Publishers & their mistakes and late announcements.
First off, publishers announced their schedules later than normal this year which made planning a tad more difficult. Even when announced, some publishers had substantially less giveaways and signings as they have had in years past. That’s not to say there were not a lot of giveaways and signings – there were. It was just less from certain publishers like Tor books. In addition to having less giveaways, they did them differently than they have in years past. How so? Instead of doing ARC drops throughout the day each day, they did “buy a book, get an ARC”. So, if you wanted an ARC they had, you had to purchase a book if you wanted to get one. They also did less book giveaways when it comes to finished copies. Normally when they have an "in booth" signing, they give the first 50 people in line a free copy of the book. This year you had to buy the book – or you could have just brought your books from home to get signed, which is what I did. Therefore, I did not get as many finished copies of books this year. I will say this was specifically in regard to Tor Books. Most other publishers followed the same pattern they had in years past, albeit slightly less giveaways than normal.
When it comes to the cancellations, some of them were not even cancellations, they were mishaps from the publishers. Julia Vee was announced from Tor to be on panels and have signings. That was not at all the case! She had never planned on attending SDCC, so she had to be removed from the schedule. Zoraida Cordova was also announced to be at the Star Wars signing when in fact she had never planned to attend SDCC either. This one the publisher actually never even fixed, and she remained on the signing schedule. Why is this an issue?
Setting aside the fact that it's difficult for attendees like you & I to plan our schedule, it also adds chaos when it comes to the main booksellers for SDCC - Mysterious Galaxy. How? They have to order all the books for SDCC well in advance, so when an author that was announced does not attend SDCC they get stuck with a LOT of extra books. Given, Julie Vee & Zoraida Cordova are in no way at fault but it still creates issues. Those are just the ones that were mis announced. There were even more authors that were planning on attending and had to cancel.
What's up with all the cancellations?
The cancellations started to be announced on Wednesday, day 0 – or preview night – of SDCC. The first one to be announced was Serena Valentino, who had to cancel due to her dog being sick and in the hospital. That immediately meant 10 books I brought would not be signed. Next up was Christopher Paolini, he cancelled late in the day Wednesday due to a family emergency. What’s funny about this one is that each time Tor posted their daily events & signings, they continued to include Christpher Paolini instead of removing him or even putting a cancelled sign next to each event/signing for the day.
Adam Christopher posted his signing on Thursday was cancelled at around 9am Thursday. (Which was a bummer as I had 5 books for him that I carried around all day for essentially no reason) I found out later it was because the signing was also a book giveaway at the Penguin Random House booth for his Star Wars novel - Shadows of the Sith and unfortunately the books did not arrive to SDCC in time. So that specific signing was postponed to Sunday. Friday morning, he posted his schedule, which included a panel but no signing. Which was contrary to the SDCC schedule. Unfortunately, he had to cancel that signing - the other authors on the panel still attended the signing. (Another day I carried his books around) Thankfully I was able to get his books signed on Sunday at the rescheduled signing. That said, after I left his signing, I realized I only got 3 of the 5 books signed that I had brought for him. So, after multiple days of lugging them all around I ended up forgetting to get them all signed!
These are just some of the author's that cancelled - though I think these were the main ones. I know for sure of 4 others, but it's likely there were even more than that! But that's enough of the mistakes and cancellations. Let's talk about all the amazing things that happened at SDCC!
Stay tuned for the post about all the ARCs I received at SDCC as well as a post about the different Offsites I went to, because I have some THOUGHTS. Ill have them posted over the next couple weeks.
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