This is guest blogger, Fran Spiegler. As you may guess, Al was pretty worn out from the festival. On top of that, we had a delightful visit with his brother Tracy, who stopped in for a few days last week. So, here are my reflections on the Tucson Festival of Books 2017:
It was a nice time meeting lots of people in a setting where book lovers congregated. Having been among the crowds of people checking out the book stalls and classes in the previous two years, this was certainly a different perspective. It was definitely a lot of work trying to get people interested in taking a look at your books. The enticement of the no-bake cookies certainly helped as noted by both the president of the Arizona Authors Association, Lisa Aquilina, and Betsy Feinberg of Book Services (the publisher of Clark Street Whole Foods Baking).
People who go to the festival are looking to meet the author, even if he or she isn’t very well known. Readers appreciate the effort that writers take to produce their books and let them know. I remember one woman who was looking at the books and talking with me about them. Once she realized that Al was the author (he was sitting near me) she became very excited and asked a lot of questions about his book, then purchased it.
Having no-bake cookies made of ingredients including peanut butter, tahini, and honey need to stay in a cool-as-possible environment. We had record breaking temperatures that day near 90 degrees. Keeping the cookies from melting was quite a task!
It would have been nice to have access to the culinary section so that the cookbook would have had more exposure in the arena where food was highlighted. This is just one of the quirks of the festival organizers. One cannot move your wares around the area for more exposure.
All-in-all, it was a nice experience. We sold some books and met a lot of nice people! We also know the leiblings (the no-bake cookies) were quite a hit! You may want to try them yourself! (see the post from April 3, 2016)
Allan Spiegler 