Category: Uncategorized

Mostly Memories has a lot of gift items–scented candles, lotions, cremes, potpourri. They also have calendars with Greg Olsen art and other inspirational things. One year we were just up the row from them and it was so nice and pleasant smelling the entire week.

We R Memory Keepers is a scrapbook vendor–lots of cool papers, journals, binders, etc.

Lightstone (the Liken the Scriptures people) won the award for best booth at the convention. This booth was totally cool. It was part of the set for the Daniel and the Lions movie coming out soon. Here is the front of it.

Inside they were showing clips from the Daniel movie. They also had some lions that you could have your picture taken with. Here’s a photo of one of the lion’s going back into their den.

If anyone reading this blog had their photo taken with the lions, send it to me and I’ll post it.

During some of the slower times, one of the lions would climb up on that ledge (you can see the edge of it in the far right of the photo) and stretch and growl. It was really a fun booth and a great idea.

Every year, Florence Hansen brings a work in progress and sculpts during the show. Last year, she was working on Freedom From Fear.

This year, she brought a piece in progress on Wednesday. Then apparently she was talking to someone at the convention about a new piece she was thinking of doing in honor of our men in the armed forces who gave their lives in combat. So on Thursday, she brought in a different block of clay and her model and got started on it. (This convention is a great source of inspiration for a lot of us.)

This newest piece is of a mother holding a folded flag to her heart, head bent, missing her son. In the photo above, Florence is working on the back of the mother’s head. I’m looking forward to seeing this piece. I think it’s very timely and will offer some comfort to mourning mothers everywhere.

Florence is such an amazing artist. I love to watch her work. And by the crowd that is usually standing around her, I’m not alone in that. One of the new pieces on display this year was Sleigh Ride! It was beautiful. You can see more of her work on the Hansen Classics website.

In my opinion, this was the second most eye-catching booth at the convention. (Lightstone/Liken was #1.) HaleStone distributes the HaleStorm (DB link) movies like The Singles Ward and The R.M. It also distributes for several other related movie and entertainment companies, such as Thompson, Majestic and Hale Yeah!

Thompson has a bunch of family movies, but I can’t find a weblink for you. I don’t know very much about the other companies either–again, no link. I also don’t know why this booth looks so empty in this photo or why there are no workers there. Every time I walked past it during the convention, it was crowded. Maybe this one was taken before the convention opened.

Granite Publishing had 6 booth spaces. This is from the side and back. I liked the simplicity of the thatched roofs on their pillars with book cover posters up and down the sides. Also the palm trees. That was cool.

The round tables and chairs that you can see in this photo were where the employees met with the bookstore buyers to take orders. They had their author signings around front. I hope someone sends me a photo of the front of their booth, because this one does not do it justice.

Just a thought. If any other publishers, authors, vendors, bookstores, conventioneers, or whatever happen to read this blog and you have photos you’d like me to post here, please e-mail them to me. Format them for posting on the web before sending. And if you have any commentary to go with the photo, I’ll post that too. Just let me know if you want your name, etc. posted with them.

This is one end of Cedar Fort’s booth. They had a 10 booth space. That round thing above the middle of their booth has all their imprint/company logos on it, riding the top of that blue wave. I think it may have rotated. It was kind of cool, but some of the logos were too small and they were hard to read even when you were right up close. Which is too bad.

Note to CFI: next time, make your logos bigger and bolder.

You can barely see it in this photo–and I’m hoping someone will send me another photo of this booth from inside it–but they had plastic walls around their booth that had cascading water coming down the sides. That was kind of cool.

I think they were really brave to do the water thing. I mean, if one of the tubes or pipes sprung a leak, it would have sprayed all over the conventioneers and ruined a lot of CFI product, and possibly some product in the neighboring booths. However, as far as I know, it worked for them.

(We thought about having water in our booth, but decided against it due to the disaster potential.)

CFI also had these really cute plastic blow-up chairs with polka dots all over them. They looked nice and fun, but they were so low to the ground that I wouldn’t have dared try to sit in them. It would have taken a crane to get me back up. I think a lot of people may have felt the same way, because out of the 200 times I walked past them, I never once saw anyone sitting in them.

Overall, I think CFI had an okay booth display, but it wasn’t nearly as cool as their jungle themed one last year. That one was ULTRA-COOL! They had camoflage netting all over it. They were one of my favorites last year, but I don’t have any photos of it. Sorry.

