Lindi here!
In February of last year I posted about a reader’s luncheon that I co-hosted along with my author friend Ciara Knight. It was our first venture into anything like that. We had a good time and received a lot of great feedback, so we decided to do it again. So on February 13th, the 2nd Annual Love Our Readers’ Luncheon happened.
We used pink and white as our theme this year. Here is one of the tables. They were absolutely gorgeous! We have a very cool theme for next year! Can’t reveal yet, but it will be just as beautiful, I’m sure. My best friend from high school, Joanne, has a design business, SandyJo Designs. She makes all these beautiful table arrangements–and we raffle them off to the guests. So six lucky gals got to go home with a beautiful centerpiece. (And yes, we use real china!)
SandyJo Designs also made our mason jars super pretty!
These are the beautiful authors that hosted tables this year. (I’m a co-host, so please don’t think I’m saying I’m beautiful! :))
From left to right: Nicki Salcedo, Susan Carlisle, Sally Kilpatrick, Co-host, Ciara Knight, Co-host, Lindi Peterson, Brandy Heineman, Jana Oliver and our Keynote Speaker, NYT Bestselling author Haywood Smith. Last year we had 5 authors. We had such great feedback that we decided to add another author this year. We still sold out! Each author hosted 7 people at their table.
We had an amazing time. While this is not a “Christian” event, there are hearts that love Jesus in the house and He showed up in a mighty way. We received beautiful emails from several ladies, and we know hearts and lives were touched.
We started out with a welcome, then Ciara and I did our version of Rindercella. If you’ve never seen it done, it’s a retelling of Cinderella that goes something like this: There once was a geautiful birl who met a prandsome hince. And she had a gairy fodmother. I think you see how it goes. We had great fun with that.
As we did last year, the authors were able to say a few things about themselves then read a short excerpt from one of their books. That always goes well. Then we had a delicious lunch from a local tea house, Tea Leaves and Thyme. Everyone raves about this food and they are kind enough to do the event at a rate we can afford. :) The ladies were able to browse the books for sale as they waited in line for the buffet.
Next up our Keynote speaker, Haywood Smith, brought down the house with her amazing talk. She talked honestly about her life, the good times, the bad times, how God showed up in her life, how she became the person she is today. SandyJo Designs presented her this beautiful arrangement to go in her home as a thank you from Ciara and me.
After the luncheon, we have about 30 minutes where people can buy books and have them signed by the authors. Also, the authors can once again chat with the attendees. (All this fun while Mr. Knight and Mr. Peterson are cleaning all the china and packing everything away! Our husbands are amazing and we couldn’t do this without them!)
Here is a picture of my daughter. Ladies gathering before we started. Me and Katy who won my giveaway.
I’m here to confess, Ciara is the brains behind this. We work well together and have had such fun putting it all together. She stresses until we are sold out–I stress the second we get sold out-see why we mesh so well?
Our vision was to connect local authors with local readers and to highlight local indie businesses. Of course the event space, The Historic Rose Cottage, is indie. Our bookseller, FoxTale Book Shoppe and caterer, Tea Leaves and Thyme, are indies. We received donations and discounted items from an indie coffee shop, The Daily Grind, and donut house, Paradise Donuts. SandyJo donates so many items I can’t even tell you. Enchanted Ambitions jewelry and Angelic Whimsey gave us heavily discounted items for giveaways. We do not make money doing this, we simply want to connect community. It’s just amazing we get to have such fun doing that.
Both years we have sent out surveys to see what people liked and what could be improved on. Taking those comments in we are planning our event for next year. We may add one more author in the future, but six was a great number and we want to keep the intimacy of the event. 48 attendees is a nice group. I don’t see us growing to 100 attendees ever, but who knows what God as in store!
I know I asked this last year, but we’ve got new folks always reading the blog. Have you attended a reader’s luncheon ? If so, we would love to hear about it. Also, what would you like to see happen at a luncheon if you were to go to one? I’d love suggestions!
