by Jill Williamson
I had the privilege to attend the American Library Association’s Midwinter event in Seattle this past weekend. This is a major conference for all kinds of librarians to come and learn about books. It’s also the annual location of the Youth Media Awards, where such awards as the Newbery, Caldecott, and Printz, among others, are announced.
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| Me at my signing. |
My publisher set up a book signing for me to give away ARCs (advance reader copies) of my new book Captives. I found the booth a half hour early, curious to see what the exhibit hall was like. My publisher was located in the HarperCollins booth, where I snagged an ARC of The Elite by Kiera Cass (Sweet!). My publisher had set up a display of my books with posters and buttons, but I was too busy looking at all the free books they had on display, filling my own bag! People kept asking about my book, and since I was there, I started the signing early. So I signed books for almost an hour an a half–until we ran out of books, actually. It was super fun, and it just happened to be YALSA teen blogger day.
How cool was that?
I got to give my book to tons of teen bloggers and had a blast chatting with them. I wish I’d thought to bring Go Teen Writers flyers too, but I did ask the teens if they wrote, and the ones who did, I wrote the GTW info on the flyer I gave them, so hopefully some of them will find their way here eventually.
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| The giveaway loot! |
In case you weren’t aware of YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association), it’s the division of the American Library Association that deals with teen books. And after learning more about them this weekend, I’m thinking of becoming a member. You might want to, also. Here is a link to their website for more information.
I walked away with one ARC copy of my book. Sadly, this ARC is not the final version of the book that will be published in March. I changed a lot about the technology of my world in my final edit. But–that’s the version that we gave away, so I’m going to give away this ARC (plus a poster, button, and bookmark) to one GTW blog reader. To enter this giveaway, leave a comment below telling me the title of the last book you checked out from a library. For more info about the story, check out the book page on Amazon.com.
Margaret is the winner! Margaret, please email me your name and mailing address to jill@jillwilliamson.com so I can mail out your prize.