News, events, and general discussion

There you go -- if the Microsoft geeks get into you, you're set! :)
 
Just got back from the Borders reading. Whew! Pretty much lost my voice...

The actual reading was a bit too early in the evening to draw a crowd (6:30 PM). But the central location in the store made it very easy to interact with store browsers. I shook a lot of hands and talked to lots of folks, and passed out quite a few keychains and bookmarks. I also sold a fair number of books, about which I am very pleased. Most of the books I sold were not to people who came to see me but were there to buy something else, so I was successful in convincing them that the books were worthwhile. :)

The Borders staff did a superb job with the displays! Here's some shots from the event:

Borders 01.jpg


Borders 02.jpg


Borders 03.jpg
 
By the way, on the endcap just behind my right shoulder was Scott Bakker's latest book. :) So smaller U.S. press or no, he's getting some decent exposure in the stores...
 
My local Borders looks identical to that! (Not that I shop there. I go to smaller bookshops first, independants, followed by local chains because I'm that sort of person. But I like to browse Borders.)

Nice display, looking very professional up there!
 
Rocket Sheep said:
My local Borders looks identical to that! (Not that I shop there. I go to smaller bookshops first, independants, followed by local chains because I'm that sort of person. But I like to browse Borders.)

Nice display, looking very professional up there!
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Not quite identical - I'll bet yours doesn't have a nifty display of Tonogato books! :D Or me standing around next to them looking silly...

But yes, the folks at the store really made it all look like the real deal, didn't they? I was so concentrated on the event and what I needed to do, that it wasn't until I got home and looked at the pictures that I said, "Hey - that's me in a nice big official looking book store!" Was a good feeling, it was...

maus99 said:
Sweet! Glad the event went well.

So when you coming to San Diego?
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Thanks, Maus! San Diego, hmm... That's a toughie. I do go to Los Angeles a couple of times a year to visit family (and I'm still trying to see if I can get down there to see Alison, who's still there until the beginning of December), but not long enough usually to hoof it down to San Diego.

If I can get a big enough block of time and can get some bookstores set up for events, then I might be able to do that. But I suspect it may be a while before such a window opens up.
 
Okay, so where can we get the bookbag with the cover on it?
 
I wanna "walk beneath the Hikari" too!

Shame they only have boy-shaped tops.
 
Rocket Sheep said:
I wanna "walk beneath the Hikari" too!

Shame they only have boy-shaped tops.
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Not any more. I just added a ladies shirt, with the Kotaishi cover on the front and the "I Walk Beneath the Hikari" on the back, just for you... Click that link again and it should be there... ;)
 
And it's dedicated to me! :D

Now... what's the current exchange rate... and can I justify spending the cost of a t-shirt on just the postage... :confused:
 
News, news, news...

Tonight I had a reading at Third Place Books, a large independent north of Seattle. A decent turnout, and since I had a microphone it was much easier to talk - I didn't have to shout to be heard. Sold some books, including a complete set of all four books to one very energetic young man (thanks, Michael!). He was a contestant in the NaNoWriMo contest, and seems pretty serious about his writing. I pointed him to us here at SFFWorld; we'll see if he drops by.
 
Oh my goodness, you really do have an entire line-up! What is this cafepress -- it sounds totally cool. I'll have to see if I can ship to Canada.
 
KatG said:
Oh my goodness, you really do have an entire line-up! What is this cafepress -- it sounds totally cool. I'll have to see if I can ship to Canada.
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Yes, it's a very handy service. It's intended mostly for people with clubs or other things they're trying to promo. You can add a variety of things to your "shop" that can have artwork printed on them. Cafepress charges a set amount for each item, and then you can add more on if you want stuff in your shop to make a profit. All of my stuff is just at the base price.

Initially I had a link to my shop from my website, to give an impression like, "Hey, this guy has all this merchandise about his books, he must be popular!" :D Of course, nobody really bought anything except me - Lise always wears a Kotaishi or Sabakushi T-Shirt when we go to conventions (she's my walking billboard). And that works quite well, I might add! Since there's no charge to maintain a shop, it seems to be a pretty good deal for someone like me, who just wants to order a promo thing every now and then.

Would you like to order a shirt? Or a coffee mug? :) I'm sure they can ship to Canada... If so, I'll even upload a special version of the artwork with your name on it... ;)
 
I'm going to get the bookbag, but I can't do it till Jan. with everything that's going on over here. Your tagline, "walk beneath the Hikari" is great. Next conference, bring some T-shirts and get pals to wear them. :)
 
Lise goes with me to all the cons, and she always wears a T-Shirt, either a Kotaishi one or a Sabakushi one. She makes a great billboard... :D
 
Wow, a t-shirt - I'm impressed...if we had met up, Mr Radthorne, I would have demanded one as a momento. So count yourself lucky that you escaped that one.

(PS It looks just like the Borders I did at Torrance in LA - but I guess all Borders must be pretty much the same...wish I was more photo-minded, we could have compared Borders shots...)
 
And I would have been glad to give you one, Ms. Croggen. But only if you had let me sign it while you were wearing it! :D

Ahem, all right, back to serious business... Well, at least more serious than that! Just finished going to Rustycon, another of the local cons that I frequent. I had three panels, only one of which was terribly interesting (at least to me!), which was about Computer Art. I was on the panel with Raven Mimura, who was also the Artist Guest of Honor. He is quite a nice fellow, very talented, does a lot of the D & D art stuff. I talked about all the 3D things I'm doing; I also had about a dozen pieces displayed in the art show. Didn't sell any of them, but they served the purpose of being seen and being a bit of a billboard so that people would notice the books (I have a small poster displayed there too off the book covers).

The next con up on the schedule is Norwescon in April. In the meantime, I'm slogging away on the next novel. Now, if I could just finagle a way to do a book tour of Australia so I can see my author friends down there...
 
Just received official confirmation of another event - there will be a "Sci Fi Saturday" multi-author event at the Borders store in Redmond on Saturday, April 8th. This is something the Borders district manager at the store asked me to help set up after I did my reading there last Fall.

On hand will be yours truly; Robin Hobb; Louise Marley; and Susan Matthews. Our tentative plan is to have a couple of "panels" (common at conventions, but rather uncommon in a book store) along with Sci-Fi themed cookies and giveaways, probably a raffle of our books. The panel ideas we're considering are "How to Build a Starship" (courtesy of Jay Lake) and "The Way Magic *Really* Works."

If this event is successful, hopefully we will be asked to repeat it at each of the Borders stores in the Pacific Northwest region, with a few different authors thrown into the mix depending on when and where we are.

This is the weekend before Norwescon, one of the large cons here in the sunny Northwest. Anyone who's around, do stop by. I'll post the time of the event as soon as we find out what it is.
 
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