My Third Book Signing

(Here's my first book signing. What happened to the second one? I thought about including it in this journal post, but clearly, this is getting waayyy too long (as usual). So maybe next time. )

Location: Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati; large bookstore located in a fairly large plaza with a rather large parking lot


Layout: As you walk into the double doors, there is a cafe (and restrooms) to your left, the cash register island right in front of you, tons of books to your right, and a staircase right in front of you (beyond the cash register thing) which leads up to the second floor.


People were supposed to stay on the 1st floor. Speakers, including MM, addressed the crowd from the middle of the stairs. And fans later lined up to go to the 2nd floor to meet MM/have her sign things. That is, Downstairs = everybody; Stairs = central location where everyone can see you (restricted area); Upstairs = see MM! (restricted area).

1:30pm Leave for book signing.
 2:27pm Almost there. Parking.
 2:33pm After walking into the bookstore and looking around a bit for a not-busy bookstore associate (they looked pretty busy with the dozens and dozens of people milling about), I stood at the bottom of the stairs and made a phone call to Morgan, one of MM's publicists. She didn't catch my call, but she did call me back later, which was nice of her. (I missed it. Oops.)

But! As I was asking Bookstore Dude (as he now shall be dubbed) about going into the back to meet MM early, Marissa et entourage passed right by me!

Marissa: *does a double take* Oh, Joy! Just come with us!
Me: *runs back around the column* PSSSTTTT. You guys comin’?!
Us: *dodges odd looks and goes upstairs*

Woah, woah, woah, woah, WOAH. What was that about going upstairs to meet Marissa Meyer early???

Well, you see , about a month ago, Marissa Meyer emailed 5 TLC fanartists asking if they would like to participate in making TLC-themed Valentines. The compensation for the project would be a signed copy of Stars Above.

During our email exchanges, I asked Marissa if it would be easier to reserve a copy of SA for me at Joseph-Beth’s so that she wouldn’t have to spend money on shipping another package. She said, “Of course! Just come to the line and I'll make sure we get you a copy of Stars Above as my gift. Actually, if you come early, I could probably get your book signed beforehand so you don't have to wait?”

To which I responded, “Oh! Can I really come see you early? That'd be great if I could... Considering I'm running into the same situation as the previous two times (i.e. ‘I've pre-ordered this TLC book twice (Kindle/Audible), and I'm also getting sent a free hard copy because of art stuff, so I reeeeeallly don't want to have to buy yet another copy just to stand in line to meet you??’), I was expecting to have to wait until everyone else had gone through the signing line to meet you again.

But gee, if I could just go meet you beforehand, that'd be great!”

So there ya have it. I get unofficial VIP status!   (Not my idea. Clearly.) Marissa also gave me her publicist, Morgan’s, phone number in case I couldn’t find anyone to let me in the back. And also my friends were allowed to come with!



MM and crew disappeared into the Employees Only door to the far right. My friends and I stopped at the side table (see FIG. 2) and I was trying to get my posters out / I wasn’t sure what to be doing. Bookstore Dude told us that if we wanted to see MM, we had to gtfo hurry it up and go in back.

So we shuffled to a back room where MM was sitting at table meeting whom I presume were bookstore associates and signing books for them. There was also a cart with dozens of copies of Stars Above which were flapped and ready for MM to sign and for the bookstore to sell.

I asked T to take a video for me. For some reason, the video started out horizontal but she turned rotated the phone back to vertical. :| Still lots of background noise/talking though, so I shalt try to decipher it. Have some excerpts: 

Marissa is signing books for Kim, one of the bookstore associates. I am busy awkwardly trying to get things out.

Marissa: Kim, do you want your WINTER stamp? This special stamp? *reaches in tote*
Kim: YEEES. Yeahhh!! I mean, if you’re gonna give it to me!
Me: Nobody stamping for you?
Marissa: Haha, not this time.

Me: *tries to get posters in order* *MiB slips out and falls to the chair*
Marissa: Joy, are you my “square” deliverer today?
Me: I was, except that I think a few people got it in late, so it didn't come in the mail yet. It got to Cincinnati on Friday night, but...
Marissa: [Oh no..]
Me: So I will mail them to you afterward.
Marissa: There's gonna be holes in the puzzle!
(Video clip here!)

Marissa: *finishes signing Kim's books* *puts stamp back on cap* Okay. What would you like me to sign, Joy?
Me: *drops Safe and Sound* This is just for you. It's from Ship Weeks. Scarlet and Wolf.
Marissa: *shows off to other ppl* (whispers) This is so nice. Thanks.
Lady 1: Is this all the fanart entries?
Lady 2: No, those are downstairs. These are all hers.
Lady 1: Ohhh!
Kim: Hey! You were here last year at the Lunar Ball with all the cool art, right? I remember that. Yeahhh.
Marissa: Joy is one of my most prolific fanartists.

