Several months ago, I signed books at the Fountain Hills Book Festival in Arizona. I arrived about a half hour before the event began and witnessed dozens of people already forming a line in anticpation of Joe Gargiola’s arrival.
So it came as no surprise to me that when I arrived at this weekend’s Hollywood Book festival 90 minutes early, a much larger line had already formed in anticpation of another celebrity appearance.

The event was held at the Grove at Farmer’s Market in Hollywood. It is a gorgeous open air venue set along a cobblestone pedestrian-only street lined with upscale shops, restaruants and alcoves. A small park shaded by lush California foilage lies at one end(the site of our book festival) with an orignal LA farmers market anchoring the other.

We had been told not to show up prior to 9:00am, so my wife and I walked to the Farmer’s Market and enjoyed the ambiance, tastes, smells and old fashioned character of an outdoor breakfast nestled amongst dozens of refreshingly unique ethnic foods and vendors.

After breakfast we headed toward Registration. The “celebrity” line now stretched the length of the Grove’s main street. Who were they waiting for? Surely the grand prize winner of this festival would not garner this much attention. Had the organizers found some celebrity author to maximize attendance? Was that Ron Howard in hat and sunglasses ducking into the back door of Barnes and Noble?

As authors we, more than anyone, should appreciate irony. Therefore, it seems only fitting that at our festival honoring the written word “a manner of organizing so as to give full expression to contradictory impulses and attitudes” should literally upstage our efforts.

I smiled broadly when I saw the source of this massive interest…An Apple at the Farmer’s market was going to easily outsell all our books. On this day, the buggy next generation iPhone would gross more buzz than the collective works of all the authors being promoted by the Hollywood Book Festival.

We are in a different marketplace my friends. We are competing against all products that will occupy the time and interest of the consumer. I traded t-shirts for email addresses, was awarded the number 1 Display Table (right next to the cashier) and gave away my “Brain on Books” poster. For this, I sold many more books than I ever expected to sell. But more importantly, I finished 2nd or maybe 3rd in stopping traffic behind the fruit of Steve Jobs and the publisher giving away autographed samples of their wares.

All things considered, it was a Delicious expereince.