Monday, November 10, 2008

Working the Rochester Children's Book Festival

Tip of the Day: Check out this blog post Tina pointed me to: http://editorialass.blogspot.com/2008/11/crash-flow-or-what-went-wrong-in.html on poor book sales in October. Depressing, but there's hope!

I didn't want to steal Tina's find for my Tip of the Day, but it piggybacks on my news from the weekend. I volunteered at the 2008 Rochester Children's Book Festival on Saturday. Can you say CROWDED? Wow! What a fantastic turnout! It was the best turnout for the festival ever. The authors sold out of many of their titles halfway through the day. The onsite bookstore sold out of their titles. We were afraid people wouldn't be buying books due to the economy but that was way off.

Anyway, I'm still recovering from hours on my feet saying "The authors are signing upstairs. Bruce Coville and Tamora Pierce are speaking in the Red Room. Follow the red balloons. The zoomobile is downstairs. Jeff Mack is reading in the yellow room. Follow the yellow balloons. The elevator is behind you." I gave people directions for hours. Almost everybody was friendly except for the parents of kids who didn't get balloons. Look, every kid got a free balloon, but sometimes the balloon people had to restock for a minute. Tip to organizers of children's events: Balloons are serious business!

Anyway, it's amazing how hard the volunteers worked and how long of a day our authors had. But if you get a chance, volunteer! I had a great time! Thanks to the phenomenal Barbara Underhill for coordinating the volunteers and sending me these pictures. And thanks everyone who made it out to Rochester for a successful event. The authors shown here are Bruce Coville, Michelle Knudsen, Tamora Pierce, Vivian Vande Velde, and Ellen Stoll Walsh.






3 comments:

Ghost Girl (aka, Mary Ann) said...

I'm so envious! Wish I could have been there!

Emily Marshall said...

Looks like a ton of fun, Kate!!!

Lisa Schroeder said...

Cool - I was at Wordstock Book Festival yesterday, and do you think I remembered my camera? Grrr, I hate it when that happens.

So glad you had a great time!