USA Today featured author Lindi Peterson lives in north Georgia, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, with her husband and a lively array of cats, dogs and birds. She loves sharing life with her family and friends. Her passion for reading led her to writing, and then God spoke words of love into her heart and changed her life forever.
I remember seeing a couple of photos of this event on Facebook, Lindi. What a treat to read more about it. I think it’s a fantastic idea and a win-win for both the author and especially the reader. Thanks for sharing!
I’ve never been to a luncheon before, but from the sound of things it would be a lot of fun!
I love all the decorations you did!
Great idea, Lindi! I like how you described it in detail… someday, I might put together something similar and your description will help.
I’ve never been to a reader’s luncheon, but it sounds like a lot of fun. I like the way people work together to be able to do events like that. We’re currently planning my daughter’s wedding and God keeps providing what we need!
Looks like fun! I haven’t been to a luncheon, but when did consider attending this one. I decided it was a little too far away, but I’ll keep my eyes open for next year, because honestly I think it would be worth the drive.
I’ve never been to one but I don’t think there’s anything like that around here. If you know of any in Portland Oregon then I’d LOVE to go.
It looks like you had a great time!
I have never attended a reader’s luncheon, but, would love to attend one. How wonderful to be able to meet the authors and visit with them.
Oh, wow, that sounds like a fun event! I’d love to attend something like that, on either side of the table.
Jill—It was so much fun!!
Thank you! Joanne has an amazing eye for colors and details. That’s why it’s so great we all work together well.
Lee–I hope you do. Please feel free to contact me when that happens. :) It’s always great to learn from each other. I’m always open to other’s ideas as well.
dlw—Oh, how fun—a wedding!!! And Yay for God. He always comes through.
Katy–we would love to see you! And yes, we will be advertising! the website is loveourreaders.blogspot.com–we’ll have more pics up soon from this year.
Marilyn—I’ll keep my eyes and ears open. I think they happen more than we think they do–we just have to be looking for them. I have participated in a couple–one in Alabama and one other in Georgia. Far from Portland, I know. :) But we’ll be looking….
Melissa–yes—it was a blessing for sure. And everyone is so NICE. That’s what I love about readers….they are amazing!
Val—both sides are fun. :) I love attending author events as well as hostessing.
That sounds like such a great event – for everyone! Now you’ve got my brain turning :)
Lindi, thanks for sharing about this. I’ve heard of these but never had the opportunity to attend one. How did this get started? It seems like a daunting amount of work, at least for this stage of my life.
What a fun event. Looks like everyone is very happy to be there and loving the exchange.
Elizabeth—Yes! I love it that your brain is turning. Truly a fun event.
Hi Sally! Both Ciara and I have attended reader’s luncheons as authors. They were so much fun, we decided to do one ourselves. But yes, it is a bit daunting at first. Ciara put all the numbers together and we decided on a ticket price where we would break even–(we still come some out of pocket though. :)) We knew we wanted a small event. Both she and I have been at events where our tables only had 1 or 2 readers and we wanted each table to be full. So we kept it small. It’s worked out really well and we feel the size is great for an intimate event. Bigger events are fun, too, but we didn’t want to go that route. We secured a venue–which is a big deal because of the price–we really got a great deal. People are willing to work with you when it comes to uniting community. Then through the bookstore we found the caterer. Those are the big items. Ciara and I split the rest of the duties—and it seems to work. I would love to chat with you if you ever decide to do one.
Sharon-thanks!! Ciara’s husband took all the pictures. Our guys are the bomb and help so much!
Thanks!
Thanks for that info! At this stage of life, I know I can’t do it, but I’ll stick it in the back of mind for when my kids are older. (And hope I remember!)
You make the event what it is, so don’t give me too much credit! :)
I look forward to this event each year, mostly because I am blessed to work with you.
Ciara Knight! !! You rock! You know I love you and we do make a great team:)
I’ve never been to a reader luncheon, but it sounds like a lot of fun! I think just getting a chance to meet authors whose writing I enjoy and getting to pick their brains a little would be such a neat thing!