Book Fairs, Tradeshows

Find Carolyn's Individual Books and Audios Here:

You will find at least one promotion, writing or tech tip on every page on this site. Sometimes you'll find, two or three! Happy browsing and collecting!

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Please note the new page on this site that features writers' conferences and their benefits.Endorsements:

"I’m a writer who would love to have someone else take over the editing and proofreading stages of my manuscripts because I hate editing, proofreading, and rewriting. Ms. Howard-Johnson’s techniques and her encouragement from page to page of THE FRUGAL BOOK EDITOR lifts my spirits to the level where I can approach these hated tasks in a better attitude and get the job done. I advise all writers to obtain a copy of THE FRUGAL BOOK EDITOR and keep it handy as your write." ~Lucille P. Robinson, reviewer for Alternative Read

Wow. What more can I say? [The Frugal Book Promoter is] interesting, informative, readable and more. Easy to follow, quotes and technique mixed in together wonderfully. This is an A-one job. Watch out world! I’m going to have to put it under my pillow ~ Leora G. Krygier, author of First the Raven and When She Sleeps

Related Links:

For lots more links for reading and writing stuff, visit my Sharing with Writers and Readers blog.

For free e-books on subjects from promotion to samples of how to make promotional e-books work for you, check out the Free E-book Page at Authors' Coalition.

This banner is double-sided (book cover on the other side). The height adjusts so it can be seen over crowds. It is portable in a roller back--easily portable. It lasts for a really long time. And it's under $200. Restaurants are using them effectively, why not authors?

Authors' Coalition offers services for writers including kits to help you make a success of your events. "AC is the current that propels your writing career." The photo of the book display stand at the right illustrates the kind of products useful for authors available on the site along with hundreds of other resources and services. The photo below illustrates a banner and sign that marketing tests told members of Authors' Coalition work better than any sign ever has. The secrets here are the adjustable height, the picture of the author that tells the crowds that the author is there in person signing and using the words "Author Now Signing." The double-sided feature is terrific, too, for when you aren't in the booth. Learn more by sending an e-mail.

Site Sponsor:

The Author's Companion: A Self-Guided Course on Book Promotion CD-Rom is a turn-key marketing program to launch your book campaign in four simple steps. http://tinyurl.com/2vpghe

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Plan Ahead for Book Fairs, Tradeshows, Conferences and Conventions!

Here's Your Working List

From Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Other Writers' Resource Pages

Click Here for media release disseminators, content providers, and sites that accept book and author information at no cost.

Click Here for how-to books, reference books and books of inspiration for writers only! Any one will make a great companion to The Frugal Book Promoter and The Frugal Editor! It includes a list of helpful free e-books and some CDs you can learn tons from, too!

Click Here for a list of book fairs, tradeshows, conferences and conventions. Your aid to planning ahead.

Click Here for Writers' Conferences: The Big and the Cozy. A list of book fairs, tradeshows, conferences and conventions. Your aid to planning ahead.

Click Here for a list of writers' programs at US universities.

Click Here for the FREE Muse Online Writers Conference.

Click Here for a list of accessible contests.

Click Here for a list of digital (print-on-demand) printers .

Click Here for a list of major review journals--some that review POD-published books.

So, you're on the right track! Find what you need for your writing and promotion efforts here! What you can't find here, find at Authors' Coalition.

Early Bird Signing Opportunity for LA Times/UCLA Festival of Books

Join us now as a signing author at the Authors' Coalition booth at the LA Times Festival of Books on the beautiful UCLA campus and get a substantial discount. It is the last weekend of April 2009. The book-signing portion of the fair requires that you attend but other value-added promotions do not. You'll hear more about those later.

Authors' Coalition will again be sponsoring a booth at the LA Times/UCLA Festival of Books on April 2009. We focus on making a humdrum fair into a sizzling success; we make changes every year based on what we learned the year before and the year before that.

Register before August 15^th and receive an early bird discount for the signing slots. One hour signing segments (50 minutes to allow set up) cost $100 for the first and $80 for a second hour. After August 15, the fee will return to its regular $150 for the first and $100 for the second day. The fee includes display or your book, your order forms and your bookmark or business card and a poster for the full two days, Those who are not members of Authors' Coalition will be asked to join at the Silver Membership level. The regular cost is $25, but will be discounted to $20 for those signing. Participants whose memberships from last year come due in April can join for only $10 in addition to the signing fee.

Last year we had our booth televised on the Internet. Rey Ybarra from Best Selling Author Television was there to cover the event. He conducted short three-minute interviews with the participating authors. The program proved to be a great success. Rey will be there with his crew again this year. (To see the 2008 video made by Rey Ybarra, go to Best Selling Author Television site at : http://www.veoh.com/channels/BSATV

For benefits of this booth, payment informations and a hint at what's to come, please visit the Authors' Coalition official blog: www.authorscoalition.blogspot.com or e-mail Christine Alexanians at chalexwrite@yahoo.com

Book Fairs: A List and Mini Reviews

Promotion Tip:

Warning! Book fairs are only as good as make them Each varies in character. Choose the best matches for you, then promote, promote, promote. For other ideas on how you can make your book fair successful, check "book fair" references in the index of The Frugal Book Promoter.

