June 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 2007
Sparky the Wonderfish
will be at the
2007 Book Expo America, New York:
The premier event serving the
U.S. book publishing industry.
Author Gillian Lee Hutshing will be signing books on Sunday, June 3rd, from 9:30 a.m to 10:30 a.m. at table 28 in
the event’s main autographing area, which is located on the Lower Exhibit Level at the Jacob Javits Center.
OK, picture this, I am a brand new author. No one knows who I am. I take time off work editing Sir Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner: The Final Cut" (actually I have my laptop and am approving visual effects from NY, but anyway, I digress...) to be in New York City for three days for this amazing opportunity to be in the Book Expo America, which is huge in every sense of the word! The whole story is amazing... I got accepted at the last minute because of a fluke. All authors get 30 minutes to sign, if you are lucky enough to get a signing. Somehow they gave me an hour! I was walking by people like Deepak Chopra and all kinds of famous authors. The Jacob Javitz Center is gigantic. Its a block long and 3 stories tall. I felt so completely out of my element. It is all industry insiders only, so book sellers, buyers, publishers, librarians (they rule the world!). I am staying with my friend Plummy in NYC and she agrees to come with me the day of my signing and take pictures. Over the few days, I visit my booth and see Alan Alda signing and John Voight at another time and they both have giant lines. I say to Plummy, because no one has ever heard of me, 'You know there is a very good chance it will just be the two of us there discussing where to have breakfast after this hour is over.". We laugh, haha. It's about 15 minutes until my signing begins, so we go downstairs to see my publisher setting up and make sure everything that I need is there. My publisher says to me, "There are already people waiting in line for you, so you can start early if you want to." I am thinking, what if these are the only 3 people who show up... But I start. The next thing I know, it takes 3 people from the publisher wrangling the line and Plummy having people write their names down ahead of time for me to keep up with how many people are coming and how fast I have to write and say hello, where do you live etc. They are thwapping down stacks of books and I am blazing through them. Finally they say, "That's it, no more books!" It was truly awesome! Over 150 books just like that. I couldn't believe it. I said to my publisher, "How could this happen? Who even knows about me?" They answered excitedly, "They were writing it down! They were writing it down!!!" And I said, "What does that mean?" And she said, "People look through the catalogue (which is about 2 inches thick by the way) and if they see something they really like, they write it down"... It was amazing!
Suffice it to say, breakfast after that was beyond good! Go Sparky!
Here are some photos...
-Gillian
