posted
If I suggested to my publisher that my signing tour for Magic Street should include Little Rock Arkansas, I'm not sure they'd even understand what I was saying. In planning tours, the publishers generally skip over the same areas that political candidates fly over. Tours aren't about selling books, actually. They're about hitting the lists - so they need to pump the numbers and spur a rush of sales all at once, early on.
That said, I want it known that when I got to suggest a tour for Sarah, I pushed for signings right up the middle of the country. So next time I'm the one making key decisions, I'll try to include Arkansas in the mix.
As for why I don't go to Utah between Sep. and Apr., it's because part of our reason to go is so that our ten-year-old can see grandparents and cousins. During the school year, we can't take her out of school that long without an "educational purpose." So we try to go in the summer ...
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
Sounds good. I was beginning to think you just didn't like me.
Re: Political candidates, yeah the 2004 election seemed pretty boring for us except for the Rock the Vote that came by. I think W came by in 2000, but neither he nor Kerry decided to drop by in 2004.
edit: Pop you and I are constantly posting simultaneously!
posted
ARG! Curse my horrible mastery of the English language! How can one make sly insults without that knowledge!?
Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
quote:In planning tours, the publishers generally skip over the same areas that political candidates fly over. Tours aren't about selling books, actually. They're about hitting the lists - so they need to pump the numbers and spur a rush of sales all at once, early on.
Does that mean you're never going to come up here to Alaska for a book-signing? Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
What is preventing you from coming to Atlanta? You don’t have to be in downtown or midtown. There is a Barns and Noble in Alpharetta.
Posts: 333 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
So... I'm guessing North Dakota is out of the question, then?
Ah, well. Fortunately, North Dakota is used to being ignored (who'd've thought? Big metropolitan center of commerce that we are). And at least I got to meet Mr. Card at a signing once when I was living in North Carolina.
By the way, if you're reading this Mr. Card, my cousin's reaction when he saw I had a book signed for him was truly something to behold. He just stared at the page for a minute and then his jaw just about hit his knees. "You've got to be kidding me." Unfortunately, he refuses to read the book for fear of damaging it now, and so had to buy a new one. All the same, bar none, best reaction I've ever had to a gift I've given someone.
He and his brother introduced me to your work -- he used to entertain me on car trips by telling me the plots of different stories you'd written and asking me what I'd do with the moral dilemmas from The Worthing Saga, and his brother bought me Ender's Game for Christmas when I was 11. So that's three of us who would show up should you ever make it to our fair and frozen state. Posts: 99 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Hey guys, if you all keep harrassing him with the name of every city he should visit, he'll just get bored with this thread.
Your point is well taken, and no doubt it's true. But in my defense, I have been campaigning for an Alaskan OSC book-signing for some time now. There's a lot I love about my home state, but sometimes it really does suck to live in the most forgotten state in the Union.
Not quite as remote as Hawaii, it nevertheless has the disadvantage of not being particularly warm. People love Hawaii and don't think of it as remote. They think of it as a tropical paradise. Alaska they think of as . . . well, most people don't think of Alaska. Everyone knows it's a real state, but nobody really knows anything about it except "it's cold", and they would no more think of coming here than they would think of going to Nunavut.
As an Alaskan who does not have the monetary means to travel readily to other places to see authors I like, or concerts, or stage shows, it's depressing to look at the lists of tour dates for this or that person or show and find that, once again, Alaska isn't on the list. People who live in other states don't know what that's like. People who live in other states can drive to other states to see someone or something they want to see. (Except Hawaii, but again, people love Hawaii. People go to Hawaii, so people who live in Hawaii don't get neglected.) Even to drive to Washington, the closest state, takes several days. It's cheaper to fly--and even then, not all of us can afford to just get on an airplane and go somewhere whenever we feel like it. Don't get me wrong; I love my homeland. But it's a forgotten frontier land.
posted
I'm sorry, Verily the Younger, but North Dakota is the most forgotten state in the union. Well, second most. The MOST forgotten state is ... is ... oh @#$%, I can't think of ...
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
So let's say I go to Alaska. WHERE in Alaska? Juneau? Anchorage? Fairbanks? Nome? Sitka? Kodiak Island? The North Slope? Is there a Barnes and Noble or Borders? Do i need to bring my own books to sign?
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
Admit it, you're avoiding Florida now because Bob Scopatz left, aren't you?
I grant you it's not the same now, but me, Icarus, zgator, Storm, and others would love to have you...
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Storm wouldn't be able to actually, you know, attend, but he'd just love for you to visit anyway. Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged |
quote:So let's say I go to Alaska. WHERE in Alaska? Juneau? Anchorage? Fairbanks? Nome? Sitka? Kodiak Island? The North Slope? Is there a Barnes and Noble or Borders? Do i need to bring my own books to sign?
