I had my first public book signing three weeks ago at the iBAM Literary Festival in Chicago. My book; “The Big Yank – Memoir of a Boy Growing Up Irish,” had just been published the week before.
Being a brand new author, I didn’t really know what to expect. Of course I was overly optimistic and brought way too many books, too many in fact to fly, so I drove from Washington D.C. to Chicago and back. My first signing taught me two important lessons – 1) it is much easier to fly 700 miles than drive and 2) my next book should be less than 467 pages!
Seriously though, it was a great experience. I figured I would get to speak to a lot of book-buyers, but I didn’t realize that I would strike up friendships with other visiting authors. I had the pleasure of meeting two Belfast Authors (the three of us come from the Ulster Province in Ireland) – Greg McVicker and Tony Macaulay.
I will be highlighting the writings of these Irish authors on my author site; www.irishauthor.us in the coming weeks. I created it in order to highlight Irish authors, artists, musicians etc., and introduce readers to their works and where they and I will be appearing in the future.
I look forward to sharing all kinds of Celtic information and craic in future posts.
Great to hear you had such a good experience at your first book signing, and met fellow comrades in arms (or writing, as the case may be…) I’m sure there will be many more to come.
Just completed another weekend of signing in Maryland!