Publicity Speed Dating for Booksellers

Pop-Up Opportunity!
Publicist Speed Dating for Booksellers
May 11, 10:00-11:00 am
Bookseller social after the event from 11:00-11:45 am
Open Book
1011 South Washington Ave
Space is limited to 20 booksellers!
Apply today by emailing carrie@midwestbooksellers.org. Please confirm that are you are the events manager for your store, or an owner or manager to also handles events.
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We've discovered an opportunity to give booksellers a chance to pitch their stores for author events directly to publicists at various publishing companies both nationally and locally. 

The Loft Literary Center is hosting Wordplay in April 2019 and has invited about 20 publicists to Open Book to learn about the author opportunities available at this exciting new book festival. Since so many publicists will already be gathered at Open Book, The Loft has graciously allowed us to seize this opportunity to host Publicity Speed Dating for Booksellers. 

How does it work? We are arranging timed "dates" for 20 booksellers to promote their store and discover what publicists look for when planning author tours. Booksellers come prepared with a printed press kit to give to the publicists. Booksellers describe the strengths and personality of their store, ask questions about the publicist's (and his or her imprint's) approach to booking author tours, and review the upcoming season's releases for event opportunities. The speed dating will be arranged to allow booksellers to meet formally with half of the publicists, with an opportunity to leave your one-sheet behind with all attending publicists.

MIBA member bookstore owners, managers, and event coordinators are eligible. Booksellers must commit to preparing a one-sheet in advance of the event and bringing 20 copies to share. Tips and sample one-sheets will be provided.

Note: Due to the serendipitous nature of this event, we're considering it a prototype. We'd like booksellers to stick around after the speed dating to tell us how it went. This is the first event of this type we will have hosted, so we're eager to hear how it went, allowing us to fine-tune our approach and consider hosting speed dating on a bigger scale for more booksellers in the future.