Trading Posts

I thought some of you might be wondering about these acronyms (MBA, GLIBA) that have been keeping me busy of late.

The American Booksellers Association (ABA) has many regional branches and around this time of year these branches hold their annual trade shows.

Tradeshows are neat because they are full of people who love books so much they've made a career out of it. Booksellers get together to talk about how to best sell books, how to use new media, publicity tactics, and they get to meet authors. That's where I come in - I've been making the rounds at trade shows to talk about NIGHTSHADE. It's so much fun because I get to talk about my book to people who are really excited about getting it into the hands of readers.

And wow do booksellers know their readers. One of my favorite parts of the show was at my signing table and having booksellers ask me to personalize NIGHTSHADE for a loyal customer or beloved niece/nephew who they are certain will love the book. That's so exciting and wonderful!

I signed a lot of books (there were probably five more boxes on the floor behind me). Thanks so much to the amazing Allison, of Penguin publicity, who was my buddy for the show. She rocks.

This weekend I'm headed to Austin for the Texas Book Festival. This event is of a different sort than the trade shows as its much more oriented towards the readers than the book sellers.

I'm also going to be in a Zombies vs. Unicorns face off. I cannot wait.