Adventures in Speed Dating!

Today I  held an actual copy of my cookbook for the first time. I was part of a “speed dating” activity at the LDS Booksellers’ Convention at South Towne Expo Center.  This was my first experience, and I wasn’t sure what to expect, because the only time I’ve seen “speed dating” was in the movie, “Hitch.”
   After participating, I think it’s a pretty efficient way to get the word out about your book, music or other product. Booksellers can quickly hear about a product without having their time monopolized.
   Here’s how it worked: There were 15 round tables of bookstore people.  Two authors, artists or vendors traveled to a table, and each of us gave a three-minute pitch about our product. A bell rang, and we would move on to the next table.
    I was paired with artist Chad Hawkins, who has beautiful temple drawings. He’s doing another book featuring drawings and histories of all the temples. You can also buy drawings of individual temples as well.  It was interesting to hear his pitch, and now I want to buy one of his recommend-holders.  It was fun to find out that he lives just a few miles away in Fruit Heights.
  You would think that after working on this book for nearly two years, I would be able to talk about it easily, without getting nervous. But practice makes perfect: after repeating my “pitch” 16 times (once at each table, plus a video),  I think I started getting the hang of it!