Saturday marked my return to AzRA; i.e., the conference of the Arizona Reading Association held in Casa Grande. I've spoken at this conference on numerous occasions and have usually had numbers in my session that could justify the time, effort, and expense involved in putting together a presentation and getting there. This time, I wonder. Of the nine people present, five were fellow writers who were there to show their support, and for that I was grateful. But that left four "real" people, meaning librarians and teachers. Of those four, two were retired and one of those was an old friend who attends all of my workshops and sessions. So that left two people. As a PR effort, this is sadly disappointing, and I will have to give serious thought before submitting a proposal again. It reminds me of my experience at the California Reading Association.

I always thought it was a struggle to get people to attend author sessions at California Reading because the author track is flooded at this conference, which "hosts" -- term used loosely, since we authors have to pay our own way as well as conference fees unless a publisher sponsors us -- as many as fifty or sixty authors at any given event. Even so, I usually managed to have a friendly and welcoming crowd until it was held in Long Beach. At the first Long Beach experience I was placed in a room behind the exhibit hall, through which people had to pass in order to get to the sessions. The exhibit hall opened at 9:00AM. My session started at 8:00AM. Zero people attended. The only reason I was able to get to my room was that I had an exhibitor's badge, courtesy of my publisher, and was able to enter the exhibit hall. The following year it was again held in Long Beach. My session was in the same room at the same time. The results were identical. I decided I could find better ways to spend my time and energy, but then CRA held its conference in San Diego and at the request of a friend I agreed to be a speaker. Unfortunately, whoever was in charge forgot to include my session in the conference program. No one remembered to list my name and session title on the marquee outside my presentation room. I was scheduled to speak during the last slot of the day. I was so thrilled when one person wandered in and surprised that she'd found me. That bubble soon burst, however, when she explained that she was tired and since the room (set up for 250) was empty, she'd wandered in to rest and not to listen to a speaker. It was a huge let down, not to mention about $300 out of pocket.

Perhaps there are too many conferences. Perhaps authors need to think of other alternatives and/or venues to promote their books. Ideally, conferences enable an author to present his/her newest titles to the broadest possible audience--but not always. I enjoy talking with teachers about books--my own as well as those of others. But there really should be a way to minimize an author's expenses. I know. I know. Authors are all rich. Write a book and you're an instant millionaire--until you stop to consider that authors actually only make, on average, ten percent of the purchase price of a book. If there's an illustrator involved, then that ten percent gets cut--and rightly so--in half. So on a book that retails for $15.00, the author typically is making only $1.50. Give the illustrator half of this, and you can see why registration fees and $300 for give-away materials at a conference where nobody shows up to hear the author is a big impact. Don't mind me--I'm just musing today. Happy Halloween, all!

Oh, my gosh! I didn't mean to be away from this blog for so long, but I've been busy-busy. Queries for the novel went out today. Also, I've stopped in at a couple of schools to talk about the importance of reading and writing, and to reinforce the notion that all people--including students--are writers. We--students and professional writers--go through the same process when we're trying to think about something to write. It's was especially nice to be invited to my neighborhood school, Menlo Park Elementary. More recently, I visited Freshwater, Garfield, and Redway schools in Humboldt County, California (Eureka). What a joy! Freshwater even arranged for me to have my own parking space in the school lot AND gave me the "RESERVED" sign to bring home with me. I WILL use it.

While I was in Humboldt County, Boyds Mills/Calkins Creek notified me that WE ARE ONE: THE STORY OF BAYARD RUSTIN will receive a starred review in School Library Journal--November issue. Yahoodle! I'd been sitting on needles and pins and spikes and prongs waiting for this one--all while holding my breath. I can't tell you the feeling when somebody actually gets what artistically you were trying to do. Thank you. Thank you.

There's a lot of travel coming up, so I'm not sure how diligent I'll be at checking in but I'll give it my best shot. Until next time, keep writing...keep reading.