Find at least one tip on writing, promotion or tech on every page of this website.

(The book fairs below are ones that I have personally presented at or participated in some other way. Contact me for recommendations if you wish. Conventions and tradeshows are listed separately below.)

West Hollywood Book Fair, a medium-sized fair, large enough to draw crowds, small enough to give participating authors attention. It's frequented by Hollywood types so if you're yearning for the outside chance of having a producer or director see your book, this may be the place. Your programming contact is Corey Roskin. Fall.

LA Times/UCLA Festival of Books, Contact Jeff Cibull. To apply as a presenter contact Aida Maestas. This s a huge fair. You'll get lost if you don't plan but the possibilities are endless. Please see the Authors' Coalition pages on this site for more details on this fair and how you can participate.

San Bernardino Book Fair at San Bernardino Valley College. This fair is very small; a great opportunity for new authors.

Great Salt Lake Book Fair. A small fair that focuses on fiction. Programs by Jean Cheney.

Hollywood Book Festival is a very small book fair. For information e-mail hollywoodbkfest@aol.com for details. Phone is 323 665 8080. Their theme is "spotlighting books worthy of further consideration from the film, TV and game industries." www.hollywoodbookfestival.com . This year they've changed venues. They'll be at The Grove at Farmer's Market. That should help traffic.

National Book Festival on the mall in Washington DC is sponsored by the Library of Congress. Opportunities for presenters other than very famous or extremely well-reviewed or connected authors is limited. Excellent sponsors. It has room to grow.

Book Festival poster

During the second full weekend of October each year, more than 200 authors converge in Nashville to celebrate books with book-lovers at the Southern Festival of Books. It is held on the Legislative Plaza that surrounds the Capitol building in downtown Nashville. It is like a huge carnival of books. Speakers (including me in 2007) present in meeting rooms at various locations around the plaza.

Yvonne Perry and Carolyn Howard-Johnson as Carolyn signed her books at the Southern Book Festival in Nashville, TN, 2007.

Others Book Fairs (ones I know about but haven't attended or participated in):

Amelia Island Book Festival (Amelia Island, FL), Fall

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival, The, (Atlanta, GA) Fall

Austin Jewish Community Book Fair, The (Austin, TX), Late fall

Austin Book Festival (Austin, TX), Late fall.

Baltimore Book Festival (Baltimore, MD), Fall

BookEm (This event benefits literacy and travels to different locations in the South. They sometimes do several a year.)

Blackboard Festival: "Dozens of Authors. . .Thousands of Readers. . .All Under One Roof." May 17-18, 2008, George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, Texas

Blue Metropolis (Montreal, CA), Spring

Brooklyn Book Festival (Brooklyn, NY), Fall

Buckeyes Book Fair (Wooster, OH). Late fall.

Central Coast Book and Author Festival (San Luis Obispo, CA.) Fall

Collingswood Book Festival (Collingswood, NJ), Fall

Connecticut Children's Book Fair (Storrs, CN), Fall

Delaware Book Festival (Dover, DE), Late fall

Fall for the Book Literary Festival (Fairfax, VA), Fall

Frankfurt Book Fair (Germany)

Georgia Literary Festival,(Blue Ridge, GA), Fall

Indianapolis Bookfest, Dolores Thornton, founder.

Kentucky Book Fair (Frankfort, KY), Late fall

Montana Festival of the Book, (Missoula, MT)

Multicultural Children's Book Festival (Washington, DC), Late fall

Miami Book Fair International, (Miami, Florida)

National Black Book Festival, (Houston, TX)

Nebraska Book Festival, (Lincoln, NE)

New Yorker Festival (New York City), Fall

Southern California Book Sellers,

Texas Book Festival.

Tokyo International Book Fair,

Arizona Daily Star Tucson Festival of Books with the University of Arizona, (Tucson, AZ), Spring.

West Coast Author Premiere (Ventura County), Summer

West Texas Book & Music Festival, (Abilene, TX)

Wisconsin Book Festival.

Miami Book Fair (Florida).

Spring Book Show (Atlanta, GA)

Latino Book & Family Festivals, The (Houston, TX), Fall

Litquake (San Francisco, CA), Fall

London Book Fair

Louisiana Book Festival (Baton Rouge, LA), Late fall.

Miami Book Fair International (Miami, FL), Late fall

Midwest Literary Festival (Aurora, IL), Fall

New Orleans Bookfair (New Orleans, LA), Late fall

Novello Festival of Reading (Charlotte, NC), Fall

Orange County Children's Book Festival (Costa Mesa, CA), Fall

Bologna Children's Book Fair

Philadelphia Book Festival

Red Dirt Book Festival (Shawnee, Oklahoma)

Rochester Children's Book Festival (Rochester, NY), Late fall

Sarasota Reading Festival (Sarasota, FL), Late fall

Santa Barbara Book & Author Festival (Santa Barbara, CA), Fall

South Dakota Festival of Books (Deadwood, SD), Fall

St. Petersburg Times Festival of Reading (St. Petersburg, FL), Fall

Twin Cities Book Festival (Minneapolis, MN), Fall

Vegas Valley Book Festival (Las Vegas, NV), Fall

West Virginia Book Festival (Charleston, W. VA), Fall

Wisconsin Book Festival (Madison, WI), Fall

Wordstock (Portland, OR), Late fall

Wyoming Book Festival, (Cheyenne, WY.)

