Book Festival time

Yep - you guessed it. I'm heading to Columbia (SC) next weekend for the SC Book Festival. The weird thing is that I'm going in a capacity I haven't been in since I started attending book festivals. What, you may ask, is up with that? Well, usually I am a volunteer. This year, I had tried to get on as a guest speaker but didn't get selected and I wanted to be there as an exhibitor but funds prevented from or the company from doing this. I wish the other authors for 4RV would see that book festivals are beneficial way before their books are actually published. They allow one to get their name out there and be associated with a publisher who is putting herself out in the public's eye. They are great places for networking. You never know who will stop by your booth and buy tons of copies of all the books and pick up information on other persons in the publishing house. I can't persuade them though to contribute funds to book festivals. It's frustrating and the economy is so bad that not many folks are really buying books; they are going to the libraries where they can get them for free, read and return them for more.

Although I'm not an official SC Book Festival volunteer, I will be manning the SCWW booth most of the weekend, other than the few times I'll be visiting a couple of folks' workshops. It seems that there are quite a few people who won't be able to help out this year, so if you happen to be in Columbia, SC, this coming up weekend, make sure you stop by our booth and speak. State of Wilderness will be on display as a published author of the SCWW. My books, along with several titles from 4RV - Trockle, Lion in My Living Room, Bubba and Giganto, Al-the-Gator and Freddy Frog, Case of the Missing Coach, Midnight Hours, Hidden Lies and other stories, will be available but not in the arena of the book festival, so stop by and let me know if you are interested in getting a copy of the books I have available.

See you all in the postings - hopefully I'll see you at the book festival - and I'll post more after the book festival. This year I made reservations at the Homewood Suites (which is part of the Hilton Family Hotels, since I've become a member having stayed at the Hilton twice now for the SCWW conference in Myrtle Beach), so I know I won't be staying in a rundown, flea ridden hotel and I won't be sleeping in my car either. Luxury. Hailie is going with me this weekend but she will be spending the weekend with her sister who lives in that area so I will have a nice hotel suite to myself. It should be a very good weekend.

See you all at the festival and in the postings - E :)