Sitting in my office one morning,
I was thinking about the coming weekend and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books held at the University Of Southern California (USC). This would be my second official book signing. For the first book signing, I was nervous. Now I knew what to expect. I had invited my sister to go with me to enjoy the event and to help navigate through the streets of Los Angeles – never an easy job.
We started early Saturday morning for Los Angeles, about a six-hour drive south on Interstate 5 from Sacramento. The interstate highway cuts through the California central valley, through farmland and cattle ranches. The traffic was light so the trip went quickly until we got to Los Angeles proper. Then the traffic slowed and moved in fits and starts. We made it safely and in time to check into the motel and look around a little. We were about five minutes from the USC campus and already saw signs for the Book Festival. I later found out that many other authors were staying at the same motel. Tired after a long drive, we retired early.
Sunday morning we had breakfast at the motel and then off to the Festival. We got there when it opened. We studied the map to find, first the Author Solutions Booth so I knew where to go, then we started looking around at what else was there. The Festival had hundreds of booths in rows in every open space on the campus. According to the brochure, 180,000 people visit this festival every year. I could believe that from the crowds that were starting to gather on Sunday morning.
I learned an important lesson from the Tucson Festival. One can collect many free books, signed by the author – BUT you must be able to carry what you collect back to the car. Books are heavy. I was more careful at this event.
My sister and I toured many of the exhibits, spoke to people, collected books of interest to us and then had lunch with a friend from Texas that attends this event every year. I made it back to the Author Solutions Booth at 1:15 to get ready for my turn to sign books at 1:30 PM.
As at Tucson, I had 75 books to sign and give away in one hour. That was no small task. I would have liked to talk to some of the people in the line more but there was not time. The people that lined up for a book were from all walks of life, all ages and nationalities. Books were signed for teachers, nurses, grandparents, children and college students. It was an eclectic group of interesting people. The Author Solutions people were wonderful. They helped with every aspect of the project from providing pens, books, and props to handing out flyers and taking pictures. An awesome experience.
