellers and librarians to process this string of categories? It doesn't neatly fall into a single place in the bookstore or library. While I admired her passion and commitment to market her book, I knew this author was lost in the market and probably had no idea why her book wasn't getting attention and readers.

A little later, I met another author. This former pro-athlete who gave me a copy of his book.  I took a quick look and noticed it was also self-published. The book was small and an odd size. When I opened it, the typeface was not what you find in books and had full color photos. This author had passion and had invested in publishing his book—yet I knew he was also lost and unsure how to find readers and sell books.

While self-publishing is exploding with almost 5,000 new books entering the market every day, my personal bent is to get the broadest exposure for my writing and books. In other words, I want my books to be available online but also in brick and mortar bookstores. I want to give you four ways not to be a “lost author.”

1. Study the publishing world and get to a writers' conference, take classes and meet experienced professionals. I'm speaking at several events so check them out and I'd love to meet you at one of these conferences.

2. Write a good book. Your book needs a good foundation so make sure you have a target audience in mind and are writing for that audience. Get an outside editor or join a critique group to get feedback on your book before publishing it. 

3. Create a book which fits the market. The details matter in publishing. Even if you are going to self-publish, make sure you have an attractive cover and interior. Show the cover to the target market and get their honest feedback. Does your book look like books from major publishers? Does it have a little logo on the bottom of the book spine? If not, change it so it does. You don't want people to wonder about such details but to simply accept your book as a solid product.

4. Take your own responsibility to market and tell people about books. Get others to give honest reviews for your book. Tell the media about your book and get booked on radio programs and other venues.

Even if you do everything “right” with a solid publisher or have a literary agent, not every book sells or some books still have dismal sells or they take several years to take off. There is no set formula for a book to sell but there are good practices in publishing.

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The Risk-Taking Writer

This weekend I returned from Book Expo, the largest book trade show in the United States in New York City. A trade show requires the attendees to wear a badge to get into the event and the entrances are closely monitored. 

The floor of Book Expo is filled with librarians and booksellers from around the world. The exhibits are large and small publishers who are showing off their forthcoming books and authors. The aisles are full of well-known and unknown authors. For example, I saw journalist and political commentator Chris Matthews in the Simon and Schuster area signing the paperback version of his New Times bestseller, Jack Kennedy. 

From my years in publishing I know that every book which is published is a risk. No one knows if the book will sell or not. The publishing professionals make their best effort and put the book into the market. Book Expo or trade shows like it are one more way that an author can get exposure for their book.

One of the foundational keys is to take calculated risks in publishing. First and foremost a good book is based on an excellent manuscript. Good writing is critical. 

As I walked around the massive floor, I saw some unusual risk takers. For example, I met one new publisher with three full color picture books. While the art work was beautiful, I looked at the story and it seemed to have a lot of words for a picture book.

I mentioned this concern to the publisher and he instantly launched into how they are creating a new category of picture book which he called the picture book/ chapter book. I listened but skeptically. The children's book market is very particular. The age category and the expectations from retailers and librarians and others is almost impossible to shift or “add a new category.” 

I wish this new publisher nothing but the best but from my years in this market, I could see some potential pitfalls in his book launch. I hope he proves me wrong and sells thousands of copies of his beautiful books.

The Book Expo was an excellent event in my view because of the opportunity to meet with literary agents and authors. On the final day of the event, Saturday, the public could purchase tickets to attend and someone told me that over 600 people were waiting in line to be able to enter the exhibit floors. I was grateful for the opportunity attend and learn from the experience and new relationships.

My encouragement to you as a writer is to take calculated risks. Every bit of writing that I've done for years involves risk. Every writer can:

• diversify their writing skills—i.e. write for magazines as well as writing books.
• if writing nonfiction, write proposals rather than full books.
• continually build new relations in the publishing community.
• attend conferences and foster their relationships.

And in the area of conferences, tomorrow I'm headed to Chicago to be on the faculty of Write to Publish at Wheaton College tomorrow. I hope to see some of you at this event. Or possibly you can attend a conference later in the year (follow the link) and we can have some face to face time. I look forward to it.

Book Sensory Overload

I returned yesterday afternoon from several days in Los Angeles attending the Author 101 University and Book Expo America. I met and exchanged business cards with hundreds of people and interacted with scores of other people where we simply talked about books. I haven't attended this particular trade show in at least 16 years. I intentionally planned few appointments and instead spent my time walking the exhibit floor, meeting people and looking at the variety of products.

It is impossible for this brief entry to capture much more than a flavor of what happened at this event. Book Expo is the largest trade show related to books in the country and has miles of exhibits from publishers. Because it is a closed trade show, you have to get a badge to get into the exhibit floor. Typically they have 25,000 to 30,000 people attending the event--publishers, retailers, authors, librarians, literary agents and many others associated with the publishing world attend this event.

The number of books which are produced annually only continues to increase. If you want to get an eye full of some current book statistics, then check out this article from last week's Publishers Weekly. If you are an author at such an event, it is easy to feel quite small in the midst of the hoopla and buzz. Because I drove to the event and had my car, I was able to bring home much more material than if I had flown to the event. Whether you were looking for something more traditional or bizzare, it was easily accessible at the trade show.

Yesterday for example, I saw three people dressed like they had stepped out of time machine in the Old West. Two women in frilly outfits and a man in a cowboy hat and dark suit with a vest. This trio was handing out fliers and wooden coins. The simple flier began, "WANTED Dead or Alive Publisher/ Producer/ Agent." This author was shopping a project--complete with her contact information and website. It wasn't for me but I applauded the creativity.

