I attended the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books (LATFB) as a visitor this year for the first time. Over the last nearly 20 years, generally, I\u2019m either selling books from a booth or\u2014most often\u2014running a booth for SPAWN. This year I was simply a visitor: no schlepping of tables, clothes, extra chairs, books, sign-up sheets, etc. No long conversations with dozens and dozens of visitors seeking information and resources related to publishing. No quick meal breaks. No exhaustion at the end of each day. Instead, with a good friend, I roamed through the rows and rows of booths, sat down and took my time eating a fabulous lunch, sprawled out on a swatch of grass and chatted, and arrived home feeling fairly refreshed.<\/p>\n
I must say that I missed the excitement of being in the SPAWN booth and the camaraderie among the members who participate. I missed meeting and greeting all the many authors and hopeful authors who come to SPAWN seeking guidance; and the wonderful feeling of having helped.<\/p>\n
I guess once you\u2019ve been a mentor (of sorts) through so many speaking engagements, workshops, articles and books, as well as by being available at numerous book festivals to teach and preach, the helping aspect kind of gets in your blood.<\/p>\n
I hope all of you who attended the LATFB had a positive experience, met some fascinating authors, bought some great books, and stopped in at the SPAWN booth for some wise words of advice and inspiration. It was there, it just wasn\u2019t me providing it this year.<\/p>\n
If you do have questions about the crazy world of publishing, read my book: \u201cPublish Your Book.\u201d If you are an author with a book to promote, buy \u201cPromote Your Book.\u201d If you want to do some public speaking or need help in talking to potential customers, consider reading my book, \u201cTalk Up Your Book.\u201d All by me\u2014Patricia Fry\u2014and all available in print, for Kindle and audio at Amazon.com and most other online and downtown bookstores.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I attended the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books (LATFB) as a visitor this year for the first time. Over the last nearly 20 years, generally, I\u2019m either selling books from a booth or\u2014most often\u2014running a booth for SPAWN. This year I was simply a visitor: no schlepping of tables, clothes, extra chairs, books, sign-up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t