Jeff Kinney Live!

I had a fun day Saturday with about 300 ten-year-olds and their parents at an author event held by Jeff Kinney, author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. The kids were absolutely thrilled to be seeing one of their favorite authors in person.

Twenty dollars got two people in the door and a signed copy of his 19th book in the series -- Hot Mess. Quite a deal!

For about ten minutes he talked about his writing process, which is as backwards as I can imagine. He comes up with an idea, then creates the cover first. He writes about 300 jokes next, which in this case involved restaurant and food jokes, and then he starts putting the illustrations and story together.

After that ten minutes, it was off to the races for the next forty-five as the author visit became a kid-centered game show calling up kids and parents in the audience to face off in friendly competitions. The show ended with beach balls painted like meatballs flying through the audience concert-style.

The event was unlike any author event I have ever been to! It really has me thinking about marketing, seeing as how this guy is obviously very successful (After his United States tour, he's off to Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and China!)  So, remember, if you are a writer, try to go to as many of these events as you can, so you can see how other authors structure these events. Always keep a mental file of those ideas!