Jim and Shannon at Laura Leigh's Reader Appreciation Weekend Sept 9-12, 2010

[Priscellie]

Jim will be the Special Guest at Lora Leigh's Reader Appreciation Weekend, September 9th to 12th, 2010, in Huntington, WV.  Shannon will also be in attendance. 


One of the con organizers clarifies some frequently asked questions here.

[Victoria/David]

How many people usually attend these kind of things? I live only about an 90 minute drive from it, but it is kinda expensive to attend...

[Blondiegrrl]

I want to attend, but I'd like to know more about the schedule. Will Jim be speaking, or just signing autographs?

[Victoria/David]

I have no idea. I can tell you that it is going to cost 130.00 to attend, according to the website I visited..and the money has to be in by May and there are no refunds. I have to say I have hardly even heard of the other authors that are going to be there. It says no outside books due to time constraints, yet it is a 3 day event, that you must pay to attend, while I will admit that I don't want to lug a ton of books around I would already have my copy of Changes, so I would want it signed, so this makes no sense to me...idk..Vic

[Kali]

If you've ever been to an "open" signing, there are plenty of people that will indeed lug around all their books and all their friends' books and their neighbor's books...  Some places just place limits on how many things you can ask be signed. It looks like this event is limiting it by making you buy the books there, which also helps out the vendors who're selling there, I guess.

[Chiroptera]

They also list a "Public Author Signing" on the last day.  Does it mean someone could attend just that and not the whole event?  The website is a bit vague on how everything works.

[Blondiegrrl]

I can't even find a contact number on the web site; the only number they list is the hotel's, and as I don't need to book a room, I doubt the hotel would be of any help.

[blondie]

If you go to the contact page, you can find all of the contact information. The coordinator has listed her phone number as well as an email address.

Limiting the books was done at the author's requests. They do plan on being available throughout the conference to sign previously purchased books, they just wanted them limited at the official signing so they wouldn't get bombarded. Last year some of their hands were pretty sore...

As for the public signing, that's open to anyone. You don't have to attend the event to go to that signing. The parties are a blast though and your registration includes both Friday and Saturday night dinners. It's alot of fun. Last year they had over 200 attend.

Hope that helped to answer at least some of the questions...

[Priscellie]

I just heard from one of the con organizers.  She had the following to say:

I noticed on Jim's Calendar the bloggers have some misconceptions.

Though we aren't allowing outside books during the Private Scheduled Signing, we DO have a room set aside where authors can go and sign their fans' pre-purchased books. It's up to the authors whether they wish to participate. We do this in order to allow the authors time to relax as well.

The Mezzanine of the hotel is going to be set-up so that authors have a comfortable place to hang out and sign, we just need to know what times they want to. We'll post the times in the Mezzanine as well as in the Welcome Bags for the attendees. We ARE limiting this to 5 books per author (though I'm sure there will be some folks who fudge this).

Also, the $130.00 fee is to cover the private events, the two catered parties, two breakfasts, the Private Signing as well as the Mezzanine Signing.

On Sunday, the signing is open to the public, free of charge. We do a lot of advertising and expect there to be long lines on Sunday.

This is a really fun, laid back event. We don't want the authors going home exhausted, we want them going home with a "Can't wait for next year" attitude. So far, we've been very successful in keeping authors and readers anticipating the next year! There is also a contact page on our website - it has my email address as well as my cellphone number.

[Stiletto]

Kind of wish I was going here instead of Dragoncon. It sounds a LOT less crazy. But....not familiar with the other authors, and already preregistered with hotel reservations for Dragoncon.  Plus...west virginia?!? Yikes. Wish JB would come to Raleigh... it is way cooler than WV.

[tonync66]

Yes Jim..come to Raleigh!!

[dustysmash]

I shall third the Raleigh Motion.

[Falar]

What I have learned from Jim Butcher this week is that you definitely lift with your knees, not your back.

I work at the local Borders and we're to be the vendor for the RAW deal. We also are totally out of room in our back room, so I had to cart boxes and boxes and boxes (and for a change, boxes of Changes) from the back room to the office to stack them to the ceiling.

So, peoples, know that if you buy a book at the signing and get it signed, it was partially my work that got it there!

[Priscellie]

What I have learned from Jim Butcher this week is that you definitely lift with your knees, not your back.

I work at the local Borders and we're to be the vendor for the RAW deal. We also are totally out of room in our back room, so I had to cart boxes and boxes and boxes (and for a change, boxes of Changes) from the back room to the office to stack them to the ceiling.

So, peoples, know that if you buy a book at the signing and get it signed, I will have touched the box it was partially my work that got it there!

Our hero!  I'm sure all the attendees will appreciate your efforts.

[Falar]

As an added bonus, I am also part of the hit squad of Borders employees who will be setting up the tables on Friday - so if you're there and you see a guy in glasses carting around loads of books, there are good odds it's going to be me.