THE LOS ANGELES TIMES FESTIVAL OF BOOKS 2010

By John Palisano
When I first walked into the sea of humanity I was struck: Do this many people still like
books? This many people came out in celebration for reading? I felt reassured in spite of
all the doomsday predictions that writing is dead…that no one is buying books…that it’s
all a niche thing nowadays. If I didn’t know any better, the tons and tons of people spread
across the gorgeous UCLA campus made it seem hopeful.
There were several sections of pointy white tents to explore. I first made my way up and
toward the food court, where I was to meet with the fun Nancy Holder for a meeting
about her book trailer. We ended up finding a good space in a hallway in one of the
UCLA buildings and sitting down and chatting right there. At the food court, it was
standing room only.
There are several ways people think of the Festival Of Books, it seems. Some folks really
think it’s just a place for housewives to see live cooking demonstrations, and for kids to
see characters from their favorite TV shows dancing around on stage. There is that aspect
to the festival. Last year I was lucky enough to bring baby Leo to see a rare live
performance of Yo! Gabba Gabba, which was awesome. This year I spotted Johnny
Cash’s son on that same stage. Pretty wild.
At the cooking stage, there were certainly celebrities. Alicia Silverstone and Trisha
Yearwood were both there this year. I mean it’s fun stuff if that’s what you’re into. When
I worked at Borders many years ago, it felt like we sold more cookbooks than any other
kind of book. Maybe I should write a horror cookbook one day.
Religion was also well represented. You could get free copies of almost any religious text
you wanted. I’ll admit I went into the Kabbalah tent. Who couldn’t use a little
reaffirmation once in a while, right?
I was there to investigate the panels and see what publishers were there for fiction…and
most importantly…the kind I write…horror fiction. When I spoke to several people about
their writing organizations, I was surprised to see that there were groups for the Mystery
Writers of America and Science Fiction writers, but nothing representing horror. Maybe
we can get a Horror Writer’s booth there one year. Some of the other interesting groups I
found were the Independent Writers of Southern California, California Writer’s Club,
Sisters In Crime, The Writer’s Guild Foundation, and the Greater Los Angeles Writers
Society. One group has an agent seminar this week, although I’ve had a tough time
finding an agent who is interested in selling horror outside the small presses. I’ll have to
read up on which agents are speaking. If they represent are chick-lit and mystery, it’d be
a waste. I’ve been to those sorts of things before, and when I submit my stuff: boom! No
horror.
My old college friend Seth Graham Smith was on a panel that I found almost by accident.
Here’s the story: I went to the Ticketmaster booth to get tickets for a novel workshop,
which was sold out. The lady actually suggested the panel with Seth. I was psyched to
find out the great Michael Shea was also on the panel. Good stuff. Funny: Seth’s turned
into a literary rock star. The line for his signing was outrageous! I’m really happy for him
and it was neat to see him up on stage. It was also encouraging to me as a writer-- good
things can happen!
I also ran into old friend Bill Nelson working the Feral House booth. That company
makes some wicked cool titles. Bill’s got a great book on old Hollywood. It was good
catching up to him, writer to writer. He also introduced me to a publicist. As I have some
small press books coming out in the near future, I’m going to need all the help I can get.
I’m interested to investigate what they can do to really help out, as there’s little budgets
in the small press for any kind of publicity.
This year it seemed that the self-published writers were all put in their own section. This
made me very depressed. I really want to support them, but at $20.00 for a poorly
produced POD book…it’s not in the cards. The few samples I read were pretty atrocious,
writing-wise. I imagine a lot of these are the writer’s first books that were rejected.
Instead of putting them away and working on something new, I bet a lot of them just put
their work out themselves. If that’s not the case, well, it sure felt like it. Some of them
went way over the top, bringing characters from their books, and designing every kind of
promotional gimmick you can think of. To me, it made me really want to go through my
own novels and make them super-clean before I submit them. The difference between a
self-published book at the bottom of the festival, and the professional books being sold
by places like Mysterious Galaxy, was obvious. So were the sales.
One thing that I was expecting that I did not see were digital e-readers. I thought for sure
there’d be a Nook table, and an Amazon Kindle table, even an iPad/iBooks table. The
iPad was offered as a giveaway through a treasure hunt game, but I was surprised there
was less mention of E-books in general. Maybe next year. Note: even though I went both
days, it’s entirely possible and probable I missed something along the way. They aren’t
kidding when they say it’s a festival.
A favorite aspect of the festival for me, and one near and dear to my heart, has to be the
huge amount of space devoted to kids and books. That section was never quiet, never
empty, and was as crammed as you can get. There were kids of all ages lining up to get
their books signed. I also spotted many tents devoted to bringing books to inner city
children, or younger children, or disabled children…it’s nice to see that there will be
quite a future for us writers, and that the next few generations are already getting hooked.
I wish I had a Festival Of Books to go to when I was a boy: I had the school and local
libraries. This would have been amazing. I’m glad, though, that it exists for the little ones
amongst us. My son, Leo, almost four years old, loves, loves, loves his books, especially
his Nightmare Before Christmas book, which is his favorite. Good taste, that one.
Lately, I’ve been suffering horrifying panic attacks that have been quite debilitating. Just
getting into my little grey car and braving my way up the 101, down the 405 and onto the
UCLA campus had caused me a great deal of stress. As I sat down for a rest on one of the
great, shaded lawns for a lemonade, I felt a great sense of peace. I looked out over the
bottom half of the festival and truly and honestly felt inspired and ready to go…and it
reaffirmed that what I really and truly love, and what I really and truly want and need to
do…is to write, and to write well.
Of course, mine is only a small voice, and one up and coming author’s experience, so
there’s a whole lot more to explore. I’m bummed it’s over so quickly and I am really
looking forward to the 2011 season. Maybe my book will even be out by then!
www.johnpalisano.com