I’d like to welcome author Lee Doyle, who was gracious enough to file a guest post, to BGB.   Ms. Doyle has just published her first novel, The Love We All Wait For.  The book is described as ” a poignant debut novel that captures the transition we all must make, from the romantic ideas and hopes of youth to the wonderment of discovering who we will become.”  Thanks for visiting, Lee!

Back when I was a PR flack in the high-tech industry I attended (and dreaded) tradeshows where software and hardware vendors hocked their wares. COMDEX in Las Vegas was the biggest of all shows, followed by PC Expo in New York. As the PR manager for PC World Magazine I wandered the tradeshow floor, chatting it up with advertisers (if I was representing the sales team) or vendors (if the vendor knew me via the editorial staff), and pitching our editors as expert sources for other journalists covering the myriad product announcements at the show.

Fast forward to Fall 2008 and my new life as a debut author. (I left the steady PR gig to freelance and write my first novel, The Love We All Wait For, out this month from KOMENAR Publishing.)

The publishing industry, like most industries, has tradeshows. In the past three weeks I’ve signed books and met hundreds of booksellers at two of these shows: Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) in Portland, and Northern California Independent Booksellers (NCIBA) Association in Oakland, CA.

The exhibitors at PNBA and NCIBA are publishers—from the big-name New York houses to indie publishers. Attendees are booksellers, the vast majority independents. Like high-tech tradeshows, bookseller shows are a simple affair of commerce–a place where buyers and sellers gather.  In my case, I’m there with my publisher to sign books and chat it up with booksellers. Schmoozing, yeah, but schmoozing with my tribe, book lovers like me.

I’m blown away by the sheer volume of books available to booksellers, and ultimately readers.  I’ve heard the staggering figures—X million books published annually in the U.S. Every visit to your local bookstore confirms the publishing industry is cranking. (Who’s making money is another topic.)

But at PNBA and NCIA I’m doubly struck by the amount of books being published.  Even more striking is the enormous volume of ideas laid out on display tables.  That indie publishers and booksellers are struggling is not news.  And yet both are critical to democracy, where ideas flow unfettered from writer to reader. Find the right publisher—often a small press–and that idea becomes a book someone (hopefully many someone’s) will read.

There are books about Polynesian tribal tattoos, Gay and Lesbian Erotica (Cleis Press), The New Weird (Tachyon Publications), a genre loosely described as urban science fiction meets horror, Christian romance fiction, fiction by first-time authors (KOMENAR Publishing), children’s fiction like Steinbeck’s Ghost by Lewis Buzbee (Feiwel and Friends), travel books, books about North Korea,  political satire like A Patriot’s Guide to Right-Wing Thinking by Tex Shelters. It’s all there between two covers.

What inspires writers to put their ideas into book form? A desire to share our ideas, to connect with strangers? To be immortal? And what keeps readers hungry for more?  A desire to know the world and ourselves from the shifting point of view of new ideas?  The need to escape or be entertained?

Possibly all of the above. I’m just grateful the ideas keep flowing.

– Lee Doyle