About book presentations

Another event I attended lately was organised by ABC Treehouse, where ABC stands for American Book Center. On Saturday three authors were holding a presentation "Three authors read from their memoirs of life overseas", so we went to have a look.

Presentation itself

The presentation was very informal, all authors said "hi" to everybody personally and chatted around - probably because there were max 20 people, so the atmosphere was very nice. Although it was clearly a part of advertising campaign (as all books were launched recently), it did not feel like one because of no distance between authors and readers.

I haven't really been to any book presentation before, at least I can't remember, so it was interesting to participate in one. As a person who reads a lot of books I also took a look at those three books and some others which were displayed. I did not plan to buy any, but (as always) I went through all of them briefly and one really caught my eye. Such campaigns indeed work, because in the end we bought that book!

USA & black vs. white

The book we bought is called "black and (a)broad" and it's about a black American woman who is now living in the Netherlands and her life journey on the way to where is she now. The book is written in an easy-going way, so I finished it pretty fast and was very satisfied about it. As a person who has never been to the USA, my impression about the relationship between black and white people is purely based on mass media and talks with other people. The impression I got from a book is a completely different one, making me think - does racism really exist there? If so, in whose mind is it bigger - in white people or in black people?

What made the book even more special was the feeling that I know the author. Of course, I do not know her as my friend, but I have seen her in the presentation, I have heard her voice reading out loud some pages of the book and got her signature in the book. I know she is real and I believe in what she is writing. Plus, as a foreigner she is writing about the Netherlands, the country I am living - so I can relate to some things being said in the book and compare them with my own thoughts.

Money, money, money

And that's not all. Michael started a chat with another author, an Irish lady. She seemed to be quite talkative and we got to know that the music in the background is hers. With that I do not want to say that she owned the CD, but that she composed the music, wrote the lyrics and was singing herself! The music touched me and I wanted to listen to it again and again, so... we bought the CD "The Singing Warrior" by Niamh Ni Bhroin as well! We do not have so many CDs at home to listen in the living room, so it was another reason to buy it.

So, you see, such book presentations work out and the authors really get some income and extra PR without a lot of effort! Both sides are satisfied, because participants could also just listen to authors reading, have a chat, get some snacks and a glass of wine for free - and who doesn't want that? I really appreciated the fact that nobody was forcing me to buy any of the books and trying to tell "discount just now". It was my own choice and judgment.

On a side note - the event could have been longer, it was less than two hours in total with three authors and Q& round. I had a feeling that there were more questions in the air and that also other people would love to chat with the authors a bit longer.