Simon and Schuster Blogger Event.

On the3^rd February I was lucky enough to get invited to the Simon and Schuster Blogger Event. This was the second event I had been along to in the last year and it was great to see how it had grown, in both the number of bloggers in attendance and the amount of authors, which had increased as well.

First time I attended this event was in June 2010, where we had a panel of staff from all different departments in Simon and Schuster. It was a good insight into the different workloads, but also it was surprising (and affirming) to see how many of the staff members had come from bookshop backgrounds. This time round we were greeted by a panel of S&S authors from a wide range of genres, backgrounds and countries; Kevin J. Anderson, Sophie McKenzie, Michelle Harrison, Justin Somper, Craig Robertson, Milly Johnson and Helen Warner. It was very interesting to hear them answer the questions from such an intense audience, ranging from general questions like “which book do you wish you had written?”, the most popular answer was Bridget Jones’ Diary, to “are you taking part in any of the protests against the closures of the libraries?” to which Justin Somper showed a resounding interest and obvious angst at the thought of libraries closing. A vast number of the authors in attendance still maintained day jobs, and questions of how and when they find the time to write around such an already demanding schedule showed how much of their lives were a juggling act to some degree or another. The life of the isolated artiste living off his/her works does not seem applicable any more. 

After a thorough quizzing from the various bloggers we all moved into the next room to be greeted by a table of beer, wine and all sorts of lovely cakes and cheeses. Surrounding this were tables of the next few months worth of proofs and recommends, some from all the authors in attendance, as well as those S&S were really excited over. Given bags and told to take what we wanted, it amazes me there isn’t more of a frenzy with so many book lovers in one room, surrounded by free books!

So, what you all want to know: what was I lucky enough to get in my goody bag?

Possibly most exciting for me personally was to meet the range of children’s authors in attendance. Having worked in the children’s department at Waterstone’s it was lovely to be able to put faces to the names, just to have a chat about their plans and obviously get those little hints about what was next for their new novels.

As a fledgling solo blogger I can appreciate how valuable this is for bloggers, not only to meet the authors of some of the big hits of the next few months, but also to get the chance to chat to the S&S staff, see what is going on in such a changing environment. As I am off to Australia in less than a week I can’t wait to get an insight into how/if the publishing industry is different over there and whether this offers an interesting and new insight into such a competitive industry.