You want to be prepared to answer questions about your book and discuss your book with potential buyers.  If you are approached by a potential buyer or someone from a local paper or TV show and they ask you to tell them about your book; you want to be prepared to do just that. I give highlights from the book, enough to give a good description of what the book is about, I never tell how the story ends.  

Passing out flyers, book marks, business cards and post cards is a very good means of advertisement.  I came into contact with a person who remembered having one of my flyers from a previous book festival that I attended earlier this year.

The Orange County Children’s Book festival was a big success and fun.  The weather was good, a little windy, but nice and cool.  Not too hot and not too cold, just my kind of weather.  The authorsden administrative staff was great as usual.  They supplied snacks and drinks and they were very helpful in passing out any material the authors brought with them.  They are a very warm, friendly and helpful group of people.  For those of you who sent in books and couldn't be present in the book signing booth; your books were well represented , they were neatly on the shelves in clear view and the authorsden crew made sure your books were seen. 

I was interviewed by authorsden staff.   The photographers from the Orange Coast College took my picture for possible use in the school papers.  I believe the way it works is a lot of pictures are taken by different organizations and papers, several authors are interviewed; then the editor goes through everything to see which ones they can use.  A representative from the OC Children’s Book Festival took photos of my granddaughter, the illustrator, and me.   

There is a very good possibility that one or both of my children’s books will be read on a children’s TV show in the near future.  I had a second brief interview by a representative from a local TV show and pictures were taken, I’ll wait and see where that goes.

As usual, the authorsden booth was in a very good location where we got lots of traffic.  It is very important to tell your family and friends what booth you are in; twice in one day I came into contact with a parent and their children who were looking for their teacher’s book signing booth, but, they didn’t know the name of the booth.  Always give your family and friends the name of your book signing booth. 

I attended three book signing events with authorsden this year, I highly recommend these events.  There are lots of fun things to see and do at these events, including meeting famous authors and illustrators.  There are reading stages for the young children, where authors read their books; some are dressed like the characters from the books.  My grandchildren are animal lovers and while they were walking around, they found what they call a small petting zoo with live baby animals.  They enjoyed feeding the little baby goats.  There is something for everyone, fun for the whole family.