Successful conference season draws to a close

It’s been a few weeks since TSTC Publishing staffed its last booth of the season at the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) in Austin. Since October when I started with TSTC Publishing, I’ve helped to staff a booth at the Texas Book Festival in Austin, Texas Community College Teachers Association (TCCTA)  in Houston, Texas Library Association (TLA)  in San Antonio, American Wind Energy Association (AWEA)  in Dallas and this last one in Austin. While certainly not a pro yet, I, at least, can say I’ve gained experience in using conferences to help get the word out about our books.

A Publisher’s Room with a View: Top Publishing News of the Week, 3/5/10

This photo doesn’t really do justice to the window in my office, but the fact that since the first of the year—after our big move across campus into a newly remodeled suite of offices—I HAVE a window at all after five years of working in something of a cave in our old building is wonderful in its own right. Plus, for the first two months of the year it was gray, cold, and rainy outside most of the time which wasn’t too cheerful a view but spring is finally starting make an appearance with lots of blue sky and sunshine.

For all us here it’s been a busy week: Sheila and Wes are at the Texas Community College Teachers Association conference in Houston, we picked up our new summer catalogs from the print shop, a couple of forthcoming titles are being indexed . . . the last stage for them to go through before being sent to print, and the Lust, Violence, Religion: Life in Historic Waco Facebook page is up to 158 fans. (For anyone who hasn’t been there yet, you can listen to a podcast of the first chapter as narrated by Mike Jones, who is recording every essay in the book for us.) And, on the subject of LVR podcasts, within the next few weeks those audio files will also be available to download for free at Podiobooks during the run-up to the book’s 9/1/10 publication date.

Strategic Publishing Initiatives: Flat World Knowledge

Week before last it was time for the annual Texas Community College Teachers Association (TCCTA) Conference that was held this year in Austin, Texas. This was the third year in a row we’ve exhibited there and it was familiar yet still interesting. (Odds and ends of photos can be found here.) In the exhibit hall we visited with folks from the various TSTC colleges as well as with other people we’ve come to know from Cengage, Norton, American Technical Publishers, and Hampden.

A personal highlight was tagging along to a dinner that Thursday night with Dr. Eric Foner, historian extraordinaire, while, in a more practical sense, the most helpful (and surprising) thing that happened was my wife showing up unannounced in the exhibit hall Saturday morning with a couple of IKEA tall chairs for me and Lindsey to use. That is, if you sit in a regular chair at your booth it tends to make you look slouchy; however, standing on your feet all day is just murder. Murder! Last year we noticed that the president of ATP in the booth next to us used a tall chair—that way you’re at eye level while sitting down when people come up to the booth instead of looking like you’re working a garage sale waiting to make change in nickels for crazy people buying your junk—and we had talked about getting a couple of them; however, it took my blushing bride to actually pull the trigger on that.

Anyway, old home week, dinners, and tall chairs aside, the most interesting new thing I saw in the exhibit hall was the Flat World Knowledge booth.

Conferences & Conventions: 2008 Texas Community College Teachers Association Convention

Having just gotten back from spending the end of last week—February 21-23—at the 2008 TCCTA convention, the first thing I must do is thank Bobby King of the Dr Pepper Bottling Group in Waco, Texas, for generously donating lots of diet and regular Dr Pepper to give away at our booth in the exhibit hall. Once again this year, especially in comparison to the gigantic booths by the likes of Cengage and McGraw-Hill, ours was the little booth that could and having Dr Peppers to give away certainly drew in a lot more foot traffic.

As I always say, working exhibit booths at conferences is something of a mystery to me in the sense that you never can tell—despite talking to loads of folks over two days—what’s really going to pan out or not. But, as always, some unexpectedly interesting things happened that, in my mind, made the trip well worthwhile in ways I never would have predicted.

Conferences & Conventions: National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship

Today a big “Thanks!” goes out to Scott Nelson, Communications Associate at the Texas Community College Teachers Association. Back in early December as I was looking at the TCCTA site about info on their upcoming conference I came across this post at their blog about scholarships covering registration fees at the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship conference this next week in San Antonio.