Here are two random aisles at the show.

I got some photos! I have several friends who are camera happy and they are going to be e-mailing photos to me over the next few days. I will post them and comment as I get them, so they may be a little disjointed. But then, the convention is a huge cacophony of noise and excitement and people hawking their wares, so the frenetic content of the next few days of posting will actually give you a sense of the feeling of being there. I hope.

Here is a photo of Deseret Book’s booth. Since they are the biggest, and since I talked about them a little the other day, I’m posting them first.

This is just from one angle and it’s the only one I have so far. It does not do the booth justice. But see the table and chair there on the left side of the photo? That’s where the authors sit to do their signings. The bookstores get tickets that allow them to stand in line–sometimes for an hour or more–to meet the specific author and get a signed copy of their new book. There are a limited number of tickets and you have to have one to even stand within spitting distance of this area. Sometimes the line of ticket holders stretches all the way across the front of the booth. There are a couple of other signing nooks at the other corners of the booth. I may have photos of one of these lines coming later.

Also notice the big thingee (that’s the technical term) at the top center of the photo. There is a giant reproduction of one of their new titles on each side of that. You can see that from anywhere in the convention hall. It’s amazing.

Set up day (Tuesday).

It started out as such a lovely day. Got down to the office. Packed the truck in less than 30 minutes. Did a few leisurely office type things (pay bills, filled a few orders, chatted with an ex-employee who dropped in to say hello…). Then we headed off to the South Towne Convention Center in Sandy. Life was good.

We entered the convention hall around 10:00 a.m. It was such a beehive of activity. People bringing in their product, setting up their booths. The air was electric with excitement. And noise. Hammering. Buzz saws. Other miscellaneous bangs and booms.

We found our area and started to set up. Then we realized we’d left a major portion of our display back at the office. Another major part of the booth that was supposed to be available for pick-up early Tuesday morning, wasn’t. These two parts had to go in first. None of the other pieces could be put together or set up until these were in place.

So back we went to the office for the one part. Then to the store to find a make-do for the other part. (I said a prayer of thanks that: 1] our office is very close by; not in Maine or Florida or even Manti; and 2] Sam Walton lived during my lifetime.)

We had planned to be done by 2:00 p.m., but didn’t have all our pieces together until 3:00 p.m. After that it went fairly smoothly. Sort of.

We were out of there by 4:15 p.m. and went straight from there to one printer to get most of our remaining promo pieces. The receptionist said, “But you picked up all of your catalogs the other day. I don’t have anything else left in the computer for you…” Fortunately, the printer was as disorganized as us. The jobs were there and done, just not in the computer.

And I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but…lest you think I’m the only rattled, last minute publisher–while I was there at the printers another publisher arrived to get their stuff. And no less that four others were having their stuff still coming off the doc and being collated and folded and stapled and all that jazz. I just love it when I hear that. (Yes, I have an evil streak. Sorry.)

And I’m not the only one with the set-up problems. Another publisher and friend was cooling their heels waiting for product to be delivered to the convention hall. Another had left their backdrop at their office. Others couldn’t get their carpet to fit. And all over the place I heard loud and very stressed voices saying things like, “Where is that xyz? I know I packed it!” and “That doesn’t fit together right. Where is this piece supposed to go?” and “Where is so-and-so? They were supposed to be here an hour ago.”

All that anxiety just makes it sweeter when your booth is done and you can step back and take a look at it and it looks good. But we weren’t to that point yet. We had still more stuff to pick up.

So after we get the stuff from one printer, we go pick up stuff at another printer. That was all done and looked beautiful. Check off another thing from the list.

Went to pick up the 60 items from that never-to-be-named store which has employees who work for the devil (grumble, grumble–do I sound like Super Dale? [local joke])…first, “We only have 24 of them.” Then we ask, “Is that counting the 22 that were on your shelf yesterday?” No. Duh. So then we were up to 46. “Well, we have some in clear, not frosted…” Desperate, we took those. Now we had 54. “Oh, and here are some black ones…” Took those too. Ended up with 58, which was close enough. So they go to collect them all, and “You’re going to kill us. Those frosted ones you wanted aren’t frosted after all. They’re clear…”

At this point, I don’t even care. And I’m in a hurry because, you know, I have a personal life too and I was late for a very important date. Rushed home–smelling like a construction worker. (I mean no offense to construction workers all over the world. I just don’t particularly want to smell like one. My husband doesn’t really like it when I smell like one either.) Anyway, hurried to get ready. Went to the event. Home around midnght (what was I thinking?!!) Two seconds after I fell asleep the alarm went off and it was CONVENTION DAY!!!

