Naughty Nashville

So, last weekend I went to my first Author Book Signing event. It was in Nashville at the Millennium Maxwell House – Nashville (where Maxwell House Coffee came from, FYI) . I had only read one author when I bought tickets to the event, but as time led up to the event I read a few more of them.

Since I’m trying to figure out how to start this blog off, I thought Why not review the signing first and then move on to books/authors?! Genius. I am a genius. hahaha

I took the Banner from the Facebook Page : You can check it out here

Like I said, I had never been to an event before, so I didn’t know what to expect beforehand and I was really quite nervous. Everything turned out good, for the most part. My social anxiety got the better of me in some instances, but there is nothing I can do about that but just try to breathe and get through it.

On Friday night there was a mixer at the hotel bar. That turned out to be really good. I met a few fellow readers and got to meet some authors and some of the models as well. For the most part it was good meeting people that I’d heard of/read/ am in their reader groups on fb even though I’ve never actually read anything by them. I mean, the same rules that apply to the world and humans at large apply to small groups of people:

Some people are really nice. Some people turn out to be assholes (Maybe even me!).

Sometimes I rub people the wrong way because of who I am. I tend to be abrasive and speak my mind and very seldom do I consider the consequences of that until later, laying in bed wondering why I word vomit so much. (Unless it comes to my kids and school functions – then I just tend to look like a stuck up bitch because I bite my tongue and don’t really talk at all).

Saturday, after getting back to the hotel and registering, there was brunch with the authors for those of us with VIP tickets. I wish that that had been set up a bit different. I wish that there had been some sort of system in place where it was actually brunch with the authors. As it was, it turned out to be a majority of the authors sat at tables full of authors and readers sat with readers and then late comers kind of filled in where there were chairs. We ended up with 2 (well, 3 but one wasn’t signing) authors at our table. And I quite enjoyed setting and talking to her (and once I read the books of hers that I bought, I’ll do a post on her). After brunch everyone lined up to get into the signing. Next year I may skip the VIP and just get the premium ticket to get in an hour early. It really ended up being $35ish (I’d have to look back at prices to know for sure) to just have some sandwiches and a swag bag -that was $10 to purchase separately.

The actual signing was organized chaos and fantastic! With the exception of I think 3 tables, I went and talked to all of the authors there. Some of them I bought books from (My husband would say too many because I spent way more than my budget was supposed to be), and some of them I just talked to and added more and more books to my TBR! I’m never going to get all the books read that I want to read! Most of the authors were fantastic, some weren’t so fantastic. A couple of them I’m not exactly sure why they were there in the first place, because I heard them speak to other readers in that same tone that they used with me – like they were doing me a favor by talking about their books. I’ve never made a “Do not read these authors List”, but I have one started now. And that makes me  sad, but I refuse to support anyone who acts like they’re bored talking to people at a signing. Luckily it was only a few and I didn’t let them ruin what was overall a very positive experience – especially for my first time!