All I’m saying is that it’s possible that someone might really, really want to attend a signing, but circumstances force that person to miss it, or not be able to show up at the beginning. This doesn’t mean that this person isn’t a Huge Fan, it just means that this person has other obligations that take priority.
And I still maintain that the signing was way too short. At the last signing I attended, it was about 5 or 6 hours long…and this was in Fort Worth*, and it was for a minor science fiction author. Most SF fans would recognize the name, but this guy was not one of the hottest writers in the biz. Even so, he was signing for over five hours (I’m friends with the shop owner and we talked about the signing on my next visit) and he had a line of people for most of that time.
*Most of these signings take place in Dallas, it seems. Dallas is a pain to get around in.
Well you might stop to consider that you don’t know enough about this event to proclaim it way too short. After all, this was apparently something you had to buy tickets to, which limits the audience more than most book signings, and the star guest was apparently sitting around not signing things anymore because there were no more people waiting. Why you feel the need to tell the OP he dropped the ball is beyond me. Just chalk it up to the SDMB’s culture of jumping on a pit thread to find fault with the OP no matter what, I guess.
People bought tickets to the trade show, not to the book signing, which was an event at the trade show. The people who ran this event chose not to make the books available for purchase ahead of time so that customers could buy the book and wander around a bit while waiting for the celeb to show up. The OP had people asking him/her about the signing at 10 AM, which means that the public had access to him and his booth at that time. So the tickets were apparently being sold for attendance to the trade show, NOT just for this specific event.
I don’t know the particulars about THIS book signing, no. I do, however, have some experience in book signings both as an organizer and as a customer, and most signings WILL have a lull now and then. The author might have to wait a few minutes. There were at least three people who asked about getting a book signed after the author had gone. Any retailer will tell you that most people DON’T ask if something/someone’s available, if they don’t see what they want, they leave. This is why cashiers at just about every establishment are trained to ask “Did you find everything all right?” as they’re ringing you up. It’s to give customers a chance to ask something, without feeling like they are bothering the clerk.
Also, the OP is pretty inexperienced in dealing with these things. S/he says as much, in fact. Any time an event is open to the public, even if it’s just other members of the same field, some assholes are going to show up. The “assholes” that are being pitted are actually very mildly annoying people, as these sorts of things go.
Again, I have some experience in these events, and I say that this one was rather poorly thought out. If the celebrity signs books on a regular basis, his handlers and publicist probably had a pretty good idea about how long to allow for the signing session. If they suggested that he bail as soon as there was no line, that’s one thing. But the celeb was probably not terribly enthusiastic about this whole deal, and was ready to leave ASAP.
The OP could learn from this experience. For instance, there are plenty of people who will need a chair if you expect them to stand for more than a few minutes, and there are people who might not be able to arrive in a very narrow window of time…especially if that window is much narrower than the industry standard, and is not advertised.
It’s quite common (not universal by any means, but quite common) for a bookstore that does a signing by a big-name author to ask the author to stay for another ten minutes after the last person in the line has gotten his book signed so that the author can sign a few more books. The store will put these books in a display close to the front of the store with a sign saying “Recent signings.” If the store has some experience at this, they will be able to predict roughly how many more customers will want to buy a signed copy of the book but weren’t able to make it to the signing. This is something you might consider for future signings.
Shakespearo, before you tell me how stupid I am for making such a ridiculous suggestion, consider whether it’s worth it for you to annoy anyone who replies to your posts. Eventually people will quit replying with ideas and give up on trying to help you. Please note then that I consider the idea I gave above to be just a suggestion, since I don’t know enough about your particular situation to know if it would work. Incidentally, I suspect that I have stood in more book signing lines than anyone else on the SDMB.
This is similar to the end of Plan 9 From Outer Space where the narrator asks the audience, “How do you know it didn’t happen? Do you have proof that it did NOT?” (or, at least I think it goes something like that) “How did you know there weren’t disappointed fans who walked by the booth and said nothing? Can you prove there were not?”
But let’s say there were a handful, if that of customers, who walked by the booth, realized that the celeb left, and just stewed in silence, vowing never to buy a product from us again. Trust me, it’s not to go lead to our bankruptcy anytime soon.
We are not insisting on anything. The celebrity was available, for a limited time, for this event. We had his schedule to work around as well, not just his fans.
You agree with us, then, that we scheduled the event at the right time, even though you think we screwed up? Your point is a little obtuse.
And by “significant” portion, if you consider significant to be 2% of the fans, then thats your math, not mine.
Good for him. Our celebrity’s contract called for him to be there for considerably less than 5-6 hours. There was no way there was going to be a line for him for that long. Everyone left after about 75-80 minutes. Let’s say Brad Pitt did a book signing. I would say that he could be there for three straight days, and have a line. Does it then follow that our celebrity has equal popularity, and that he should sit around for three days to make sure everyone got their book signed?
Again, I didn’t organize the event, so I don’t take your criticisms personally, but your illogic is remarkable.
Here we go again with the critique, without the right facts:
False. The fans did not have access to the celeb until 6pm, which was the advertised start of the book signing.
A point we can find common ground on.
Can we contact you to organize our next one? I mean, you sound like you are a true expert.
You weren’t that Professional Organizer woman, were you?
In fact, the author did. And, of course, the author doesn’t “have” to do anything.
This was a book signing at a trade show, not a TV sale at Best Buy on Black Friday.
So, now we are supposed to go up and down the aisles, asking people if they are there to see the celebrity?
If your definition of a person who is selfish, greedy, pushy, inconsiderate, rude and arrogant as “mildly” annoying, than you are abetter person than I, I will concede that point to you.