[P.S. I tried to get some photos on set-up day with the booths under construction, but they really turned out dark and you can’t see anything. Sorry. Will try to get some during the convention itself.]

[P.P.S. Will report on the actual convention itself this weekend. Too busy to do more right now.]

What a weekend! What a day! I cannot believe that I have to set up the booth tomorrow and the convention starts on Wednesday. Someone please pinch me and wake me up, so I can realize it’s only June and I still have plenty of time!

What? It really is convention week?

Oh dear.

So remember the 60 items we ordered from a particular store who promised they would be here today? We called to see when we could pick them up and (are you sitting down?), they said, and I quote, “You told us to cancel that order.”

WHAT?!!? We most definitely did not! So they are scrambling to get the order together for us by tomorrow.

Then I went by the printer’s to pick up our promo pieces. They said, and I quote, “Did you send us stuff over the weekend? Because our server went down and we don’t have any record of you sending us anything. What was it? A catalog or something?”

I am not making this up. It was actually two catalogs (sent a week ago), three product flyers (sent Friday), and some other miscellaneous aren’t-we-a-really-cool-company stuff (sent Saturday).

For those of you attending the convention, I will be the woman curled up in a fetal position in the corner of our booth, mumbling random thoughts and curses upon all the printers of the world.

Actually, that won’t be much of an indicator. Earlier today, I was bemoaning my situation to a collegue in another company and their day is going as well as mine. And then another colleague, from still another company, was having a worse day then both of us put together.

Oh well. At least I will have all my new books on display, creatively or otherwise.

Put in 11 hours today. Created 16 posters and got them to the printer. That was such a pain. Making the posters wasn’t a big deal. I know how to do that, so it only took a few hours. But Kinkos wanted the files to be the exact size that they were to be printed, so that means these were 100–200 MEG files. Each. They wouldn’t go over their ftp site. I don’t have 16 jump drives. So I had to burn them to CDs and it took almost three hours just to do that. Then I had to drive them down to Kinko’s. Hadn’t planned on a road trip.

I suppose I should be grateful that I have computers that can create the artwork as fast as they can, rather than complaining about how “slow” they are. But if I didn’t whine and complain, I’d be nearly perfect–and I have this huge fear that I might accidentally get translated before I finish my novel, so…

What else did I do? Oh, while the CDs were burning on one computer, I did some work on another computer–catching up on e-mails, cleaning off my desktop, that kind of stuff.

Talked to some authors. Some of them need lots of hand-holding. They’re nervous about the convention. I can understand that. I am too. A little. My first year, I was incredibly nervous. I didn’t know what to expect. Now I’ve done it so many times, it should be old hat. But I still have nightmares–like I get there and I’ve forgotten to bring my entire display. Or none of my authors show up. Or it’s a week later and I totally forgot to go.

I think I am just about ready for the convention. I have two more sheets to create, but they should be quick and easy, and I can send them to Kinko’s on Monday.

After the trip to Kinkos, I went to Wal-Mart to get the last of the stuff I need for the display–except for the stuff that’s on order from that other store, who promises they will be here in time. Also got some trash bags–we’re all out at the office and we have overflowing trash bins. I know you probably imagine that we “have people” who take care of things like that. We do. I’m them.

So now I’m done (or done in) for the day. I’m pooped. So I’m turning off the computers and going to bed early. Goodnight.

Hey LDSP,

Quick question, if you’ve got a minute. You mentioned the other day that the stats on your blog have gone up since you started talking about LDSBA. How do you access the stats on Blogspot? I’ve gone through my settings a bazillion times and can’t see where to find them for my site.

Thanks,
Stat-less

What does this have to do with writing, you ask? Lots.

Every writer should have a website.

Every website needs a stat counter.

If you don’t know what a stat counter is, it’s the little box down at the bottom right that at this moment says 904. That is the number of people who have visited this site since I installed the counter in May or June–can’t remember when.

