ASK CHERI S HILL

Last week I was invited to attend Author101University in Los Angeles which was hosted by my friend Rick Frishman of Planned Television Arts.  This is actually the third time I have attended (New York & Chicago) which means about every 3 years I get to see people I haven’t seen in a while.  It was a wonderful event and I was thrilled to see quite a few people I had invited were in attendance too. 

Marvelous speakers: Rick Frishman (PR Guy); Mark Victor Hansen (Chicken Soup Creator); Barbara De Angelis Ph.D. (Transformational); Alex Carroll (Radio Publicity); Brendon Burchard (Life’s Golden Ticket); plus a complete panel of experts.

These are the movers and shakers, the whos who that can help you build an “information empire.”  Overwhelming, yes! Exhilerating, yes! Ah Hahs and Takeaways, yes!  Even as seasoned as I am to platform selling, I never get through an event without buying something…because that’s exactly what I need next, even though I didn’t know I needed it until I was actually there! So I signed up for Mark Victor Hansen’s Mega Book Marketing University to be held next year in San Francisco.  Just hanging out with this guy seems to make sense.

The next day I went to BookExpoAmerica at the L.A. Convention Center.  WOW!  Over 2000 vendors and at least a half a million.  Everything and everyone associated with any type of publishing: Book companies, publishers, literary agents, supply companies, authors, all web based digital assets (ebooks, blogs, sites, etc.), every type of book (childrens, fiction, nonfiction, business, cookbooks, specialty, interactive, etc.) and I must say this placed rocked!  I was exhausted.  After I went through this one huge room I noticed all these people walking in the opposite direction, so I followed them and low and behold, I entered another huge room full of vendors and thousands of people. I had to find a chair.  After I rested, I started down each and every one of those isles. Of course, on my way out I was handed a tiny pamphlet titled “How to Survive Book Expo” which would have been way more helpful when I was walking in.  I carried two full bags of books around all day (seriously - they were giving them away for FREE, signed autographed copies) plus lots of information.  Trust me, that’s one lesson I learned that I shall not repeat: take only the books you will actually read!

Anyway, I highly recommend that if you are thinking of writing a book, already have a book or are creating any other type of digital assets, you go to BookExpoAmerica at least once in your life.  You have no idea the enormity of this industry until you actually see it all in one location!

More travels coming up.

 

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