The ICRS (International Christian Retail Show) was a great time that started out on Sunday Evening with an Author's Dinner at the Double Tree Restaurant in downtown Atlanta. Books of various authors were sprinkled across eyeryone's tables and free for the taking. Dinner started out with a game to match names with facts cocerning individual authors that forced everyone to mingle and ask questions. The lady who completed her list first won a log cabin bird house that was made by Bill Carmichael. After Dinner, each author had 1 minute to introduce themselves and their book - a difficult task for a windbag like myself, but good practice. All stories were compelling; some were funny and some were sad.
On the first day I had a book signing from 3:00 to 3:45pm and ended up done about 10 minutes early because I ran out of books. I am guessing that I went through a stack of about 40 books plus the 4 or 5 I had with me. I also had a book signing on the second day at noon. That one didn't go as as I still had 4 or 5 books left when my session was done. Approximately half the people I spoke with were distributers and maybe a quarter of those asked to hear my story. As for the Media Room, I was a little slow as I am not really extraverted enough to track people down and force them to hear my story. Instead, I left a stack of 5 or 6 of my books on the display table - something nobody else was doing. Each day the books were gone and I replenished them. I can only assume that book distributers / purchasers were taking them as they were free to any author that wanted one. As a matter of fact, I traded for some very nice books that I am looking forward to reading.
Also, on the second day, I was very fortunate to hear Doctor Ravi Zacharias (known as Dr. Rob) speak! I have been an enormous fan of his for years and often listen to him speak on the radio. He shared a little bit of his personal testimony and a little bit of the history of his books. After the lecture, I received a free copy of his books, "The Lamb And The Fuhrer," and "Why Suffering?" I can't wait to read them.
By Wednesday, Deep River Books was down to only one display copy of my book and Bill Carmichael informed me that he had spoken to the Walmart Distributer about First Vespers. The Distributer had taken a copy of my book with him for consideration (no committmet). Good enough for me though! I replenished the Media Room at that point and called it a day. God willing, maybe a couple of good book contracts might come from all of this. Either way, it was a good time and good experiece for me! I had a chance to share Christ and that's good enough!
My publicity poster for the ICRS
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