Laurie's Trip Report
to Publishamerica's Author Convention
2/27 - 2/29, 2004

Day 1:  Feb 27 -- After a full day of traveling (and no glitches involving my flight times, layover or luggage, thank goodness) I arrived in Frederick, Maryland!  It's a beautiful, crisp day during a week when cold, bitter weather is ripping through the south.  I'm glad I'm up north.  :)

On the airport shuttle that I took to the hotel (a 45-minute ride) I shared the van with three other writers going to the same conference.  I had a very pleasant conversation with another Publishamerica (PA) author, Julie Casper.  She writes adventure mystery books.  I got some great promotional ideas from her that I will definitely pursue once Momentary Lapse is released.

When I checked into my room, unpacked and changed clothes, I went to the conference reception room and checked in.  They gave me a nametag and a very impressive goodie bag, with all kinds of great paraphernalia -- a mug, a mousepad, a mouse, a lanyard, a pen and pencil, all personalized with PA's logo.

I ate a cheeseburger in the hotel pub, and sat with a few other authors.  We all talked about our books and our publishing experiences.  I really do love writers' conferences -- I love having a "brotherhood" with other people who love to do the same thing I do.  Writers are, in general, a very friendly bunch.

Later, a very tall man walked up to me and said, "Laurie Larsen!  It's so nice to meet one of our original authors!"  It was Willem Meiner -- the co-owner of the publishing house.  He remembered me from when he personally bought my first book, Whispers.  He called me one of his "old-timers."  I told him my second book was coming out soon.  It was nice to be "recognized" by the top guy!  (NOTE:  Following the conference I got an email from a PA staffer telling me that they'd researched it, and discovered that I was their 47th author, and now they have 7000!)

In the evening I attended a few workshops presented by PA authors.  One was on using your creativity to produce flamboyant promotional items.  The main idea there was to tie in your promotional items and your booksigning table displays, to characters or articles in your books.  Another workshop was on maximizing the power of your booksignings, and the third was on creating an image as an author that appeals to your readers and makes them want to read your books.

Overall, a great first day!

Day 2:  Feb 28 -- Well, it was a day that started out great and ended with a pathetic fiasco!  I'll take it chronologically:

I got up and ate the hotel's breakfast buffet and sat with several other authors.  It seems there's an overlying discontent with PA, that I remember very well from when my first book, Whispers of the Heart, came out.  "If they would just do <this>, I'd sell more books!  Why don't they do <that>?  Why don't they help their authors more, and they'd sell more books?"

What is more and more clear to me as I delve deeper into this world of writing and publishing, is that PA fills a niche.  They found a gap in the publishing world, and they positioned themselves to fill it.  And they're filling it very well.

They are a royalty-paying (and therefore, somewhat respectable) publisher, in other words, not a vanity press.  And they're publishing TONS of books by authors who probably wouldn't be able to compete with a major, traditional NY publishing house (myself included...) that may "do" all those things for their authors -- promotion, advertising and distribution.  And by doing so, PA has given the thrilling experience of publication to, now, 7000 authors.  With PA, you've got to take the good with the bad.  You can't get a Cadillac at a Ford Pinto price. 

And if authors are not satisfied with the experience with PA, they need to keep writing, keep improving and capture the eye of a publisher (the Cadillac) who "does" do this or that in support of their authors.  Because to expect that stuff from PA is only to set yourself up for disappointment.  A Pinto feels pretty rough when you're expecting a Deville!

Anyway -- I went to a workshop by author Joe Benevento who was really wonderful.  He was a skilled speaker with some very useful ideas about hosting bookreadings at various places like libraries and universities, rather than booksignings at bookstores.

Then it was off to Gettysburg!  I'm not sure how a tour to a famous Civil War battlefield coincides with a writer's convention, but still, it was a lot of fun, a great learning experience and a super way to spend a beautiful, sunny day.  Our tour guide was very dramatic and knowledgeable and he made it very rewarding.

When we returned we had an hour to relax, then the fiasco ensued.

We got on the buses and drove to Hagerstown, where we were promised a "gala buffet dinner at a convention center with entertainment and promotional goodies."  As it turned out, all that was a lie, intentional or not.  First off, the "convention center" was actually what I'm sure used to be a Holidome -- a humid, foggy dome with a chlorinated pool in the center, giving off fumes.  There were absolute no giveaways, and no entertainment other than one PA staffer singing the National Anthem.  But the worst lie was the "gala buffet dinner."  There were food stations in each corner of the atrium, causing you to have to stand in at least five long lines in the hopes of combining enough tiny hors deouvres-size plates to make a fulfilling dinner.  But worse, on at least three occasions, I stood in food lines for at least 20 minutes apiece, only to be told that the food station had run out of food and would not be replaced.  All told, after standing in various lines for a total of an hour, I pieced together the following odd combination of cuisine to try to satisfy the gnawing hunger in my stomach:  one small piece of ham (about two inches square), a small piece of turkey, some applesauce, a few limp carrot sticks, some hash browns (?) and two pieces of cake.

People were furious!  And the cherry on the top of the sundae occurred when the fire alarm went off, and 350 people exited about 75 minutes before we were scheduled to leave, thankfully relieving us of another hour of torture.

Day 3:  Feb 29 -- I knew I was in trouble when I woke up with a sore throat and runny nose.  The heater in my hotel room didn't work, as I discovered about 10:30 PM, when I made the unwise decision to just bundle on a sweatshirt over my pajamas, and rough it in the chilly room, as opposed to inviting a workman in at that hour.  That decision, as it turns out, ultimately caused me to miss two additional days of work due to illness!

My friend Laureen, who lives in nearby Hagertown (where the infamous "gala buffet dinner" took place -- okay, I'll let it go...) came by in the morning to spend the whole day with me!  It was so great to see her.  We talked for a while in my room, then went out to breakfast.  Then we went to the big event of the day -- the big PA booksigning at a nearby mall.  We stopped at a store to pick up some chocolate (always a nice way to draw people to your table!) and then we went to the mall.  The publisher had generously produced 10 copies of each author's book, so we went searching for my stack.  We didn't have to look far -- I was close to one of the entrances, and right in front of a Waldenbooks!  I figured that was a pretty good location.  I set up my little display with my chocolates, a few engraved pencils and my business cards, and my stack of ten books.  Then I took off around the mall to see where all my new author friends were sitting. 

Over the course of the next three hours, I talked with passersby, told several readers about my book, and handed out my card with an invitation to visit my website. I didn't actually make any sales, but I put my books to good use, by trading them for the books of the friends I'd made.  So now my Whispers is making some new rotations in other parts of the country and I've got some new books to read!

Laureen and I took off from the booksigning, grabbed some dinner by the airport, and said good-bye after a long chat.  Hopefully I'll be able to see her this summer when we'll be in Maryland on vacation.  She dropped me off at the airport and I began the tiring trip home, arriving through my door about 10:30 PM.

All in all, a good trip.  Here are some pictures of the event, although judging from the pictures you wouldn't have thought I was there because I don't think I'm pictured in any of them!  Convention pictures