2015 ILA Conference: Author Meet-Up and Random House Voyagers Cocktail Party

Saturday, July 17, 2015
Day 1: Exhibit Hall, Author Meet-Up, and Random House Voyagers Cocktail Party

After the opening ceremonies, we were off and running (literally) into the Exhibit Hall to meet authors, get their autographs, network with publishers, and receive free ARCs publishers were giving out....along with lots of other goodies!

Now, our approach to ILA was different than most attendees. Our purpose was to meet as many authors as we could to so we can figure out future presenters for the Allen County Young Author's program or for Iola Reads.

With our agenda firmly in hand we politely pushed our way into long lines to several publishers' booth's where authors where signing their newest books. Here are some of the authors we met and the books they were promoting:

Judy Young--Promise
Sonia Manzano--Miracle on 133rd Street; Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx
Candace Fleming--Bulldozer's Big Day
Kathleen Krull (past presenter at Allen County Young Authors)--Women Who Broke the Rules series
Kekla Magoon--Shadows of Sherwood
Eugene Yelchin--Arcady's Goal; Breaking Stalin's Nose
Mark Teague--How Do Dinosaurs Stay Safe?
Kate Messner--Ranger in Tme #2: Danger in Ancient Rome
Gail Jarrow--Fatal Fever: Tracking Down Typhoid Mary

All along the way we were accumulating stacks of free books, book bags, buttons, posters, and teaching aids.

We took a break from the convention center and headed to our hotel's ballroom building where ILA had set up an invitation only author meet up. The program was set up like a speed dating panel with the authors presenting for 10 minutes at each table and then rotating to another table when their time was up. There were two panels going on: children's/middle grade books and YA books. I attended the YA panel where I got to ask the authors personal questions and hear background behind the newest books they had written. Here are the authors I met and the books they were highlighting:

Candace Fleming--The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia
Andrew Smith--The Alex Crow
Ruta Sepetys--Salt to the Sea
Una LaMarche--Like No Other
Cindy L. Rodrigues--When Reason Breaks
Jason Reynolds--All American Boys; The Boy in the Black Suit
Jenny Han--P.S. I Still Love You

All attendees at the panel received a book bag filled with free books by each of the authors.

When the panel was done, we deposited our morning's accumulation of books to our hotel room and headed back to the Exhibit Hall to catch more author signings and free books.

The conference ended at 5:00 and we returned to the hotel with our final load of books and goodies.

Then we quickly put on our semi-formal apparel to attend Random House's cocktail party launching their new series Voyagers. Voyagers is the brainchild of Patrick Carman. He wrote the outline of the six book series, but divvied out parts of the story to five other authors. The first book in the series was written by D.J. MacHale, with Carman writing the third book. But this series is not just book-based. Carman also has online games and apps that give extra background to the series' adventures. But unlike other series where readers have to wait a year between books, this series will be released every two months starting this September.

So at the end of the day we felt incredibly spoiled after getting so many free books and meeting lots of authors. But there was more to come! I'll post about Sunday morning's activities in my next entry.