613 Media — Telling the Story

Monday — CBA

It was the first official day of the International Christian Retail Show (they really need to come up with a more creative name!) and Sherry and I got there in time to start on the exhibit floor. Of course, we have just come from the Book Expo America and the comparison was inevitable. The ICRS is about one fourth the size of the BEA. But, after two and half hours we only covered six aisles on the exhibit floor.

Our first book signing came from Gary Chapman, author of the Five Love Language series. He was very kind and signed books for Sherry and I. Then, it was on to several authors I had never heard of. But, we ended up the day with over four bags of books.

My most exciting moment came in meeting Robin Parrish. I first learned about Robin through one of my favorite websites, infuzemag.com which has since folded. But, Robin wrote two incredible books in the same kind of thriller category as my two books. He was releasing his third book and doing a book signing so it was exciting to meet and talk with him.

A featured book at this year’s meeting is unChristian and we got to meet and talk to the two guys who this incredible book, Dave Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons. Every Christian should read this book for the following three reasons . . . Sorry, I was descending into my Dynamic Communications Workshop SCORRE process for communicating information. But, here are the three reasons. 1, the world is hostile to Christians and we deserve it. 2, the world is disinterested in Christians and we deserve it. And, 3, the world is confused about what Christianity really is and we are to blame. Buy the book and start changing things. Now. Today. I mean it!

We were a little miffed later on. We made reservations to eat at Le Cellier, the wonderful steak house at Canada in EPCOT. We ate there for a late lunch and came back to the convention for the 530 “New Release Party”. The brochure said everyone should come. The brochure said that dozens of authors would be signing their new books. But, the brochure neglected to say that only certain attendees could get in! We waited in line behind several hundred people and when we got to the door we were told we couldn’t come in because we had on “black” nametags. We had to talk to over 8 different people before it was explained clearly that only book store owners could come in to this meeting. So, we had driven all the way to EPCOT and then all the way back to the convention center only to learn that we weren’t allow inside and nowhere in the brochure was this made clear. Hope they learn from this. I didn’t even notice that different people had different color nametags. At registration this was not made clear! So, another learning experience at another huge convention. Sometimes, we just feel like we’re fish out of water.

But, in spite of that, I learned a lot more about the Christian publishing industry. I met representatives from dozens of publishing companies. I’ve had a chance to look at the new releases and to get a better idea of which companies might be interested in the third book in the Jonathan Steel series. Because, as soon as I get home, I’m going to work on the third book and along with my new agent hope to find a major publisher soon.

I’ll be back tomorrow unless I’m lost again in another line!