Step Three - Day Three

I had done most of my hand kissing on day two so I wasn’t particularly concerned with obtaining more business cards on day three; however, contacts were made nonetheless. I was also able to restrain myself from collecting another 25 pounds of books, although I did collected enough for one more medium size flat rate box which my very good friend Deb will be sending on its way shortly.

The plan was to research all the smaller companies that I may not have visited the day before who worked on children’s books and introduce myself. There weren’t many. So I made another round throughout the convention and stopped to talk to anyone with children books.

One company simply looked like a ton of fun. I had noticed them the day before but the booth was so busy I passed by, not wanting to interrupt money making with networking. Both days they had a character from their books there (i.e. a man in costume). On the first day, Vordak the Incomprehensible was there. I totally should have gotten his picture and autograph. His book has been extremely entertaining as well as informative. Not many “How to Grow Up and Rule the World” books can boast that powerful combination.

The other set of contacts I made were actually by accident. I was in a line for… well – it didn’t matter. In general, if there was a line there, you got into it. Which is exactly how we started talking.

“What’s this line for?”

“No idea. I think it’s an author signing? Two books are scheduled to be released in 20 minutes.”

“Sounds like the perfect reason to get in line. Hey did you know that if you stared up at the ceiling people would stop and stare with you?”

Okay. So that last part might have come in later on in the conversation but we did discuss it. And I was very tempted to do it too.

So we started talking about all kinds of things. We had a big group of people chatting about what we did for a living, sightseeing adventures, past BEA conferences. Apparently, the more of these you go to, the less you take home… yeah right.

It turns out two of the girls I was talking with are not only bloggers (who, I found out, could get in FREE to the event! Where was the promotion code for that one?? Thanks a lot customer service!) but they also worked at a digital romance novel publishing house that just happened to be opening a young adult division soon. We ended up waiting there for much longer than 20 minutes so I was able to make friends. It was cool.

On the author side; I met Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. He signed an audio book copy of his new book that delves into the Egyptian gods and goddesses. I wanted to be the first one there; partially because I intended to leave afterwards. Well, I was the first, and the people working at the booth made sure he knew it too. I was so embarrassed… when they started calling people up, I nearly lost my voice. I wasn’t particularly star struck, even though I am a fan of his works. I just couldn’t believe they told him that I was there at least 15 minutes before the line had begun to form. I was able to get out my name, but as soon as I had that CD I turned tail and nearly ran out of there.

The funny thing is, if given the chance, I would have told him myself. But there’s something embarrassing about it when someone else does the talking. :/