word on the street, part 2

Having a booth at Word on the Street yesterday was a lot more fun than I had expected, and I'm definitely going to sign up again next year. Jeff helped me set up my booth...an interesting challenge since we weren't allowed to use anything but string to hang up signs, etc. :-) I immediately noticed that my table was much emptier than that of my neighbours, plus I didn't have the plastic flyer-holders that everyone else did which kept flyers from being blown away in the wind. I'll know better next year.

Someone at Jeff's office says she saw me on the CityTV news report last night...sure wished I had remembered to watch it (they had interviewed me during the day, so I figured I might be included in their festival report).

Things I had out on my table:

• Inkspot flyer
• Colour screenshot of Inkspot main page (thanks, Jeff!)
• Sign-up sheet for new Inklings subscribers: several hundred signed up!
• Issue of Rice Paper magazine where I was a cover story.

As an experiment, I put half a dozen pens out on the table to see what would happen...they were all gone within a few minutes (!). I kept my Inkspot pens hidden under the table, and would give a pen to anyone who subscribed, who said they were a subscriber, or who said nice things about Inkspot or my booth. :-)

It was great to meet some of my subscribers face-to-face. Also met lots of talented young writers. :-) Several people came by with manuscripts for me to look at (one was handwritten), asking for a critique and tips about where they could get published. A bit awkward, handling those situations. I don't really do that sort of thing and even if I did, I definitely wouldn't want to do it in the middle of a busy literary festival. I got the feeling that they were shopping their manuscripts to as many booths as possible.

Thanks to those who dropped by to visit and help man my table so I could have mini-breaks (Amanda, Jeff, Allison, Jodi, Rand, Michelle)! I handed out about 2000 flyers and 400 Inkspot pens, met a bunch of my Inkspot users/subscribers face-to-face, was interviewed by a couple of tv stations. My sister Ruth was also at the literary festival, but I never did get to her booth where she was doing a book signing. Ruth was doing a tiny (and quick!) sketch of each child that brought a book for signing.

Allison, Jodi and Rand visited later in the afternoon, and we went out for dinner with Jeff after the festival ended.

Going to see Cabaret at the Royal Alex with Cathy tonight.

Every morning, I surf the net for publishing-related news to post on Inkspot. Inevitably, I come across other interesting stuff as well; I'll be posting some of these URLs in my Blatherings. :-)