Continuing our Lake Superior month at Dog Ears Books, here is the signing table on Monday, ready for author Danielle Sosin. The table looked even better when Danielle arrived and was seated behind beautiful crisp new copies of The Long-Shining Waters.
I especially like the next picture (below) of the novelist, smiling broadly at something a book customer must have said. Most likely it was a compliment. She received many.
Sosin did a reading for us, too, on Monday. The first passage she read included the excerpt I used to as an introduction to my preview to her visit. Danielle is an excellent reader of her work, as was true of our other Lake Superior author, Ellen Airgood. How fortunate and pleasurable for those of us present at the events! One of my confident guesses was wrong, though. Sosin does not write poetry. At least she says she doesn't, but I am not the only one to notice and mention the very lyrical, poetic quality of her prose.
In one respect I'm getting either a little smarter or a little luckier lately. Thanks to David photographing me the other day with Ellen, and then Edie and Bruce taking cameras in hand to snap Danielle and me together, this month I have the documentation to prove that I did meet these writers, in person. Here's the latest proof!
If you missed Danielle in Northport, here is where she will be for the next three days--Tuesday in Petoskey, Wednesday in Traverse City, Thursday on Mackinac Island. Check out her website for bookstore names and times of appearance. Following Mackinac Island, she will wend her way back to Duluth along--what else?--the Lake Superior shoreline. I have two signed copies left: first come, first served.
9 comments:
Hi Pamela...Thanks for this information about Danielle's visit. I clicked on the website link and it took me to her schedule and I saw that she was going to be in Grand Marais! My first reaction was that she might get to meet Ellen, but then I noticed it was Grand Marais, MN! It made me wonder about publisher requirements for authors to travel and promote their books. I noticed Danielle's schedule is very full, and I remember Ellen saying she doesn't like to travel much. Just wondering if you know anything about this. Karen
Except for the famous, best-selling authors, these bookstore appearances are pretty much out of the authors' own pockets. Publishers just can't afford to finance much travel for book promotion. Thus Ellen stayed two nights with us, and a Minnesota resident who summers in Northport was Danielle's hostess while she was here. Are you wondering this because you're looking forward to your own future book promotion travel, Karen? Someone at dinner the other evening pointed out that authors' travel expenses are deductible, and that's true. Only hitch is that you have to have the money and spend it before you can "expense" it!
That's interesting information, Pamela. I was somewhat interested in knowing that for myself, although I'm a long way from that point. I was mostly interested in that information from Ellen's comment to me that she doesn't travel much. I share her "love of home" and was interested in knowing more about the requirements and expectations if you do happen to "get published".
Glad it went so well! And that you have evidence! :)
Sounds funny, I'm sure, but at the end of last year's season I realized that I was not in any of the photographs with my visiting authors and hadn't been since I started author events. Vowed to do better! Off to a good start this year.
Karen, another way to look at your question is that small publishing houses are hanging on by their fingernails, while a lot of large ones have been bought out by huge conglomerates who want to squeeze the last bottom dollar from any published book. Either way, the budget for marketing and promotion doesn't usually extend to hotels and meals for authors on the road (or in the air) unless they're in the Top Ten. One book I read on self-publishing told writers straight-out that even with a publishing house getting the book on the market, writers should expect to do as much promotion themselves as if they had self-published. Wow. That's our book world today.
Pamela...Yes, the book world has changed drastically over the last few years. Did you happen to see the article in this morning's NY Times about how independent booksellers are beginning to charge admission for those attending author talks and signings? I thought it was interesting and another indicator of how the book world is undergoing drastic changes. Here is the link if you're interested:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/business/media/22events.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23
Thanks for the link, Karen. I followed it, read the article, but while I understand the position of the booksellers quoted, my small-town experience is a bit different. The first person to arrive at a recent event in my shop had purchased her book already elsewhere, but everyone else who bought the book bought it from me. My customers and I know each other. Some of them don’t buy at every event but still attend; they buy at other events and on other (ordinary) days. So I’m not (yet) even considering charging for author events, not even a $5 ticket refundable with purchase.
What surprised me in the article was the quote about publishers “paying the authors to travel” (who are those publishers), worried about bookstores “making money” from author events! Events are so much a lower net profit, when they are profitable at all! Speaking for myself, a bookseller puts on events out of appreciation for and gratitude to writers and customers and in celebration of books.
Also, Karen, thanks for your questions, comments and observations, which have deepened and broadened the conversation considerably.
So that's who Danielle Soisin is! How fun that you've had two authors of books about Lake Superior at your shop. I am looking forward to reading. These might make good books for our book club. Thank you, Pamela! (P.S. You're looking good, too...nice to see a photo or two of you.)
Thanks, Kathy. I was very happy with my two Lake Superior authors.
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