Day 2 of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books continued what day 1 had started. The sheer volume of people was incredible. When Denny and I took a stroll throughout the entire campus to see what the festival had to offer, we were in awe. The children’s book area in particular was a mad house. For A Whale of a Tale Bookshoppe, the line was at least 25 deep, shoulder to shoulder. It was kind of difficult to tell though because one line blended into another and took on the amorphous look of a mob. I think the pictures help illustrate the volume of people. Of course, I couldn’t actually get the pic I really wanted. At the top of the stairs between clumps of tent cities that dotted the campus, there was a great shot looking down at the tops of the tents, and nothing but a solid mass of people in between. Incredible. If I had stopped to try and take the picture that I wanted, I would have been knocked down the stairs by the throng behind me. Not a trip I wanted to take.
I kept my eyes peeled as we walked through the festival looking for new and different ways to market books. There were a few eye-catching displays, but overall, much of the same from booth to booth. One booth pushing a book on tennis and life had a tennis racket at the corner and you could try and hit a tennis ball into the holes in a brightly colored wooden stand inside the booth. While it drew quite a few people to the booth, I’m not sure asking people to swing a racket while surrounded by so many people was the brightest idea.
Our booth was actually located very well. We were directly across from the Culinary Stage, so we had lots of people coming by to watch the cooking demonstration. Plus, the $5 bookstore booth was just past us and we were on the way in (and out), so did actually get quite a bit of good foot traffic. Instead of watching the culinary show while I was conducting my signings, I had Denny take a book and some bookmarks to try and direct some traffic my direction. It did work. He started targeting those he thought were tweens, and they were very pleased to think that someone had written a book just for them.
I was pleased enough with the event, that I am going to participate in the AuthorsDen.com booth for the San Diego Children’s Book Festival coming up May 9th. More details to come later. This time I’m going to bring my laptop and have my book trailer running during my signing times to help draw attention. I have a few more pics, which I will share in a later post.
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LK Griffie
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