Anyway, Blogspot doesn’t have stat counters. Or if they do, I don’t know where. I got this one at StatCounter.com. I use the freebie, because I’m cheap. Just go to the site and follow the instructions to create one of your own. Then you have to insert it into the template code of your blog or website. I had to mess with it a bit to get it right, but it wasn’t too hard. This particular stat counter code gives you a variety of information that I don’t know how to interpret. But the part I do understand tells me how many of you hit my site each day, how many pages you looked at while you were there, the average amount of time spent looking at my site and the general area of the world you come from. Kind of cool.

Finished my catalog and got it off to the printer. (3.25 hours) I was feeling really bad about how behind I was on this project. (Yes, I’m the kind of person who thinks they’re late if they’re not 10 minutes early, but still…I really am behind this time.) Anyway, I was feeling bad about this, and what an unprofessional reflection this was upon me, when I discovered that one of my colleagues is even further behind on their catalog! I had to choke back a cackle of glee–not over their misfortune, but…well, let’s be honest. It was over their misfortune. Misery loves company, what can I say?

Talked with a couple of authors about last minute convention details. Finished our promo pieces–well, actually, I just looked at the finished pieces. My employees had to put them all together. They look pretty cool, even if they are a last minute throw-together. Got a couple of compliments on them from non-employees (aka people who don’t have to suck up to keep their jobs). That made me feel better. I always feel like a nerd when I’m trying to create visual displays. Flat surfaces (like paper), I do okay with; but for 3-D objects, I’m about as creative as a rock.

Put together another marketing piece (5 hours). Have to proof it tomorrow morning and send it to the press. Then I only have one more page of show specials to put together. And the posters–all the new book covers. That shouldn’t be too hard. (Knock on wood.)

Now I have to go because there’s a bowl of ice cream calling my name.

I keep getting my day count off. I can’t imagine why…

13 hours today. I don’t have it all detailed out. I did a lot of e-mailing, a few phone calls. Touched base with some employees to make sure they were all on track with their convention assignments. We needed 60 of a particular item and the store had less than 20. They’ve promised they’ll have the rest in by Monday. Do we believe them?

I lost a distribution contract I was really hoping I’d get. Darn. It was a national product that would come with an existing customer base. We left it on good terms. That’s really important. I’ve had more than one deal come through a year or two down the road after I thought the chance was gone.

That was balanced out by another contract for that really cool product I mentioned awhile back. Yea!

Spent most of the day working on promotional materials–product cards, bookmarks, catalogs and other stuff to give out at the convention.

I have authors starting to arrive from out of town tomorrow. I need to get them to their motels, make sure they have everything they need. I will not be playing tour guide, but still, I want them to be able to see some fun Utah things while they’re here.

Also tomorrow I have relatives passing through who want to stop by and visit for an hour or two. And one of my dear, dear friends called and has cleaned out her clothes closet. She’s coming down from Salt Lake with several boxes of hand-me-downs—for me. I love it when she cleans out her closets. It’s more fun than Christmas. It doesn’t matter how busy I am. I’ll drop everything for free new clothes. 🙂

Another author is coming in to stuff that messed up product. Hopefully she can do it in one day. If not, her husband will come down on Saturday to finish the job.

And somewhere in the back of my mind is this nagging feeling that I’ve forgotten something important. I hate it when that happens. I never know until it’s too late whether I really have forgotten something, or it’s just a case of nerves.

Today was Plan the Booth Day. Yesterday I did some looking around and pricing out booth display furniture, getting some ideas. All the display stuff we’ve used in previous years is totally hammered, so we need to come up with something new.

Today we set up the basic booth layout, arranged the tables and chairs, etc. Then I went to Wal-Mart for a bunch of stuff. Was only able to find some of it. (5.25 hours)

Then I went to one printer to pick up the last of the books and the insert for the one product that was messed up. Sent an employee to another printer to pick up the stuff there. (1.50 hours for me; not sure how long it took her, but I’m sure it was longer. I only had one place to go. She had about 5 places to hit.)

Came home and took a siesta. It’s just too darn hot. Now I’m back at work. Still haven’t finished all my promotional materials. Working on those as soon as I post this.

Tick-tick-tick. I feel like Capt. Hook.