Me: *hands MM Hogwarts Thorne* Could you personalize this one to lovelunarchron?
Me: That was just from back when people were all like, "Oh! Hogwarts AU!" I did like your comment about how Thorne would probably flunk out.
Marissa: I may have. That sounds about right.
Me: *finally rescues MiB from below* I already gave you this one. So this is [not for you. Please sign it?]
Marissa: *nods excitedly* I love that one~

FIG. 4:Terrible angle, I know. MM nodding vigorously at MiB.

Me: *counts on fingers trying to figure out if I've forgotten anything*
Me: And then this is my proud achievement for today. *hands her booklet for Superheroes and Stories*
Me: The first comic is by my friend, [NightmareSiren], and the second comic she drew and I colored.
Marissa: Oh, how cool!
Me: [It's not that long, so if you just wanna flip through it..]
Marissa: This is adorable!
Marissa: *keeps flipping* Aw! *makes face at the panel with the cyborg hands touching*
Marissa: Is this online somewhere?
Me: Yes, it is. I can email you the link.
Marissa: I would love a link to this.
Me: We're pretty proud of it exploding across Tumblr.
Marissa: Yeah, I can imagine why!
Me: Those were both for Ship Weeks, I think.
Marissa: *laughs at some panel in Stories* *gets to the final page* Awww.
Me: That's it.
Marissa: This is so stinkin' sweet! But I love that, thank you!
Marissa: *closes booklet and hands it back to me*
Me: Oh, I mean, it's for you.
Marissa: Oh, I get to keep it!! Okay, I thought you were taking it away. I was like, 'You better be sending me a link to this!'

FIG. 5: The booklet before it was bound. Only 24 pages, but it looks so thick! See details in later section.

Marissa: Okay, and we're gonna get you a book.
Me: Oh yeah, I forgot about that.
Me: *grabs WINTER Target exclusive* And then this one's the copy I got in the mail. Which didn't come in time for the last book signing.
Marissa: Ohhkay. *laughs*
Me: So if you could sign that too, that'd be great.
Marissa: Do you want it stamped?
Me: Sure, if you want to.

After handing back my phone (Boo, no more recording =3=), T then asked MM to sign a copy of CRESS that she had borrowed from the local library. She claimed that it was her present to them. That she hadn’t told them about yet. LOL

I also almost forgot to ask my 'burning question.' What does Marissa do with all the stuff she receives? Currently it's just filed away, but MM just got a big magnetic whiteboard, and she wants to pin up some art. She also joked that half of it would be filled with my stuff lol.



...and into the second floor section again, only to find Bookstore Dude making announcements to the crowd. I think he said something only getting books signed and nothing else was allowed (due to time constraints). Oops. Good thing I got an informal VIP pass and got things signed already. ;D

T: Oh, we can probably just go down the stairs. His voice is just coming from the speakers.
Us: *stretches head to look past banner* Oops, he’s standing right smack in the middle of the stairs.... Umm....
S: Joy, you should probably put away your drawings.
Me: Oh yeah. *rolls them up but doesn’t put them back in the tube since they move around and the caps have popped off multiple times*
Us: Let’s take the elevator! It’s on the side!
Us: *gets in the elevator* *Morgan (or was it someone else?) also gets in*
Us: You know, we took the elevator to be inconspicuous, but now everyone is staring up at us.....
(The elevator's back side is encased by glass and thus transparent to all bystanders...)

After landing on the first floor, we stood to the far right of the stairs, near where we got off the elevator. Bookstore Dude introduced MM; unfortunately, he was being rather monotone/cynical/not loud enough on the mic. Then a lady dressed up as concerned!Levana(?) talked about ...something. She also wasn’t holding the mic close enough, so I couldn't hear. :\

Oh! That’s right. One of them, probably Bookstore Dude, announced the winners of the trivia contest and the fanart contest. My reaction was like, “WHAT? FANART CONTEST? WHAT FANART CONTEST? I LIVE FOR FANART WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME???” but without so many all caps.

Afterwards, Marissa Meyer began to speak (she wanted the mic cord longer since she likes to move around while speaking xD), telling us about the process of writing the short stories. From what it sounded like, the earlier short stories were released before the corresponding books, which isn’t bad for marketing, but gee, it sounded terrible spoiler-wise to me. Oh well.

Something new (aha. "Something new." hahahaha. Okay I’ll shut up now.) that I learned was that the wedding in the epilogue was originally intended to take place in the beginning of WINTER, which was why MM was eager to write that particular couple’s wedding (don’t spoil in the comments, guys!) It kept getting pushed back since it’s kinda hard to stop and have a ceremony while fighting for your lives.... So it’s in the wish-fulfillment fanfiction epilogue!

