Show Information for Publicists
Most proposals to feature authors at our shows come to PNBA from publicists, who have varying degrees of experience making such proposals and handling the invitations for the their authors. This document is to help explain PNBA's process for those publicists, to provide you with a time-line for our process, and to help you better understand what you can expect from PNBA.
Our shows were started in the early 1970s as an opportunity for the publishers' sales reps to see as many booksellers from as many stores as possible in one place at one time, and to solicit orders for their forth-coming lists. Although that is still a strong component of the shows, it is now secondary to the larger ability to connect our bookseller members with authors who might be able to visit their stores to talk about books. Authors, especially the local and more-available ones, have become the "celebrities" at our shows, because authors who are interested in visiting our member stores can provide those stores with events that cannot be matched in the "big box" or online stores. Our stores need authors to visit their stores, and the booksellers use our shows to meet as many of them as possible, learn as much as they can about them, and start the process of inviting the authors to come to their stores for a promotion.
Your job, then, is not only to place your author at our show, but to match the right authors with the PNBA. Your author may, indeed, have had numerous books hit the top of the NY Times Bestseller List; but, if that author's books have not sold particularly well in our member stores, the chances are that the booksellers on our Selection Committee are not going to invite that author to be featured at the show. Some famous authors are top draws at our shows, like Chuck Palahniuk, who received his first award from PNBA, who has personally visited almost all of our member stores, and who worked for every one of our stores to give them the tools they need to sell his books. The key to an author's success at our shows is personality: If your author has a well-written book, and if that author is willing and able to charm his/her way into the hearts of our booksellers, that author is more likely to be invited to the show, to have a great time, and to come away with dozens of invitations to visit our member stores. Our aim is to find those authors, feature them at our shows, and provide our booksellers with new opportunities to bring customers into their stores.
HERE is an explanation of the process that we use to decide which authors will be invited to the show. It is important that you know and understand that process. When you do receive an invitation to feature your author at the show, it is very important that you reply to our invitation as quickly as possible. If the person who sent the proposal to PNBA is not going to be available during late June or early July, PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT A COLLEAGUE IS AVAILABLE AND AUTHORIZED TO SPEAK FOR THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR about that author's invitation. If we are not able to confirm an author within ten days of sending an invitation, the invitation may be rescinded, because of our need to confirm authors quickly, so that we can invite the next batch of authors on the Selection Committee's list.
When your author has been confirmed, PNBA will request that you provide us with a few specific things that we will need to properly promote your author and the book to our members. When PNBA has received those items needed, we will email to you all of the pertinent info that you will need to provide to your author about the show, how to prepare for it, and what to expect from it. Most of the info for your author will be provided to you as links to documents already posted on our site. If you are proposing multiple authors for appearances at the show, it may make sense for you to read some of the posted information yourself, so that you will know what we are telling your authors, and to assure that PNBA and the publisher are providing the author with consistent information.
PNBA's drayage service will receive all shipments sent to the show, palletize them by day and event, ship them to the host hotel, unload and deliver them to the proper person or storage area until needed, and then deliver them to the author for signing at the appropriate time and place. Our drayage coordinator works part-time and is NOT available during office hours and does not send PNBA a list of packages received. Therefore, we are not able to tell you if and when your shipments have arrived in our warehouse. Don't ask, because we will not be able to tell you. Instead, we recommend that you track each shipment and request a delivery receipt.
You are welcome to avoid the costs of using our drayage service by sending your author's books to the show via your sales rep or the author herself. Please do not ship boxes directly to the hotel. They have asked us to make sure that no boxes are shipped there as they are not prepared to receive, store and deliver the volume of boxes associated with our show. They will undoubtedly charge you at least as much as we do, we will not receive or process them and won't be able to make sure they get to the right place. They may also just refuse shipment.
Finally, PNBA will send to you, via email, the invoices for your author's promotional fee and for any use of our drayage service for your author's books. It is your responsibility to authorize payment of those invoices and/or to forward those invoices to the proper person to make the payment. We will send those invoices every month until we receive your payment. If we have not received payment for the invoices by the end of the calendar year, we will not do business with you or your publisher until the invoices have been paid in full.
