Sue, will you be at the ACFW booksigning?!
Ummmm . . . no. And yes, I get asked this question quite a bit. I considered it the first year I was a member because all I had to do was ship the books in and show up, or so I was told. The reason I didn't attend is because I didn't think I'd sell enough books to justify going.
The second year, since I had so many readers from the market ACFW cators to, I thought I'd give it a shot. I was told then that I had to pay for two days of the conference just to participate, maybe it was one, nevertheless, the price was steep and lessened the opportunity for me to even break even.
I don't attend the ACFW conference because, for the price, there is nothing for me there. Most, if not all workshops and speakers are representing the CBA/ECPA whom they write for or are associated with, the very unique and targeted core market CBA/ECPA were set up to protect. I don't limit myself to writing for any specific market of Christians so attending would just be something I'd do if I had some money to throw away, which I don't.
It's sad for me too because so many of my readers are CBA/ECPA market readers and are eager for me to show up and sell my books. But I can't afford to and, since I don't follow the content restrictions and guidelines CBA/ECPA use to protect their core market, I hardly see the point. 99.9% of attending authors will be CBA/ECPA affiliated. Most of the buyers will be CBA/ECPA core market readers. My books would most likely offend more people than they would appeal to.
Doesn't make for good sales. LOL
I did consider doing a book signing the same week end at Northwestern Christian book store around the corner, thinking that because they were Independent and didn't pull stock specifically from CBA and ECPA, I might stand a chance of getting one set up. But ACFW authors started expressing an interest in doing sattelite booksignings and I was out. CBA's influence in Chrisian bookstores, Indpenedent or not, is incredibly strong.
I tried though. :)
BTW this post has nothing to do with Michael Hyatt!!!! *gasp* :O
(for those paying attention, I only mentioned the name Michael Hyatt because he google's his name and will sometimes post when he deems it necessary. He hit one of my blogs the other day because I posted a short blurb about the Christian Book Expo (another hotspot for Mr. Hyatt, I guess.) Anyway, I didn't want him to feel left out. :)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Well, at least people ASK you whether you'll be there. This is nothing to sneeze at. It means they WANT to meet you and/or get an autographed copy of your book. Oh, but you sell autographed copies online, don't you? So it must mean they want to meet YOU.
I think I need to go write more blog entries that name-drop, so someone will actually READ my blog. Then maybe someone might ask whether I am going to some event which is either too far away (Mt. Hermon and Comic Con are the only events that're ever close enough) or too expensive, or both.
But it sure would be nice to be asked.
Caprice, you might also exaggerate like I do. LOL *only one person has actually asked me that question (sly grin)* But I'm sure everyone else wants to!!!
And just so you can do your own blog Caprice, tell me, "are you going to be at the ACFW massive Booksigning?"
Inquiring minds want to know. Now run off and write your blog and don't forget to mention Christian Book Expo and Mr. H. :)
Gotta love it!
I can sure understand why you don't go. I wish you had. It was a bit lonely in Small Pressville at the signing.
This year, incidentally, Christian spec-fic had a much higher profile. Maybe it was Jeff Gerke's presence. He participated in the editor/agent panel (gasp! right out in front of everybody!) and folks asked him questions. I mean, actually MENTIONING spec-fic! Very edifying.
Stuart came, of course, but for some reason left his rubber dinosaur head at home.
The ACFW book signing is clearly for authors who attend the ACFW conference which clearly is for writers, readers and publishers of CBA and ECPA Christian fiction. I'm not even sure I'd go if I got to attend for free. :O
Just like I wouldn't go to any other conference/booksigning that had very little to do with the market I write for. I do have lot of wonderful readers from that market but they none of them would likely be at the ACFW booksigning. And no, one or two don't count! LOL
It's funny to hear about Gerke being there to me. Because while CBA publishers ignore every other Christian publisher that is doing with Spec Fic and Fantasy what they won't do because of their demographic, they're all over Jeff and in every breathe bring up that he's a CBA veteran.
I hope it works out for him though I'm not sure how it's doing him any good to be at an ACFW conference.
*sorry. Just re-worded this paragraph from above so that it actually made sense*
It's funny to hear about Gerke being there to me. Because CBA affiliated publishers conviently ignore what every other Christian publisher is doing with Spec Fic and Fantasy and horror (and by that I mean the spec. fic, fantasy and horror they don't produce because they claim their market doesn't want to read it. They're all over Jeff and in every breathe bring up that he's a CBA veteran.
Post a Comment