A winning pitch at the Louisiana Book Fest!

I had a great time selling Kirasu Rising at the Louisiana Book Fest this year. Predictably the day was hot and thankfully I threw some sunscreen in my bag at the last minute. Unfortunately, I grabbed a bottle that was essentially empty, but I managed to squeeze out enough to avoid sunburn and had enough to share with the hilarious Lee Rozelle who manned the table next to me.

The Pitch

It took me about an hour to get comfortable, but once I settled in, I pitched every person who passed my table, which was a lot of people. How could you possibly pitch everyone you might (sensibly) ask. Well, my pitch was to shout out tropes that show up in the Kirasu Rising series. I shouted things like: Parallel words! Twins! Black holes unlike the one we're living in right now (that one got a lot of laughs). People would keep walking or veer over to my table. As sun got hotter, my inhibitions got looser, and I leaned into the carnie aspect shouting things like: Get your Sci-Fi right here! 

And my closer line for Without A World is: A Wrinkle in Time meets The Parent Trap. 

Making Friends

I mentioned Lee Rozelle already. He writes monster stories and southern gothic. I traded a copy of Without A World for his Ballad of Jasmine Wills which I am very much looking forward to reading. He says the protagonist is a real piece of shit (which is hilarious). I think my antics rubbed off on him because it didn't take long for him to start shouting Toxic Swamp Monsters! The Water's Not Safe! And other surprising things that made people stop in their tracks. We really had a lot of fun, and we both sold a lot of books!

 Not above it

Stephen Hundley author of Bomb Island walked by and I pointed at him and shouted Bomb Island! Which made him laugh and come over to check out our tables and he bought a book from Lee! I saw Stephen do a reading over zoom this summer and I'd heard he'd be at the fest, that's the only reason I knew who he was (not stalking him). The exchange still makes me chuckle. 

Vindication

My method of shouting out tropes at passer-by was probably unconventional, but everyone around me joined in and we definitely had fun with it. The woman at the table across from mine even joined in asking passerby if they read sci-fi and pointing them to my table (she was there to get volunteers for adult literacy teaching). 

Later in the day someone came by and recorded my pitch and congratulated me on having a good one. He said most of the people he'd asked to record their pitches had stared at him blankly. That would have been me last year, but yesterday I rolled up my sleeves and leaned into the extrovert because I came to sell books dammit, not sit on a chair and get sunburned.