I was fascinated to pick up a copy of Merck's 1899 Manual. This slim leather-bound volume was all the medical information available to doctors and pharmacists in 1899 and only 192 pages.

Or the slim pocket-sized book, How to Survive Book Expo 2008. No matter what trade show event, this book was loaded with sound wisdom. It included seven rules from Rick Frishman and here's a few of them:

1. Wear comfortable shoes. Nobody cares what is on your feet.

2. This is a networking event: smile -- talk to people -- keep your head up as you walk the aisles. Be accessible.

5. Get to the floor early -- that's when you can really meet people.

I learned a tremendous amount of information and will be applying it to my literary agency and my own writing life in the days ahead. The follow-up will be one of the keys from the event.

I hope to have another chance to write more about some of the people and events from Book Expo but my time is a premium. I leave for Chicago and Write To Publish early Tuesday. At least this post give you a hint about some of what happened. The amount of energy can put anyone on book sensory overload.

The Importance of Interviewing

There are many different types of writing. Whether you are working on a book manuscript or a magazine article, one of the best skills that you can continue to use and develop is to interview others. Whether you are looking for great quotations for your article or background research, interviewing is a critical skill.

I want to encourage you to watch a few minutes of Alex Mandossian as he talks about this important skill of interviewing. Also make sure you take the brief marketing quiz to see what you can learn from that simple exercise. Also the $20 preview call is coming up on June 5th. Every author (no matter whether you have published one book or no books or many books) will learn a great deal from this inexpensive call. The call previews the Virtual Book Tour Systems course where I will be teaching an hour about book proposal creation. Just reading the VBT page, anyone can learn a great deal of information.

I hope you find this information useful. And if you just want to see something funny, then check out this YouTube video for an "author book tour" launch. If you've been involved in such matters you will realize the truth behind the humor.

In the last couple of weeks, I've thought about these entries a great deal but not created much material. It will be even harder for me to add entries over the next few weeks. I leave later today to drive to Los Angeles for Author University 101 tomorrow then a couple of days at Book Expo America. I return home for a day, then I leave for Write To Publish in the Chicago area. I'll be teaching the Freelance Career Track where every participant has to have published at least one book. I've worked hard over the last few days to create some fresh information for those sessions.

While I am away from these entries for a few days, I hope you will make use of the rich resource of material in the search tool in the right hand column of The Writing Life. Keep looking for fresh ways to grow in your writing craft and knowledge about the marketplace.

Gimmicks Can Work

The Weekend Edition of the Today Show was reviewing books to read at the beach and one of them caught my attention. It was a book called Poolside, or 14 stories from a number of well-known authors about their experiences around a swimming pool. The gimmick for this book is that it's waterproof. In fact, they had a little plastic pool and fished it out of the water on the show.

I have no idea how the short presentation affected other people but I went to my computer and ordered one. It worked to get me and purchase the book. It's definitely different and I'll be curious to see what it looks and feels like--then to read the book. The real test is not going to be the gimmick. It's going to be what is contained in the pages. If the writing and content is excellent, then I will probably be telling even more people about it.

With the proliferation of books, media and product in the marketplace, it is a challenge to get someone to purchase the book in the first place. The next step is to produce something so excellent the user becomes an evangelist for your product. You want to enable that person to actively spread the word about your book any chance they get the opportunity. It’s some of the principles of Greg Stielstra's excellent book, Pyromarketing. If you don't have it, get it and I recommend you read his introduction. I’ll be watching my mailbox for my copy of Poolside so I can check it out for myself.

One more thing: Numerous times in these entries, I've recommended snipurl.com. Their site has undergone a major overhaul. They say they are in beta mode but I applaud their improvements to the site. If you've never used it, register and log on to the site because then you can create your own private abbreviations for various links. It's a terrific resource that I use throughout my day.

The Unknown City

Several years ago at an ASJA luncheon, I had the opportunity to meet lifelong New Yorker Pete Hamill. Whether fiction or nonfiction, Hamill writes about New York City.

I love the feeling in New York City with its rich heritage and diversity. It's fun for me to melt into the crowd and ride the subway to different parts of the city. I often purchase a seven-day unlimited pass to ride to different parts of the city. It's normal for New Yorkers but it stirs a sense of adventure for me to go uptown or downtown on the local or express trains.

Later this month, New York will be the host for Book Expo America. In honor of that event, Publisher’s Weekly included a stirring piece from Hamill about his city. Hamill writes, "Nobody truly knows New York, not even most New Yorkers. The city is too large, too dense and layered to be intimately known by anyone. I was born here, the first son of Irish immigrants, during the first term of Franklin D. Roosevelt. I grew up on the streets of Brooklyn, attended schools here, and worked for more than 40 joyous years as a reporter and columnist on the newspapers of the wider city." I loved how the heritage and memories of the long tradition of the city are woven into this article. I hope you will read the entire article.

How can you weave this type of emotion and detail into your own writing? Can you capture the sense of place in your nonfiction magazine articles? Can you take me to the place with your fiction? It takes continual creative work for each of us to find the right words for each piece of our writing. Many people aren't willing to do this work. Today I'd encourage you to lift your head and rise up beyond the ordinary in your writing. You can do it with the right amount of energy and effort. Let's learn from the example from Pete Hamill.