Attended my First Author Panel

Yesterday, I attended my first author panel. The event took place at my local Barnes & Noble bookstore. They don't have a lot of space, there was probably 60 people in attendance, and yet people were still standing towards the back.

When I first arrived, I was one of the people standing, then they brought out some additional chairs. I managed to sit in one...and later regretted sitting. I know that sounds weird. I was towards the back, and seeing over all the heads in front of me...I couldn't really see any of the authors. If I moved just right, I could see some of them, but there were still some, no matter how I moved I couldn't see their faces, and so there are a few voices I now have stuck in my head, and don't have a face to go with them.


It wasn't until I was there, and they were introducing the authors that I learned, all nine authors were published with Tor, and the event was started by Susan Dennard. The remaining eight authors making up the panel were, Wesley Chu, Lawrence M. Schoen, John Scalzi, Greg Van Eekhout, Tom Doyle, V. E. Schwab, Max Gladstone, and Cherie Priest.


I'm not sure I'd say the event was well thought out. There was one microphone shared between all, and Barnes & Nobel expected Susan to moderate, which was not made clear to her. And they pulled out one table of books, a small table I might add, and filled it with the books the authors published. They did not have all authors represented at this table, so depending on who you were there to see, you had to make sure you had brought a book. But there were a few people, myself included, that learned of other authors whose books I'd like to try. Only one of the authors I decided I wanted to try was represented on that table of books. I think my local Barnes & Noble, could use some professional marketing assistance.


The bad planning aside, I did learn a few things. One interesting tid bit that stuck from one of their start up stories, was you only need to change your manuscript by 12% to publish with another publisher. One of the authors, I think it was V. E. Schwab, but I'm not sure since I couldn't see who had the mike at the time, had a bad experience with one publisher, and went to another publisher with the same book. She threw out that she only had to change 12% of the content, to qualify as a new edition. File this under useless but interesting information. It may come in handy one day, but I hope it doesn't. There are only a few reasons you'd need to jump publishers, and most of them aren't good.


They also provided some tips to get over Writer's Block:

• Remember you have a mortgage/bills to pay, and there is a professional obligation to write
• Muscle memory - put your butt in the chair
• Play video games for ideas in world/character building, especially RPGs
• Take a shower, your idol mind will start to problem solve

I'm really grateful that I went last night. And I must thank my fiancé for kicking me out the door. I have anxiety about being in public and especially when there's large groups of people involved. (This is why when I grocery shop, I listen to an audiobook. It keeps me distracted just enough.) I also wasn't sure about going because every Friday is family night, and we get together and have pizza and play games. But my fiancé came up with a plan so I could still have some pizza before going, and would be back to join the festivities before the night was called.

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