Over the past seven weeks I attended three book signings, each two weeks apart, I started at the Sweetgrass Author Event in Charleston, SC. From there I visited some family in West Virginia and Pennsylvania before my oldest daughter and I traveled to Ellicott City, MD, for Charm City Romanticon. After that, I returned home to Colorado before driving to Aurora for Readers Take Denver, where I was assisting Sara Madderson/Elodie Hart and also had a reader ticket.
Below I will share some pictures and a recap of each signing as it was for me.
Sweetgrass was the fifth signing event I have attended that was put on by Southern Belles. It was also undoubtably the largest. With a stellar author lineup, there were a lot of tickets sold. In my opinion, probably too many. For a six hour signing, I was able to get to a shockingly few authors in my time there. They hit a few snags with this one.
First, let me talk about the city of Charleston. Rich in history, with out of this world southern cuisine, I thoroughly enjoyed a day exploring the area with my friend Diana. In addition to visiting Fort Sumter and the Charleston City Market, we ate some fabulous food. Our first night we met up with friends for dinner at Hyman's seafood which was delicious and great fun. Author Jessica Peterson had a meet up at Stars Rooftop Bar downtown for her readers on Friday night. It was great fun to visit before the signing in a casual setting. In addition, I was able meet my friend, author Jess Bryant an her bestie Lesley, for a wonderful and casual dinner out at the Blind Tiger Pub. (Delicious!) After the signing, Diana and I went to Page's Okra Grill for a fast and fantastic dinner. I love shrimp and grits. I am not ashamed to say I ate that for dinner each night at a different restaurant. I have zero regrets. Don't get me started on how yummy the hush puppies, collard greens, and fried green tomatoes I had were as well.
Because the signing was held at the Charleston Convention Center, it made things a little different from past Belles signings I have attended. Usually everyone is staying at the same hotel where the event is held. Though there was an Embassy Suites attached to the convention center, not even all of the authors had rooms there. Authors and readers alike were spread out all over the city. The unfortunate side effect of this was that the usual meetups between readers and authors that typically happen in the host hotel around the event just weren't there. It changed the entire vibe of the event for me.
Registration opened at 9 AM, and my roommate and I were able to walk from our nearby hotel to the convention center. When we arrived, the line was already HUGE and very long. After standing in line for three hours, at times not moving at all, we received our bag and lanyard and were moved (in our line) back outside to wait for doors to open. The event was scheduled to begin at noon, but doors did not open until after 12:15. The Belles events utilize a wristband system for authors they anticipate to have long lines. Using a buddy system, my friend and I were able to obtain our wristbands and were ready to see the authors. This is where things got complicated. The Belles used an app to tell us what numbers the ticketed author lines were calling. In the past, this has worked well. This time, cell service inside the convention center was not good and I was lucky to get two bars of service. Though the convention center had Wi-Fi, it was password protected. Readers did not have access, nor did most of the authors I spoke to. Unfortunately, that meant a thousand readers were constantly attempting to load the app and failing , which lead to the app crashing. Organizers set up some monitors at a single location for readers to check the app for numbers. This was extraordinarily inefficient while trying to see authors in a large room. Unfortunately, by this time, confusion was rampant. Volunteer line managers, not knowing where the numbers of their line were, abandoned the system and allowed readers to queue as long as they had a wristband. This lead to some crazy long lines. A secondary side effect of the Wi-Fi issue was that authors had difficulty processing payments via credit card, Venmo, and PayPal which required connection for them and sometimes the reader too.
Despite the chaos, I was able to get my preorders and meet Kate Canterbary, who was one of the reasons I bought the ticket to the event. I was able to see a few other authors, but I will be honest the time in line and the chaos of the signing itself made it very difficult because my stress level was sky high. If this had been my first Belle event, I would not come back. As it is, I already have tickets to Rain City this fall and two events in 2025. Because they are usually a well-organized machine, I will be giving them another chance.
After visiting with family for a week or so, my oldest daughter and I drove from Pittsburgh, PA to Ellicott City, MD for the second Charm City Romanticon. We were able to attend last year, and it was such an enjoyable weekend for us to share that we decided to do it again. This event is a feel-good weekend and it is now a tradition for us.
We were able to share a quiet dinner alone our first night in historic Ellicott City and it was delicious. The next day, we took a couple of friends and explored the area and even drove over to Columbia, MD to check out a brand new indie bookstore named Queen Takes Books. I highly recommend it. Later, we gathered with friends inside the Turf Valley Resort for some drinks and visiting. We also were able to gather some of the members of my favorite reader group together for a little mixer in a suite one of us managed to have.
The panels at Charm City are run differently than other signings and I love it. When you buy a ticket, you choose group A, B, or C. There are three stationary panels and the readers rotate trough each one based on group letter. Every reader had a chance to hear from each author, narrator, and this year even a model, before the signing began. Lunch was provided after the panels as part of the ticket price and included wraps, drinks, chips, and cookies.
The signing room this year was a bigger room than last year, but it still felt a little crowded as we were all so excited. Because CCR is small, there is no need for a wristband system. It was a little difficult to get around in the crowd initially, but I was able to see everyone without any problems. I got a few pics with authors, and then was able to get more at the PJ party later that night. One addition this year was a quiet room outside the signing room for anyone who needed it. I loved that addition. Turf Valley Resort has a lot of space and seating areas to escape to if you are overwhelmed. This remains the lowest stress signing I have attended.
The PJ party offered appetizers, a cash bar, and a dance floor and music. The atmosphere was casual and good for catching up with friends. It also allowed an opportunity to visit with the authors, narrators, and model in a more casual setting. Dinner was provided with a taco bar and a pasta bar as options. The food was delicious. There was also a photo booth that got a lot of use and was a lot of fun.
