BookExpo Day 2

Yeah, I’m totally late with this, but 1. it was an amazing day for me and for Wiley and 2. we don’t have days like that every day and 3. I posted day 1 so I better post day 2.

Where do I begin?  Like I said, we don’t have days like that every day.  Wiley’s trade program has always been strong, but in recent years, we’ve brought in some big time books, and that was reflected at our stand at the conference.  We had some great book signings, and big time celebrity visits.

First, Erin Manning did another superstar presentation.  It’s not often that you can find someone talking on a technical topic who is able to engage the crowd and keep them listening for almost a half an hour.  She was followed by Don Felder, former guitarist for the Eagles, promoting his new book Heaven and Hell.  The line for his book was huge - and it included a number of Wiley employees, ahem!  After Felder was done signing, he went to do his BlogTalkRadio interview, and Steven Watts and Hugh Hefner showed up to promote the Hefner biography Mr. Playboy.  Of course, Dr. Ruth managed to jump in there for a photo opp as well.  The woman is a promotion machine.  Watts and Hefner signed, and then did a BTR interview as well.

For me, the most INTERESTING part was checking out the security detail that made up Felder’s and Hef’s entourages.  Felder had one guy waking around the booth with his little Bluetooth piece, looking like an extra from the Sopranos.  Hef had two guys, both ex-LAPD, as cool as they come. I enjoyed chatting with them about life on the edge.  I got a couple of pictures of them with Hef - they’ve got bunny lapel pins, makes them easy to recognize.  I’ve got these in a Facebook album…link to come.

After all this was done at 3pm, a bunch of Wiley people crawled out of the booth in search of sustinence.  Thankfully, the wildcat strike in the cafeteria had ended, so we were able to get some french fries and sit down, catch our breath, and reflect on a most amazing day.

I also haven’t spoken the praises of John Havens from BlogTalkRadio enough.  He helped make this BEA truly amazing.  Imagine someone who could interview everyone from a Dummies author who wrote a fitness book to Mr. Playboy himself, and give them the time and respect they deserved, and help us create great content that we can use to promote these books.  I’m so thankful we were able to pull this off - it was indeed a BEA for the books!

BookExpo Day 1

It’s one for the books.  Day one at BookExpo was pretty great.  The crowd was just about what we expected, it being LA and a Friday.  I think traffic will be heavier today, but hopefully as manageable as it was yesterday.

We had many, MANY blogtalkradio interviews, and all went smashingly.   There were all great - Mike Robbins, of “Focus on the Good Stuff” was charming and gave a really good interview.  It was very exciting to have David Iglesias sit down and chat as well.   Marsha Collier was a total pro, as always.  Dr. Ruth, celebrating her 80th birthday shortly, also gave a really fun interview.  You can catch all of these at Blogtalkradio.com.

Erin Manning was a total rock star.  She gave a really amazing demo on how to take better pictures, which attracted a crowd of people hanging on her every word.  Seriously, the woman knows how to work a crowd.  I even learned a thing or two from her, and plan on experimenting on IT Boy when I get back. 

I also had many celebrity sightings outside of the Wiley booth.  Slash, Mario Lopez, Barbara Walters, and Jackie Collins were all seen out and about.  I also got a wonderful photo of Marsha with George Hamilton that I will post later.  You’d think she was at Madame Tussauds, but, no, he was real.

The Digital Lifestyle concept has been interesting.  The BTR interviews are going great.  Erin was super, and I love having digital photo frames on the wall to upload pictures that we’re taking real time.  No one is using the laptop for a demo area, so I have been tweeting there, but mostly, it’s not being used.  But it’s giving us a lot of ideas for what to do next year (did I really say next year?)

All in all, I don’t think I have ever worked as hard at a BEA as I did yesterday.  I did find some time to snag a few galleys, including the new Philippa Gregory book (I love me some historical fiction) and will be sharing my ill-gotten gains with my friends when I return home. 

Today, Don Felder and Hugh Hefner will be in the booth.  I predict a madhouse, even if the Girls Next Door don’t show up.  I’m off to day 2 - talk to you on the other side!

 

LA Stories

Yes, it has been a long time between posts.  Odds are, it may get longer.  I leave tomorrow for BookExpo, and am frantically trying to get everything done that needs to be done when you are staring down 2 weeks out of the office, plus 2 employee’s maternity leaves that are fast approaching. 

For those who wonder about these kind of things, here are the authors that will be at our booth at BEA.  We’re doing BlogTalkRadio interviews during the show, and I will post links for those who want to listen to the interviews live…

• Hugh Hefner, with his three Playmate “Girls Next Door”, Holly, Bridget and Kendra
• Steven Watts, author of “Mr Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream”
• Recording artist and former Eagle, Don Felder (Heaven & Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974-2001))
• Editor-in-Chief of Bon Appetit Magazine, Barbara Fairchild (Bon Appétit: Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook); 
• Career Specialist Joyce Lain-Kennedy (Job Interviews for Dummies)
• Erin Manning (Portrait and Candid Photography: Photo Workshop)
• Award winning filmmaker Brian Michael Stoller (Filmmaking For Dummies)
• eBay queen Marsha Collier (Starting an eBay Business For Dummies)
• former US Attorney David Iglesias (In Justice: Inside the Scandal That Rocked the Bush Administration)
• author Peter Economy (Writing Children’s Books For Dummies)
• Marty Brounstein (Communicating Effectively for Dummies)
• Etiquette expert, Sue Fox (Business Etiquette for Dummies)

Audio for the shows can be found at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Wiley

Combine that with Dr. Ruth’s 90th birthday party, many meetings with publishing partners and authors, and trying to find time to see “Sex and the City: The Movie”, well, you’ve got quite a week going.  Not to mention I leave LA on Sunday morning to head to Orlando to work at our booth at Microsoft TechEd.  Then, I return, and make a trip to Indianapolis for a Dummies meeting.  Sleep?  That’s for wimps, and the airplane.

If you are in LA for BookExpo, please stop by the Wiley booth at the show (947/1047) and say “hi”.  I’ll be the frazzled chick in the Digital Lifestyle t-shirt. 

BTR and Andy Beal

Andy Beal, the author of “Radically Tranparent“ was interviewed here at SXSW by John Havens of BlogTalkRadio.  You can listen to the interview here. 

I also attended Andy’s book reading at SXSW and it was great.  I have to admit, if I didn’t work for the company, he would have convinced me that I need this book.  Not just for reputation monitoring and personal brand management, but to learn the best ways to communicate with my customers and figure out what we as a company can do better.  He made a very sweet plea at the end to attendees to help insure he was not the only author at the end of a session with no one to sign for, but that was not the case.  Even though I was questioning the book stage venue, it brought out the book buyers, so something is working!

BlogTalkRadio and Wiley live from SXSW

Interested in getting the scoop from SXSW but not planning on being in Austin?  We’ve got a great solution for you.  Wiley has partnered with BlogTalkRadio, who will be featuring interviews from many of our authors at the conference, including:

Joelle Reeder, Katherine Scoleri -The IT Girl’s Guide to Blogging with Moxie

Lisa Sabin-Wilson - WordPress For Dummies

Andy Beal - Radically Transparent

Susie Gardner/Shane Birley - Blogging For Dummies, 2e 

Daniel Terdiman - The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Second Life

Shows will be streaming live at blogtalkradio/wileyand the call-in number is: 347-945-7081. Additionally, interviews can be accessed at the 2020 Blog (joewikert.com).  I’ll also be posting updates with times, etc here.