Final Notes From Readercon 18

So Readercon 18 has come and gone, and we can finally say we’ve got our first book show under our belts (whew!). I was nervous (did we bring enough books? bring the right books? would our display look professional enough? would we sell anything at all?), but the sight of a few familiar faces helped, and as we were setting up another bookseller wandered over and I distinctly heard him say to his partner “They’ve got beautiful books.” Wow. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to hear, and to have a fellow bookseller say that (and we didn’t even have everything out) made me glow! I was far more focused after that.

We had a great time and brought home lots of great new ideas & books. Sunday was definitely the busiest day (sales-wise), but Saturday felt like the most crowded. Here’s an overview of the weekend as viewed from our camera:

The Withywindle Books table in the Readercon dealer room – able-bodied assistant Obo ready to sell books (or just haul boxes of them back and forth)!

The view of the dealer’s room (aka the Bookstore) from the back of our table…

…And from the side.

On Sunday morning Lucius Shepard – one of the Guests of Honor – signed books (yep, that’s me) at the authors’ signing table (which we were conveniently located right across from).

Seated next to Lucius was editor Ellen Datlow who was great fun to meet and talk with – she’s a native New Yorker from a town right near where I grew up in Westchester. I had a box full of books for her to sign, and we still have a few left for sale on the website.

Kay Kenyon stopped by the Withywindle table Sunday afternoon to sign her new book – Bright of the Sky. We have several signed copies still left from Readercon, and they’ll be available for sale through our website soon.

Kay and I chatted about our experiences at Readercon 18, and I told her about Arisia and Boskone; despite living on the west coast, I think I convinced her to come to next year’s Boskone where hopefully we will be selling…