Anchorage is the largest city (just slightly larger than Greensboro, in fact), so if you're just talking signings, that would be your best bet. No book signing in Alaska would be large, but you'd get the highest turnout here. We have both a Borders and a Barnes & Noble.
Fairbanks is the second largest city, though in any other state it would be called a "town". You could probably have a decent turnout there, too. I couldn't tell you what bookstores they have there.
Honestly, and this is the part where I shoot myself in the foot, it probably wouldn't be worth it to go anywhere else here for a signing. There's a reason we're called "The Last Frontier", and it ain't that we like competing with Star Trek. I went into more detail in the other thread (because I hadn't seen your response to me in this one yet), but if you really want to come here to fill in the final remaining gap of states visited, your best bet would be to come here just to come here. A couple of quick signings would be almost beside the point, but if you're into smaller, more intimate signings, I think it would be worth it for you.
And even if you didn't do any signings, Alaska's still worth visiting just for the sake of doing it. Saying that defeats the purpose of my campaigning to get you to do a signing here, of course, but I can't be entirely selfish. Even if I don't get to meet you, I still think you and your family would enjoy a summertime visit to this state. And if you've already got forty-nine of the fifty, why not go ahead and finish it off?
Then you could write a Review of your trip and tell everyone how beautiful and scenic Alaska is, and how relaxed and informal the atmosphere is. And how you almost got eaten by a bear. That way we could scare potential tourists and keep them away. We don't like tourists here.
(Um . . . that last part was a joke. Just in case anyone didn't catch that. )
Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
ND is the most forgotten state in the Union.
When I tell people I'm from North Dakota, they invariably laugh. My dearest friend desperately wants me to move somewhere else so that she doesn't have to try to explain to people why on earth I moved here.
(Of course, for me personally ND is not the most forgotten state. I always forget Delaware when I'm naming the 50 states. It doesn't sound like a state. When I do remember it, I have to double check with myself on the order of, "wait... is that really a state? because I feel like I'm making it up, and perhaps it's a city. Or just sounds cool.")
However, as I'm pretty sure there will never be a book signing here, maybe the next time you're making a reference to an obscure midwestern state in a book (e.g., Idaho & Kansas in SotG) you can use us?
ND needs all the help it can get reminding people it is a state. There have actually been movements to declare it a territory again. I kid you not.
Posts: 99 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Washington has threatened to split in two for decades now - politicians just need something to focus on besides the real work, and the threat of changing statehood is always prime . . .
Posts: 5609 | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Wait, there are people in North Dakota who want to turn the state back into a territory? Wanting to divide the state or declare independence, I could see. (There's a small and not even slightly significant faction in Alaska that wants to secede. I think Vermont has one too, though I don't know why.) But what on earth would be the advantage of regressing to territorial status?
Edit: Come to think of it, how could North Dakota possibly be the most forgotten state? If you remember South Dakota, you remember North Dakota. They go together. That would be like remembering West Virginia while forgetting Virginia. Or remembering Bud Abbott and forgetting Lou Costello.
posted
Not people in ND as I understand it. People outside ND. I honestly don't know too much about it, but I know my uncle once wrote a column protesting it...
Not that it would ever happen anymore than the stupid campaigns to change the name of ND to Dakota are going to happen. (For some reason, people think the reason people don't come here is the name "North" Dakota makes it *sound* too cold. The fact that it actually IS cold seems, in their minds, to have precious little to do with it. There's nothing like waking up, looking at the weather channel, and realizing Moscow has it better than you do.)
And just how many people do you know remember South Dakota?
But they're more liable to remember it due to Mt. Rushmore. Also, a lot of times people attribute cities and monuments that are actually in North Dakota to South Dakota (e.g., "Bismarck, that's in South Dakota, right?" "Oh, yeah, you were telling me you had family in South Dakota?" "Now where in South Dakota are you from?")
Just trust me on this one. Everything you said about Alaska applied to ND, except for the driving time.
Posts: 99 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote: Arthur Stuart will vaguely represent Brigham Young and Peggy will more closely resemble Emma Smith
This parallelism isn't going to be stretched to the marriage proposal, is it? I am glad for your clarification, it is what I understood about the series, though I often get at odds with folks who insist on the word "parallel".
posted
This is all very interesting, but can we go back a bit to Mr. Card's statement on North Dakota? I'd just like to say:
We have a North Dakota!?!?!?! I thought it was just a myth. Sort of like West Virginia and South Carolina.
Posts: 1480 | Registered: Dec 2004
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[The Wave]](graemlins/thewave.gif)
![[Embarrassed]](redface.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
This parallelism isn't going to be stretched to the marriage proposal, is it? I am glad for your clarification, it is what I understood about the series, though I often get at odds with folks who insist on the word "parallel". ![[Wave]](graemlins/wave.gif)
