Booth of Dreams

You've heard of the field of dreams? Next Friday, I will have the booth of dreams. I will be speaking on the main stage of the Southwest Book Fiesta and will maintain a booth there over the weekend. A few years earlier, at the LA Times Book Festival, an author had the most daring gimmick to sell his book and screenplay . . .nothing.

A booth about nothing, sounds like an episode of the old Seinfeld show. Actually the booth was about one thing, selling a dream.

I've told you about the gimmicks authors use at these book events. One international distributor hired the Perfect 10 models from the now defunct magazine Perfect 10 to sign their posters while chatting up authors on how to get their books into Eastern European bookstores for a small fee. It was hard to tell exactly what they were selling--sex or shelf space.

Another author wrote a "Guerilla Guide to something" and had models dressed up like gorillas. One guy told me he spent fifty thousand dollars to create a three minute video that was an apocalyptic loop that ran on a big screen behind his booth to promote a self- published science fiction book. I think both of them got film deals.

Which brings us to the booth of dreams. It was at the LA Times Book festival. One man had rented a booth in the busiest part of the festival, near the food tents where a famous author was cooking up something delicious. I saw one man, and his family, but I didn't see any posters, any sound any anything. They had a single table and a manuscript.

"What's that?" I asked one of the kids hustling around. The kid looked like he could be an orphan from Oliver Twist, and spoke with an English accent.
"It's my Dad's manuscript," the kid said. "Are you a publisher, producer or an agent?"
"No, I'm just an author," I said.
"Then we've got nothing for you."
Oliver literally turned his back on me and ran to the next person. He was an agent, so Oliver gave him a manuscript. The agent took the manuscript and left. I noticed that the agent got in line at one of the food tent and dropped the manuscript in the trash in order to get a plate.

It didn't matter, more people took manuscripts from the booth, and not all of them tossed the pages.
Did the booth work?
I have no way of knowing. Still, I have to admire their guts.

Next Friday, at Southwest Book Fiesta I will have no gimmicks, no models, no nothing. It will just be me and my book at the Booth of Dreams. I wrote it and I hope you will come.
Hopefully, it won't amount to nothing