Our shows were started in the early 1970s as an opportunity for the publishers' sales reps to see as many booksellers from as many stores as possible in one place at one time, and to solicit orders for their forth-coming lists. Although that is still a strong component of the shows, it is now secondary to the larger ability to connect our bookseller members with authors who might be able to visit their stores to talk about books. Authors, especially the local and more-available ones, have become the "celebrities" at our shows, because authors who are interested in visiting our member stores can provide those stores with events that cannot be matched in the "big box" or online stores. Our stores need authors to visit their stores, and the booksellers use our shows to meet as many of them as possible, learn as much as they can about them, and start the process of inviting the authors to come to their stores for a promotion.
Your job, then, is not only to place your author at our show, but to match the right authors with the PNBA. Your author may, indeed, have had numerous books hit the top of the NY Times Bestseller List; but, if that author's books have not sold particularly well in our member stores, the chances are that the booksellers on our Selection Committee are not going to invite that author to be featured at the show. Some famous authors are top draws at our shows, like Chuck Palahniuk, who received his first award from PNBA, who has personally visited almost all of our member stores, and who worked for every one of our stores to give them the tools they need to sell his books. The key to an author's success at our shows is personality: If your author has a well-written book, and if that author is willing and able to charm his/her way into the hearts of our booksellers, that author is more likely to be invited to the show, to have a great time, and to come away with dozens of invitations to visit our member stores. Our aim is to find those authors, feature them at our shows, and provide our booksellers with new opportunities to bring customers into their stores.
HERE is an explanation of the process that we use to decide which authors will be invited to the show. It is important that you know and understand that process. When you do receive an invitation to feature your author at the show, it is very important that you reply to our invitation as quickly as possible. If the person who sent the proposal to PNBA is not going to be available during late June or early July, PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT A COLLEAGUE IS AVAILABLE AND AUTHORIZED TO SPEAK FOR THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR about that author's invitation. If we are not able to confirm an author within ten days of sending an invitation, the invitation may be rescinded, because of our need to confirm authors quickly, so that we can invite the next batch of authors on the Selection Committee's list.
When your author has been confirmed, PNBA will request that you provide us with a few specific things that we will need to properly promote your author and the book to our members. When PNBA has received those items needed, we will email to you all of the pertinent info that you will need to provide to your author about the show, how to prepare for it, and what to expect from it. Most of the info for your author will be provided to you as links to documents already posted on our site. If you are proposing multiple authors for appearances at the show, it may make sense for you to read some of the posted information yourself, so that you will know what we are telling your authors, and to assure that PNBA and the publisher are providing the author with consistent information.
PNBA's drayage service will receive all shipments sent to the show, palletize them by day and event, ship them to the host hotel, unload and deliver them to the proper person or storage area until needed, and then deliver them to the author for signing at the appropriate time and place. Our drayage coordinator works part-time and is NOT available during office hours and does not send PNBA a list of packages received. Therefore, we are not able to tell you if and when your shipments have arrived in our warehouse. Don't ask, because we will not be able to tell you. Instead, we recommend that you track each shipment and request a delivery receipt.
You are welcome to avoid the costs of using our drayage service by sending your author's books to the show via your sales rep or the author herself. Please do not ship boxes directly to the hotel. They have asked us to make sure that no boxes are shipped there as they are not prepared to receive, store and deliver the volume of boxes associated with our show. They will undoubtedly charge you at least as much as we do, we will not receive or process them and won't be able to make sure they get to the right place. They may also just refuse shipment.
Finally, PNBA will send to you, via email, the invoices for your author's promotional fee and for any use of our drayage service for your author's books. It is your responsibility to authorize payment of those invoices and/or to forward those invoices to the proper person to make the payment. We will send those invoices every month until we receive your payment. If we have not received payment for the invoices by the end of the calendar year, we will not do business with you or your publisher until the invoices have been paid in full.