Two persons are "teamed" and we will move from table to table. I'm working hard to prepare 160 table favors for fans and others who will remain seated. The authors making the pitches move from table to table. Not the fans.
I like to sew and fiddle with crafts. The 160 favors is not as daunting as composing decent pitches.
I suspect it's a good idea to wear comfortable shoes. Not an ideal venue for stilettos.
From the organizers:
What is “author speed dating”?
Each author gets a chance to pitch their book(s) to 20 tables of
up to 8 readers to a table. Authors are put in groups of 2 and move from table
to table every 4 minutes — so if you and I were paired I would talk for 2
minutes and then you would talk for 2 minutes. We’d pass out bookmarks or other
stuff. And then at the 4 minute mark we’d travel to the next table!
It is incredibly popular and the book room floods with buyers when
it is done!
THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW RIGHT NOW:
There will be TWO GROUPS OF TABLES –
tables 1-22 and tables 23-44 – two sessions taking place simultaneously in the
same ballroom. Each group consists of 44 authors. You will be traveling
from table to table only within your group.
Please prepare your pitch and be sure it is less than 2
minutes long. Each author gets 2 minutes and you will then get 1 minute to move
to the next table, for a total of 5 minutes for each session. We MUST enforce
the time limit strictly in order to allow every author to address all the
readers in your group. Leslie has a handbell and Les has a microphone and we
will signal you when it’s time to move on.
It will help – a lot – if both of you work together – author 1
speaks while the other distributes any flyers, pens, takeaways, etc., then
author 2 speaks while author 1 distributes. Please plan accordingly.
Each group will have two tables with just two seats and a LARGE
Reserved sign. They’re your rest stops. When you reach one of these tables in
the rotation, it’s a chance to sit and catch your breath for 5 minutes. You’ll
be glad of the rest stop.
Wow, what a chance for promotion! I'm looked forward to this high energy event. Bouchercon is in Toronto Canada this year. It's count-down time already!
Have fun! I've done the author speed dating at both Malice and Left Coast Crime. At Malice there was only one rest table; LCC had two, which I much appreciated! Really made a difference. Interesting that there are two sets of authors. I haven't heard of that before. Here's hoping you get many people interested in your books!
ReplyDeleteSybil, I think we're teamed with someone because there are so many authors attending this year. They like to work in as many as possible.
ReplyDeletePhew! This sounds stressful and a hard way to sell your book/s. I cant decide if I'd like to do it or not. Good luck!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Charlotte. I wasn't talking about the teaming up, which is done at Malice and LCC also. I was talking about how they have two separate sessions running at the same time. Malice and LCC only has one so every author visits every table in the ballroom. Bouchercon is much bigger so I'm sure that's why they did that.
ReplyDeleteYep, Marianne, it is stressful. I forced myself to do it at two different conferences. It's also tiring listening to the authors talk about their books. Well worth being on the receiving end, though.