Seems like they timed it our perfectly. The star attraction showed up, on time, got every book signed, hundreds of happy people, and left after it was clear the buzz was over.
Actually, the celeb was very kind to every fan, cheerfully took pictures, and signed everyones stuff. If the celeb didn’t want to be there, it didn’t show. But again, you make the assumption the writer didn’t want to be there, even though you were not there. I was there, and if the celeb didn’t want to be there, even I could not tell.
I did, I did.
I learned that I will never get involved in another book signing ever again.
I have been to about 4-5 celeb book signings in my lifetime, some of which I waited almost an hour, and I did not once ever see chairs put out for people to sit on while they were waiting. Are you sure you really have “experience” handling book signings, or are you making that up, just like you are making up that there were people who left angry without saying anything, or that the celebrity did not want to be there?
There is, as far as I know, no “industry standard” for the length a book signing. Is there an International Book Signing Institute or something that I am not aware of? Or are you making that up, too?
News flash: we did exactly that, but one person still whined even though she got a pre-signed autograph after she showed up 2 hours late. You know, one of those downtrodden weekend slave laborers Guinistasia and Scarlett were crying about.
No offense, and you seem like a nice person, but if I wanted help on how to conduct a book signing, I would have solicited such advice in IMHO. My post was a commentary on the rancid behavior of a handful of cretins at this event.
As for people replying with ideas, I could give a rat’s ass if people reply to my post or not.
As someone that also loves getting books signed, congratulations on your remarkable achievement, and thanks for the advice anyway.
It’s human nature, and it happens all the time here based on what I have read so far. People tend to reply by posting what they want to talk about, or a small detail in which they think they are experts on, in the original post.
If you pit poor service at a restaurant, rather than focus on the waiter’s rudeness you will get attacked by foodies for your poor choice of restaurants.
If you pit a mechanic, rather than focus on how the auto shop ripped you off, you will get pitted by car buffs for your poor choice of vehicle.
If you pit asshole customers at a trade show, rather than focusing on the irrational behavior of those people, a “book signing expert” will criticize how you ran the event.
> As for people replying with ideas, I could give a rat’s ass if people reply to my
> post or not.
Then don’t post to the SDMB. A message board is about discussion. People will reply to your posts. If you just want to vent, go to some deserted location and scream into the emptiness. Or start your own blog which doesn’t allow comments. If you post to a message board, expect people to reply to you. You can either talk to yourself, in which case nobody will be listening and nobody will be replying, or you can talk to other people, in which case you have to expect that someone will differ with you.
Yes this is pretty obvious. My point is that this is not a regular book signing that’s open to the general public. It’s limited to people who also bought tickets to the tradeshow. Don’t you think this might have a significant impact on how long it needs to be or how quickly the mass of people who want to get books signed tapers off? Never mind; you have a lot of experience with book signings so you know better.
I’m sorry, I stand corrected. Just that the vast majority of people I know usually work weekends. Yes, weekends are usually peoples’ free time, and it’s probably the best time to schedule a book signing.
However, the OP’s arrogant statements about it pissed me off.
But now I’m in a hole, so I’m going to stop digging. 'Kay?
You may or may not know that I was trying to buy a used book store a few years ago. I got involved in some local trade shows (book, paper, and ephemera) and quite a few signings, yes, which included helping to get them organized. This was part of my research. I wasn’t doing it professionally, yet, but I was trying to learn everything about the trade that I could. Now, if you’re an author, publisher, publicist, or SMOF, then you probably know more than I do about organizing and running these things. Otherwise, yeah, I probably DO know better than you.
One of the things I learned is that it’s very common for signings to have a slack period, and then more customers will come around. Some of this is because (especially in trade shows) the customers have other obligations, like manning a booth of their own. A lot of time, customers will strike up conversations with other attendees, and mention the signing. This might very well spark an interest in the other attendees, and even if they hadn’t planned on it, they’ll want to get an autographed copy. Another thing that I learned is that once you have the author or celebrity at the show/convention, the additional cost per time unit of having him/her there is practically zero. Once you’ve paid for travel, hotel, and meal expenses, it costs the sponsor just about nothing more to have an author stick around for another few hours. The author might want to wander around the show him/herself, in which case you put up a little sign saying JRR Tolkien is taking a break, and will be back in ten minutes, or an hour, or whatever. The point is, once you’ve shelled out a kilobuck for airfare and lodging and meals, you might POSSIBLY have to pay for another meal if the author sticks around for another couple of hours. However, once the author is there, the basic cost is the same whether he stays for an hour or for eight hours.
Now, the OP claims that the celeb’s contract called for him to be there for a stated time period, which was not information in the original post. If the celeb was only going to be there for an hour, or an hour and a half, or whatever, then this information should have been made available to the attendees. Every show and con I’ve been involved in has a frigging schedule, which lists the events and what times they’ll be. JRR Tolkien might be on a panel about why orcs and halflings are not copyrighted but hobbits are, and he’ll be listed as “JRR Tolkien, Author X, Author Y, and Author Z in a panel on legal issues”, and this listing will also include whether there will be a Q&A session, or just talks given by the listed authors. The listing will include start and stop times, too.
> The author might want to wander around the show him/herself, in which case
> you put up a little sign saying JRR Tolkien is taking a break, and will be back in
> ten minutes, or an hour, or whatever.
Wow, tell me the next time that Tolkien does a signing. I’ve got a bunch of his books that I’d like signed.
“How did you know there weren’t disappointed fans who walked by the booth and said nothing? Can you prove there were not?”