ok, this is the history of "Steveing"
While at Worldcon, I discovered that by pitching myself to Authors, Editors, and Agents as a "Bookstore Guy" I got very good responses. It seemed to put them at ease knowing that I was not going to ask them to read my stuff. I had several long conversations with people about the book industry, and my views on what is selling.
My co-conspirators saw the reactions to this angle I was playing and decided to use it to thier advantage.
Whenever anyone wanted to make a good impression on someone important, they tried to bring me along. I must note here that the people I was with did not need me to make good impressions. They are all studs. Fell's work is great (reading it right now) as is Bob's and Isaac's and Bryce's. Anyways, back to the matter at hand...
What a person would do is go introduce themselves to someone cool. After talking for a bit, they would say, "Also, let me introduce you to Steve. He helps manage the #1 Waldenbooks in the country."
The benfits?:
1. The person doing the introduction gets good face time with the cool person (ie. an agent, editor, etc...)
2. By introducing a non-threatening person (me) to the cool editor, the situation became more comfortable.
3. Once the editor/agent/whatever found out who I was (Bookstore Guy), the person (say Fell for example) gained brownie points for introducing someone with my fantastic skills (im very humble).
4. It was great for me as well because I got face time important people as well and made dozens of contacts.
BRILLIANT!!!!
any questions on the art of "Steveing?"