Here is a new blog by an author* whose agent just sold her debut novel to Bantam. She posts two successful query letters.

And here is what her agent said about her query.

BTW, I read PubRants daily. You can get a lot of good info from this blog. I highly recommend it.

*Caution–If you go to Sherry Thomas’ website, be warned that she writes romance and there are some explicit scenes. I stopped reading as soon as I hit those. My endorsement here is of her sample query letters ONLY.

This is a test. Below is a query I actually received (with all the particulars changed). If you’ve been paying attention, you should be able to tell me what’s wrong with it.

Dear Manager,

I am an addictions counselor who leads workshops and group sessions with LDS addicts. I am frequently asked how some of the aspects of addiction and recovery correspond with the teachings of the LDS church. Therefore, I have written several essays addressing these issues.

Please let me know if your company would be interested in in helping me with its publication. I have enclosed a Table of Contents so that you may see the concepts and ideas addressed in my book.

Sincerely,
Jane Doe


This is followed by a full sized title page.

Then a Table of Contents listing Part I (with 9 chapters), Part II (with 6 chapters), Part III (with 1 chapter), and Part IV (an Appendix with 7 chapters).

Post your comments, telling me where this woman went wrong. Later on this week, I’ll post a follow-up.

What a flurry of pre-convention activity! I’ve received several phone calls from colleagues today. “What are you doing in your booth?” “Where can I get cheap carpet?” “What do you think about..?”

I love that I can call these people colleagues and friends, and not competitors, as most people would label us. Of course, there is some competitiveness in the industry–there are a few companies that have a very hard-nosed, business-minded, take no prisoners approach to things. Fortunately, I’ve never found myself on the short end of an interaction with them.

But there are a handful of fun, friendly and supportive publishers that I am pleased to call my friends. I suppose that on some level we compete for the same product, the same authors and titles. But we don’t fight. We don’t backstab. We just do our business with integrity, make our offers and let the best man (or woman) win.

Sometimes, I get the contract. I like it when that happens. Sometimes I don’t. When that happens, I get to re-evaluate my company, our policies and determine where changes need to be made so that I can better fill the needs of my authors and perhaps get the next contract I go after.

Back to convention preparations–

Received two pallets of new product today. That leaves only one more product shipment and then I’ll be done. Yea!

There were 12 items on my “Must Do Today” list. I got three of them done. Press proofs for our promo pieces were not ready. Hopefully they will be ready tomorrow. We need to get them put together.

Catching up on e-mails and other messages that came in over the weekend. (1 hour)

Finished the proposal and first draft of the contract for the cool project I’m still negotiating for. Even if we can’t work it out so that I am the #1 worldwide distributor for this product, I can still distribute it to the LDS market so it will be in the booth. I sent off an e-mail with all the contracts and spreadsheets attached. We are doing a conference call later this week. (3.25 hours)

Started on the catalog. (2.25 hours)

Took a break to do family things. One kid just got home from camp. One kid leaves for camp tomorrow. Do you know how hard it is to find a modest 1-piece swimsuit, that fits, in the “right” style and colors, this late in the season? Or at any time, for that matter. Ends up we’re borrowing a tankini and using a long thick t-shirt as a cover-up. So frustrating.

I still have about 4 hours of work I need to put in tonight. I have a product list spreadsheet that has to be done by tomorrow. And it would be really good if I could at least get the catalog sketched out.

Someone asked for a breakdown of my day, so here it is:

Paid bills; returned phone calls & e-mails. I’ve been trying to reach one of my authors for a week now. She isn’t returning my phone calls or e-mails. Wondering if she’s on vacation; wishing I was. (2 hours)

Went to the printer #1 and did a press check. They told me it was done yesterday (remember, I forgot to go). When I got there it wasn’t ready and she said it would be done in an hour. Like I have time to wait around for an hour. So I was grumpy and they got it together in 10 minutes. Looks pretty good. Should be ready by Monday. (1 hour)

Printer #2 called and said there was a problem with my files. Where was the booklet; they could only find the cover. Of course, I’m in the car, not at my office and can’t resend the files. They called back. They just looked at page one; didn’t realize it was a 24 page document. That was a wasted panic attack. Forced to self-medicate with a candy bar. (15 minutes)