Next was Readers Take Denver. I attended last year and as a first year event that large, they had some challenges. I purchased my reader ticket early, because I wanted to come back and see if they were able to make improvements. I was hopeful that a new venue, at the Gaylord, would solve some of the issues of the first year. As a signing I could actually drive to, I really wanted it to be successful. A couple months before the event, an author friend contacted me to see if I would be willing to assist her instead of attending as a reader and I jumped at the chance. They would not send out my assistant ticket until after April 1st. Once I had that, I attempted to sell my $300 reader ticket with no success. The organizers used a ticketing system where they had to transfer the tickets to the buyer (to allow for printed name tags) making it cumbersome to sell a ticket and impossible after their cutoff deadline. I decided to keep my ticket and register for both since I understood the way the ticketed author room worked, and I knew it would give me additional chances to leave my author's table to pick up my preorders in the ticketed author rooms.
There were a LOT of issues with this second year signing. All it takes is a quick search on social media and you can read all about the less that stellar experiences of readers and authors in attendance. It's out there. I am not going the rehash the details. I will say that the event was grossly oversold and very poorly managed. Volunteers received no training and very little direction. These factors in addition to the above mentioned ticketing system lead to me being in line for three hours to register my reader ticket. It was chaos. I persevered, and I finally completed my registration with just enough time to prepare for the evening festivities. For an event that boasted a no lines approach to signings, this was unfortunately a precursor of the many lines to come.
Thursday night there was a welcome mixer that opened for influencers to first meet the "Rising Star" authors, followed by the other authors joining a while later. I was very surprised when my author and I arrived to find the crowd being held in the corridor outside the ballroom with ONLY ONE BAR! For a drinks and mixer event, this was unacceptable. Once attendees were able to join, they opened he ballroom and another bar and cupcakes were available along with pop-up signings. Because we had not been able to get into the signing room at the assigned time to set up our table, we left this event early and changed so we could get set up and ready for the next day. We finished set up at just after 10 PM.
The next morning was the first panel events. RTD runs a lot of things concurrently, so this was also when the vendor room was open and there were couple of pop-up signings in the halls. I attempted to attend one panel. The room was over crowded and despite that I was going to stay. Then I realized that the authors speaking were at floor level in front of the crowd and they had one mic to pass around between them. I could not se them or see who was speaking. At that point, I decided that being crowed and in a room that was probably dangerously over capacity was not worth it and I left. I visited the vendor room. It was obnoxiously crowded and nearly impossible to get around or see the vendors. I did successfully make it by the Book Beau table to finally buy a bean since I didn't fly to this event. I have seen them at other events but always resisted. I love my bean, just saying. I tried to attend the Meghan Quinn birthday party, which I had RSVP'd for, only to discover a huge line to get in and that the RSVP was for a head count only. I heard later that there were some stickers handed out until they were gone. I don't feel like I missed much by not standing in yet another long line. I met one of the authors at the pop-up signing and hightailed it to my room for some introvert time before the signing.
The signing itself, for me and my author, went pretty well. I was able to buzz around and get my preorders (thankfully not too many) and see a few author friends. Though our table was kind of tucked in a corner, we got steady traffic and made decent book sales. At the end of day two I had two readers who were unable to get to us to get their preorders, but I was thankfully able to connect with them and deliver their books that afternoon. I opted to skip day two panels and instead attended the "Rising Star" signing to meet as many of the authors as I could. (I want to say that I am not a fan of that term and the segregation of authors within an event. Being involved in the chats as an assistant gave me front row view to the difficulties placed on these authors in particular.) I felt like they all got the short straw and I enjoyed meeting, visiting, and buying books from them. There was also book-cake pop-ups during their signing and I did stop by Gina Azzi's table for a piece of cake and a quick picture. I do believe that having the book cake event in the afternoon this year instead of them morning like last year worked much better.
Saturday a group of friends met for coffee and we were able to get a picture of our group with Wander Aguiar. Fun memories were made there. Saturday night was the casino and Speakeasy DJ party. I was exhausted, but I had purchased an outfit for this event so I met up with friends to participate for a while. Our blackjack dealer had a wonderful sense of humor, and we enjoyed gambling away our play money. We went to the DJ party and got some pictures and danced a little. Sunday morning was the goodbye breakfast. I made a decision to skip another line and skipped the breakfast, opting instead to pack up and eat a breakfast at the hotel.
This year's venue was the Gaylord hotel in Aurora. I have attended other events at Gaylord hotels and have been impressed with their facilities and staff as well as the event management. Though the organizers of RTD are quick to place blame on the hotel for short comings that occurred this weekend, I have a hard time laying all the blame at their feet. Maybe there were some issues where the fault falls there, but ultimately I blame the organizers and their poor planning of such a large event for everything that went wrong, And there was a lot. I haven't read anything online yet that I didn't also see first hand or read in the chats during the event.
Summing it up:
These three events make fourteen book signing events I have attended since the fall of 2021. It is interesting to compare the differences between them. One thing they all share is the ability for readers and authors to meet. They share time for readers to meet each other. I have made some of my best friends attending these events. We have made memories while exploring new cities, standing in line, and while sharing meals, drinks, and hotel rooms. Focusing on the positive: those are the things I treasure.
It is gratifying as a reader and blogger when I meet an author and they know me from my small online presence. My goal is to help readers find the authors they love, and authors find the readers who love their books. This brings me joy, even if it sometimes also brings some sore feet along the way.
I would also like to give a shout out to Sara Madderson/Elodie Hart. Thank you for allowing me to assist you at Readers Take Denver. Thank you for the meals we shared and the time to get to know you. Watching other readers express their love and appreciation for your fantastic work made my weekend, and I was thrilled to be part of getting your work in front of new readers. Anytime you want me to assist again, I will be there.
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