MM also talked about the graphic novels with Iko. We learned through the Q&A that Douglas Holgate is Australian. The first GN is supposed to be out in January, but MM was skeptical about that since Holgate just started drawing. But maybe he draws fast.

She followed this up with telling the story of The Little Mermaid, since “The Little Android” is the only fairy tale retelling in Stars Above. I kinda zoned out on some parts since I was making snarky comments with my friends. TLA makes me  c r y  though. oh. my. stars.

Then Marissa moved on to the Q&A, which was unfortunately very brief since I guess the bookstore ppl wanted to get the signing started. (Whyyyyy? It was actually halfway interesting.) They gave out the HEARTLESS ARC to the raffle winner and called the VIPs to line up. I wonder how you get those tickets...? Do you have to know bookstore ppl? Or pay extra??

My friends and I talked a bit and then dispersed to browse the bookstore. I did a quick walkthrough to glance at all the sections since I never did last year. :\ Mostly tried to see if I could find any online people (there aren’t that many to begin with, and how do I recognize them?) or to see if anyone had fanart they were holding to give to MM. No luck.

 3:50pm MM finished talking. Signing line started.

 4:00pm Found entries for the fanart contest at the fireplace, which was also where the raffle for the HEARTLESS ARC was. And probably the trivia. Honestly, how did I miss out on all the fun????? I thought the event started at /3/.

 4:05pm Took some pictures of a WINTER-themed corn toss game. A couple women (20s or 30s?) sitting nearby asked me to take a photo of them. I asked them if they did any online stuff and where they were from. I believe they're teachers from Indianapolis. They don't do online stuff. They just read. A lot. xD I asked them if they knew anything about the fanart contest and then showed off MiB and another drawing or two.


 4:20pm Intruded on a couple girls doing TLC trivia questions. One girl missed the trivia so her friend was reading from a photo she'd taken of the questions after she answered them. There were a lot of spoilery questions!!!

 4:29pm Leaving bookstore. Looked around in plaza for a place to eat. Decided on sandwiches at Potbelly.



 At the top of the stairs was a whiteboard with "Vote for your King and Queen!" and boxes for all the main characters. I wish I had left a tally, but alas, it was right by the stairs (A.K.A. EVERYONE WOULD SEE US IF WE WALKED OVER). I found a photo of this also from JB's Twitter: 

 Dear Bookstore Dude,
        I’m sorry for writing you in a bad light. I’m sure that you were just tired and frustrated and annoyed at the hundreds of teenaged girls who come to these book signings like 3 times a week for books which you have not read and/or have reluctantly read.
       You also may or may not be the Worker Dude who said, "Woahhh. Hey. I never gave you license rights," so hopefully your mood will improve throughout the day.

 When I wandered around to the back of the line, I asked an associate named Mackenzie about the fanart contest. She wasn’t sure and thought that it would have been run from Marissa’s end, which was probably not true since I never heard a thing about it. 
        She was nice enough to go upstairs and ask for me. She reported that only the marketing manager, Kelly, knew about it; she tweeted it and put it on their fb page. None of the other workers knew about it. Sorry.

Once again, I went to the university Print Center (they moved locations. Derp) to print posters for Marissa. Actually, most of it was to give to LLC, which was fine too.
        The guy who helped me at the Print Center told me I could also print on cardstock—a.k.a. much more poster-worthy and only a few cents more expensive!
        He also helped me use InDesign to put images together and print out 4 panels on one 12x18 sheet, which were later cut so that I could form the booklet for 'Superheroes' and 'Stories.' Unfortunately I didn't think about leaving space on the left for binding, so I went to the Copy Shop later to get it bound professionally with tape binding along with a vinyl & plastic cover. So pretty~~~



 Why is there no tapestry behind Marissa Meyer in the photo/video and why does it look like we're in an office? Why, I got to meet her early. ;D
 And spend at least 8 minutes in her immediate presence.
Technically, I think that was just a meeting room because there were at least 4 chairs at the table MM was sitting at.

Early?! Why early? D:>
Re: Compensation for doing the TLC Valentine: I asked Marissa if it'd be easier to give me Stars Above at the bookstore instead of spending more postage on mailing one to me. She said I could go early so I wouldn't have to wait in line. :>

 Nobody told me about the fanart contest. D: Not that I had time to join anyway. 
Thorne is popular.


Maybe someday after I write about My Second Book Signing, I'll do a comparison of the three. And yes, in case you didn't catch that, this is the third time I've met Marissa Meyer in just about a year.

Also! You should all go read Aceofstars16's account of the Texas book tour stop for the day before. Lots of photos and cosplay! She also has this wonderful video which I totally have not replayed like 50 times of Marissa's reaction to receiving more squares!


Word Count: 3055
Did anyone read through all that? Or at least most of it? XD
This is why I don't often write journal posts though. I swear these things take at least 6-8 hours to write/format...
Okay bye~