ARMCHAIR BEA DAY 3 : NETWORKING & COMMUNITY

 

Hello everyone. Today's topic is Networking and community. As far as my blog goes: Twitter, Read-a-longs and Read-a-thons are my main way of connecting. In the real world however its a little different. Not many of my real world friends are readers. I do however have a lot of clients who read so I'm often recommending them new reads and giving them arcs. One of my favorite clients, Michelle has also become my traveling buddy for  The American Library Association Annual and Midwinter events. I first heard about the ALA events from a librarian at San Diego Comic-Con. She admired one of my tote bags and since I had an extra I gave her one.

We had a nice chat about books and my blog and she told me the Mid-Winter event was a great opportunity to connect with publishers and get some review books. As the days counted down to last January's midwinter , I started seeing authors talking about going. One of my favorite authors Lisa McMann had tweeted a picture of her newest book (at the time) Cryer's Cross. I joked with her that if we saw each other at ALA she was free to "drop" one of them in my bag.

Within minutes Lisa sent me a Direct Message on twitter. She had e-mailed her editor and got me invited to the Simon & Schuster luncheon at ALA! Not only did I get a signed copy of Cryer's Cross and other goodies at the luncheon, but I also got to meet Lisa and hear her give a wonderful speech.

All from one little tweet! Now I'm not suggesting you bombard your favorite authors with requests for invites and books, but being active online  can have great rewards. Many a time I've mentioned a book or entered a contest that lead me to being on a lot of review lists.

I also suggest taking the time to thank your publicity contacts, and let them know when reviews are up. One of my contacts at Tor is always grateful for me doing this. So much so that when I asked her if she knew if review opportunities were available for the book Redshirts by John Scalzi , she went out of her way to forward my email to the rep in charge of the tour and I scored a copy!

I'll have more tips and suggestions for ALA in the coming weeks. Happy Armchair BEA everyone.