Blurb

The shoes didn't fit. It was an omen.













Friday, May 3, 2013

My Chocolate Brings All the Librarians to the Yard

You can lead all the librarians to the chocolate, but you can’t make them by your book. ***smiling and gritting my teeth***

Before I rushed from New Port Richey to Orlando to the FLA (Florida Library Association) conference, which is about a two hour drive, I stopped off at my local Publix for two bottles of water and a couple of protein bars. On my way back to my car, one of my liter bottles plopped out of my bag and rolled under my car.

The Voice spoke as I got on my hands and knees to find that the bottle had rolled under the car parked next to mine. “Today isn’t going to go as you planned.”

“Okay. Fine,” I said to myself. “I bought a space at this event and I paid Create Space for a bunch of books. I refuse to give up. I will persevere.”

So I did. Once I hit I-4 the rain clouds rolled in and eventually let loose.

One of my bright spots was picking up the author of The Metamorphosis of a Muslim, Lena Winfrey, on the way there.

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After I picked her up, we headed for Panera Bread on Sand Lake Road. While we had a wonderful talk (she’s got lots of novels inside her) and ate our lunch, the rain did more than pour out of the sky. When we got back into my car, I read my Google Map instructions on how to get to the Orland Hilton, and thank God, Lena came armed with a GPS tracker.

But…we followed the Google instructions first, which had us on the totally wrong road. So we went to Lena’s GPS tracker for help, which she learned on the fly in my car. This was definitely an adventure of a lifetime-being lost in the rain in a busy city.We barely made it to the Hilton.

Once we arrived to the front of the Hilton, we were told to take three rights to get to the back where we were to unload. I had a suitcase and a couple of boxes of books to carry up an escalator and then another one…we opted for the elevators.

Check-in didn’t go so smoothly either. One hand didn’t seem to know what the other hand was doing. Although, a very nice lady…we’ll name her Ms. R (we got separated though and she had some of my stuff with her) and an employee of the Hilton graciously helped us out with a dolly to tote the box of books to where they needed to go.

Well, we totally lost Ms. R and my paper said we were to go to the Orange Ballroom. I went to an empty room.

Thankfully, my stuff had been left in the giant room across the way. But once we got to the door, despite my name tag, the people at the door were reluctant to let me in. I thought I would never make it into that room.

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Once there, I got my things set up. But the crowds seemed to herd together toward the back of the room where the refreshments were. None of the vendors there seemed to have any more action than I did.

So I brought out my big box of chocolate. Lena grabbed a stack of my cards and walked through the room schmoozing and planting seeds. With a little persuasion, people came to the table but no one bought my books or any books from the vendors beside me. ***shrugs***

It was a seed planting day and I met few more authors.

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The picture above is of Sybil Nelson, author and public speaker. She writes YA and middle grade novels. I’ll be in contact with her since she’s an Indie, too, and has been doing this a lot longer than me.

I thought I had other pictures to share, but knowing how my day went, I more than likely pressed the wrong button.

But its all good! Friday is another day to work on my marketing plan and figure out what doesn’t work. Although, my chocolate did bring the librarians to my yard.

Hugs and chocolate,

Shelly

28 comments:

  1. At least you and Lena had a good time together. I envy that! Yes, at an event the people are there for the food. Sometimes someone buys, sometimes not. My paper had a great article yesterday, but there has been no stampede to buy Earthbound. At least books sold at my reading. It will go better next time. Blessings.

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    1. Yes. We did. I found it all rather funny.
      Just checked the KDP thing. 2 ebooks sold.

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  2. Yours sound a bit like an ordeal I went through in a vendor show a few years back. I gave away free dog cookies to small avail. Maybe I should have tried chocolate!

    Keep up the perseverance Shelly!

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    1. It was terribly unorganized. But its all good.

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  3. This is why I focus on ebooks.That's where the sales are.

    But you had a good time with Lena!

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    1. Yes. I did. She's a very sweet person with lots to tell.

      I'm still wading through this marketing thing. Some say the opposite of what you're saying. ***shrugs*** Maybe there is no exact science to all of this.

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  4. Sounds a bit frustrating, but at least you had fun and got to meet Lena. How fun!

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    1. I'm sitting on my couch this morning laughing about it. And I was very happy to meet Lena. She is one of the most interesting people I've met in a long time.

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  5. Somethings can be disappointing. But nobody can say no to chocolate!

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    1. You're right. Chocolate is a good thing.

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  6. That's quite a journey! Glad to see you two got on so well.

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    1. Lena is incredible and interesting. And she's very good at organizing.

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  7. Yish! I think I would have lost it and cried. At least you met some people and the chocolate thing was a good idea.
    You never know how an author event will go. *shrugs*

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    1. Its all good. Live and learn. Anyway, there has been some activity over at Amazon on the ebook and low and behold, there were some purchases.

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  8. Yes, chocolate does a great job of attracting attention, even if it isn't the initial attention you want!

    Congratulations on all the effort you put into marketing, Shelly! Success always follows.

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    1. Thank you, Gail. I'm working on it. And thank you for the mention Twitter.

      Hugs and chocolate,
      Shelly

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  9. You're so lucky to have met Lena!! At least I have met Mari. I can't believe the chocolate didn't work. Who made your nice big sign with the cover of your book?

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    1. Lena is wonderful. The chocolate brought them to my yard at least. And a guy named Nik Sharp made the sign. Although, Collin gets the praise for the artwork.

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  10. Wow! That was an adventure alright. Well, at least you got to meet other authors, and since no one else sold any books you know it wasn't that your book was not good. Blame it on the weather. Better luck next time. :D

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    1. The librarians gave me analytical looks from head to toe when I spoke to them while they ate the chocolate. I figure that's their personality-type. But its all good.

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  11. Shelly, it was indeed meeting you. I enjoyed our visit. Wish the weather and the book event had been better though. You are really an amazing woman and writer! And I really think that passing out the cards for your book must have helped to get you those ebook sales, so thank God we got them into the hands of the people. And I've been passing out some to people at my kids' school and my friends here the past couple of days, so maybe I have been a good promoter for you; at least I hope so! :-) Indeed I was very impressed the large book cover; Collin did an amazing job, and esp to see it that big was breath-taking! And really, I think the librarians just had to go home and think about it, look you up and be all analytical; suppose that is their personality! :-) Take care and hugs!

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    1. Yes. We had fun. And yes...you're a great promoter. Thank you.

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  12. Shelly,
    Great blog by an utterly pleasant person.
    I've nominated you for The Versatile Blogger Award. If you care to accept this nomination, click on the link and follow the easy steps explained in my post.
    You deserve it!
    Lucy

    http://lucypireel.wordpress.com/2013/05/05/the-versatile-blogger-award/

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  13. Hi Shelly! You had quite an adventure. Sorry to hear about the lack of book buying--but I think we can blame that on the economy. I hope your next event goes well!
    Nutschell
    www.thewritingnut.com

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    1. Thank you, Nut. Its all good. There were ebook sales that day. Found that out later.

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  14. Hey Shelly!
    You look great sitting there in the picture... surrounded by loads of your books... so upright and proud... it must be a good feeling!
    All-in-all, it sounds like you had a good time... and you got to meet other author friends...

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