Five Things I Love About Author Fairs

*cross post from author2author.*


Last weekend I attended yet another author fair-- this one in my town and it was so fun! I've been going to these things for years and you'd think I'd grow tired of them but they're actually getting better. I think it's because as young adult fiction gets hotter and hotter there are more YA authors at the events. It used to be just me and maybe one or two other YA authors years ago (and the rest would be adult book and children's book authors) but this time we had a long line of them and they were loads of fun to hang out with. Here's a shot of me and Megg at our table.

I thought this was also the perfect time to resurrect an old post on why I love author fairs so much. Enjoy!

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THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2010

Five Things I Love About Author Fairs

I attended another FUN Author Fair this past weekend. I can easily get hooked on these things (have I mentioned in previous posts that they give you candy? Oh wait, I gave up candy. Never mind.). I want to road trip around the country just hitting author fairs. The people who come are so nice and the people who run the fairs are awesome. Love it. But here are five specific things I love about author fairs:

1) Kids who are writing their own books and are very excited to chat about them.

I loooooove hearing about all of the cool books young people are working on! What a bunch of talented creative kids out there. When I was a pre-teen and teen I was too busy chasing boys (they could run fast! Haha.) to sit down long enough to write a book. So impressive!

2) Kids that come by with their autograph books.

I have huge love for the autograph book! I totally had one as a kid and I asked every famous person I met for their autograph. Of course, back then famous people to me were the guys on the soccer team and the high school kids in the school play. I still remember chasing Danny Zuko around after a matinee of Grease. "Danny Zuko! Danny Zuko! Sign my book pleeeeeeeease!"

3) All the authors.

It's so fun to walk around and see everyone's cool tables set up with all their books and swag. Some have tables covered with a dozen or so books. And everyone is so darn smiley and in a good mood. Of course, that could be from the free lunch (and the candy. Did I mention the loads of candy?) but I'd like to think it's just from sharing the love of writing.

4) The staff at the libraries.

They are always so nice! And they kinda treat you like a rock star. "You can go relax and grab a beverage in the Green Room." Green Room? Wh--? Am I on Oprah? I scooted right over to the Green Room (aka storytime room with a Green sign that said Green Room) and chilled with the other guests.

5) The badges.

Oh, the power of getting to wear an author badge. I kind of want to wear one everyday. Would that be weird? I could wear it at the gym, picking up kids from school, at the grocery store etc. How cool would that be? If I got pulled over for speeding I could be all, um, do you not see the badge? Emergency Author Fair obviously. You'll be providing police escort, no?

Updates

It's been a fun week and I have some catching up to do. First, if you haven't seen it, check out Alice Pope's blog-- I'm debut author of the month! Yay! Very cool.

Second, the author fair last weekend was great! That was my first time participating in one and the time surprisingly flew by. It was 4 hours long and the library was full of authors, each at their own decorated tables. Except Kristin Walker and I wanted to share because we're dorks and we didn't have much stuff anyway. We both have just our first books out and some of these authors had like a dozen or more books so they really needed a whole table!


















And Monday night we went to the see fellow 2009 Deb Carrie Ryan at her Anderson's signing. I was so impressed by the huge crowd-- especially for a week night!






















Carrie's new book, Dead Tossed Waves just came out (I got it and I'm dying to get to it) and her first book, The Forest of Hands and Teeth made the NYT times list last week! Yay Carrie!


















I'm still trying to get more writing and critiquing in. I feel really off this week-- I'm thinking it's the daylight savings thing. Anyone else feeling this? I need to get with it!

Anderson's Children's Literature Breakfast Re-Cap

Last weekend was the 8th Annual Children's Lit Breakfast hosted by Anderson's. And WOW, Anderson's puts on a nice event! My friends/critique partners/co-bloggers over at Author2Author, Deena and Em, came into town for it and we had such a fun time!

There were a TON of librarians and teachers there-- I think I heard something like 600.

And something like 65 Illinois authors (WOW again-- I had no idea there were so many kid lit authors here!).

The eggs were icky and the coffee non-existent (OMG, I thought I might die. I don't go without coffee. Unless I'm trapped at the top of a mountain in a blizzard. And that rarely happens.). But we weren't there for the breakfast anyway-- we were there to chat with all the fun people attending and listen to awesome speakers. The IL authors moved between tables so we were able to meet with groups of 8-10 librarians/teachers and I have to say that junior high teachers rock! So fun. And the speakers were great! My favorite was Jordan Sonnenblick. He forgot his notes at his hotel and just talking off the top of his head he was amazing enough that I got up right after he concluded and ran to the bookstore they had set up to get his book and have him sign it. Oh, how I'd love to someday be able to make people race to get my book after speaking! And of course, Richard Peck.

I've seen Richard speak several times and he's always amazing. One of my favorite things that he said was: "While Kindle may dwindle, books never crash." Ha, love it!

So yep, good time! Can't wait for next year's!