Marketing Your Best Seller 91 Jack Can昀椀eld called and said, “Mark, we’ve got to go to the book expo.” We had just been on the road for a solid month, with more traveling to come. 吀栀at weekend was my only time o昀昀, so I was not very eager to attend a trade show. My wife did not exactly like the idea either, but Jack was emphatic. He said, “We’ll just go for two hours.” So we went, and I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Authors, speakers, thinkers, artists, poets, pub- licists, cartoonists, movie directors like Steven Spielberg, TV stars like Oprah Winfrey, and even former president Jimmy Carter were there. My soul was deeply wowed. I was ecstatic. 吀栀ese were my people! We were making new contacts, swapping business cards, and taking pic- tures with celebrities like Oprah. Most importantly, we were directly soliciting publishers to take on our book and distribute it. We were hungry for a deal, and expect- ant of 昀椀nding one. 吀栀at year the BEA was in Anaheim, just south of Los Angeles. We had packs full of three- ring binders with the manuscript for Chicken Soup for the Soul. I didn’t know we were going to get rejected all day long, and even if I had known, I’m not sure I would have cared—because when I walked into that convention, I could not believe my eyes. I was expecting a quiet literary event, but was imme- diately hit by a stunning revelation. I realized that a book is much more than just a book. A book is one expression