Online Videos by Veoh.com

A retrospective of the 2008 Authors' Coalition booth at the LA Times/UCLA Festival of Books. For information on how you might participate contact Christine Alexanians.

More:

For a list of genre fiction conventions go to
http://www.locusmag.com/Conventions.html or http://homepage.ntlworld.com/wilf.james/i_conlist.htm

For a long list of national and international book fairs (albeit with no personal comments) go to the Library of Congress list at
http://www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook/bookfair.html.

Tips

Tip #1

If you would like to present at a fair, contact the program directors well in advance. Six to eight months in advance is a good guideline.

Tip #2

Learn more about making book fairs a sizzling success at the Authors' Coalition blog dedicated to planning and value-added promotion for fairs.

Find at least one tip on writing, promotion or tech on every page of this website.

Conventions and Tradeshows

For the uninitiated, tradeshows and conventions are usually set up for people in the trade and those associated closely with it. Often the public is not invited and special credentials are required for entrance. Sometimes fairly high entrance fees are required as well.

The DIY Convention: Do It Yourself in Film, Music & Books

Small Publishers of North America's College.

PMA's Mini University is featured at Book Expo America each year.

Virginia Library Association Annual Meeting and Exhibit offers a book exhibit. Contact Mark Trocchi.

Massachusetts Library Association Annual Meeting and Exhibit. Association Book Exhibit. A combined exhibit and professional conference. Contact Mark Trocchi.

International New Age Tradeshow (INATS) isn't about books only, but if you write for new agers, this is a tradeshow with an excellent reputation for sales of new age books. This is what the floor of Book Expo America looks like.

Bologna Children's Book Fair is really more of a tradeshow for all things related to publishing work for children. Contact them at area.eventi@bolognafiere.it.

Book Publicists of Southern California (BPSC) has a mini book fair at each of their meetings. This, left to right, is Pam Kelly, Dee Vollendorffand Carolyn. Pam and Carolyn are both BPSC's Irwin Award winners.

Writers' Conferences: The Big and the Cozy

Find conference-related tips, articles and a list (including recommendations) on this site's page dedicated to writers conferences.

Find more content on this site's Free Articles 4 Readers and Editors. This page ncludes Reviews for Riters, how to articles for writers, essays on tolerance and more.

Don't forget to check out my list of books for writers on this site and in the appendixes of The Frugal Book Promoter and The Frugal Editor.

Net Promotion Tip

Links can be a great way to build website traffic. Trouble is there is a tendency to withhold a favor until someone has reciprocated. Though I use the term reciprocal links below, they are not truly reciprocal because I do not demand a return link. If I think a link will be useful to you, my website visitor, I will post it whether or not it is reciprocated. Nor do I expect links to be tit for tat. Example, someone may mention my book or my site in their newsletter rather than on their website and that makes me just as happy. I suggest you do the same. It gives your link page more credibility and it underscores what pubic relations is supposed to be about -- ethics and a willingness to help one another out when possible.

Find at least one tip on writing, promotion or tech on every page of this website.

For resources and links galore, grab yourself a copy of the Frugal Book Promoter.

Purchase THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER as a thick, full-size e-book priced to accommodate the budgets of starving students and authors at Star Publish.

Purchase THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER and THE FRUGAL EDITOR in trade paperback at Amazon. The Amazon Short, THE GREAT FIRST IMPRESSION BOOK PROPOSAL, too!

Purchase THIS IS THE PLACE, HARKENING and TRACINGS at Amazon.

Purchase CHERISHED PULSE at the Compulsive Reader.

Purchase and find all the audios for writers at Double Dragon Publishing.

"Careers that are not fed die as readily as any living organism given no sustenance." ~ Carolyn Howard-Johnson

This author is founder and a proud member of Authors' Coalition.

(Directors: Joyce Faulkner and Pat Avery)

This site is powered by Dianna Faulkner, carmelfaulkner@aol.com

Studio photography by Uriah Carr

Logo by Lloyd King

Future Plans for How To Do It Frugally Series:

The Frugal Amazon Promoter
The Frugal Retailer Promotes
The Frugal Author Builds an Agent-Friendly Package

Important Resources

Book Proposal Help

Former book acquisitions editor Terry Whalin says, "editors and publishers don't read manuscripts. They read book proposals. In Book Proposals That Sell: 21 Secrets to Speed Your Success, you learn the inside scoop to achieve your dreams." I highly recommend it.

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Promotion Services

You'll find direction in the Frugal Book Promoter for building your own media kit; if you choose not to build your own, the information there will make you a better partner for a publicist you might hire to help you. I recommend PressKit 24/7, the brainchild of publicists with over forty years' experience. We know the speed at which you need to work, and we know what it takes to get the media's attention. It was critical for us to be able to create professional online press kits for our own clients. So we understand what you need for yours.

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