More phone calls; more e-mails. Finally worked up the courage to tell my author the release date is delayed. He wasn’t too upset. Worked on promotional pieces for convention; sent them to the printer #1. (3 hours)

Went to printer #2 for the press check. They expect to have this piece done by Tuesday, so we can open packages, insert them and reseal the packages on Wednesday. I say “we” but I really mean the author. While I was there, checked on the progress of a book that I expected to be done last week. It’s printed and bound; just needs to be trimmed. (1 hour)

More phone calls; more e-mails. Negotiating for the cool new product; writing a proposal; adjusting the contract; trying to figure out how to make a seamless transition. (Impossible.) Wondering if it’s worth the trouble. (6.25 hours)

Total Workday: 13.5 hours.

We’re not counting the time spent to create this blog. That’s not work, it’s fun.

I will be so glad when the convention is over.

Either my count is off, or I was abducted by aliens and lost a day.

Today I created and sent 4 promo items to press. I created two more, but am waiting for two pieces of artwork and an author’s e-mail address before I can send those off. I still need to do my main catalog and order form. I have never been this far behind before. Still trying to figure out how that happened. The alien abduction theory is becoming more credible.

I was supposed to go do a press proof on a book this afternoon. I remembered it at 7:00 p.m. Ooops.

Trying to negotiate a last minute distribution deal for a really cool product. The publisher keeps sending me conflicting information. I would love to have this at the convention, but I don’t think we’re going to have all the details ironed out in time.

Visited with some colleagues, sharing ideas for new product. That was fun. One of them is passing an author over to me because they don’t publish in that genre. I don’t either, but I want to. I’ve recommended other publishers to authors when I am the wrong one for what they’re writing. While some companies are very competitive and won’t share leads, others are very open and friendly and care more about helping the author get published than preventing the competition from getting ahead.

Total hours worked: 15. One of those colleagues called me a workaholic today. Hah! Only when I have to be. Come September, I’m back to normal work days.

I’ve had a manuscript at an LDS house for quite some time. I haven’t heard anything on it since November 2005. Would it be acceptable to contact the publisher after the convention and inquire on the status of my manuscript or keep waiting? Since I’ve already broken the rule of sending this same publisher a second manuscript (wish I’d had your advice before I did that) I don’t want to make another mistake, but I’d like to know if my manuscript is still under consideration.

Thank you.

They’ve had it 9 months? You can grow a baby in that amount of time! No way should a submission review take that long. Yes, give them a couple of weeks to get through the convention, and then call and politely ask the status of your manuscript. You’ve been patient enough.

Unless their website says their normal submission process takes 9 months (and if it does, rethink submitting to them), anything more than 3 months on a basic query, or 6 months on a full, is a sign that something has gone wrong–either it never made it to them, or it’s lost on someone’s desk, or your rejection is lost in the mail. And I say rejection, because if they were going to accept, they would probably call you.

In the future, when you submit, make a note of what the publisher says is their usual response time. You can usually find this on their website. Then add 3 weeks. If you haven’t heard from them by that date, then by all means, you may call and inquire.

Today I made a huge wall chart where I listed everything I need to do before the convention, and then wrote in the number of hours each of the items would take. If I don’t eat or sleep for the next two weeks, I still can’t do it all.

I delegated some of it. I’d love to delegate even more of it, but the last job I delegated got messed up so bad that it took me longer to fix it then it would have taken had I done it myself.

There are days when I really don’t like my job. I have an associate who keeps telling me that she’d make more money being a greeter at Wal-Mart then she makes in publishing. Today, I’m thinking we should go be greeters together.

But you know, I refuse to end my day in a low note. So, good things that happened today:

1. Finally got the bid from the printer on the rush job. The author should have the proofs back to me tomorrow morning. Press tomorrow afternoon.

2. Got that stalled project out of typesetting. It goes to the press tomorrow too, I think.

3. Successfully avoided making that dissapointing phone call to my author. I keep hoping I’ll suddenly find myself cloned and one of me can still get the book ready while the other of me does everything else.

4. Added a new link under Writing Tips. Looks good. Go check it out.

5. Didn’t get hit by any of the gigantic hail that ravaged south west Provo today. Nothing big blew over onto my house or office. And I didn’t get hit by lighting.

6. One of my kids who is off at summer camp just texted me to say goodnight.

That makes it all better. Life is good.