Every year at the Catholic Marketing Network Trade Show, the Catholic Writers Guild organizes a booth which displays members’ books. Wholesalers, bookstore owners and other attendees can see, page through and even read excerpts of displayed books.

It’s time again to gather books for the booth. You don’t need to attend the conference or trade show to have your book displayed. As you can see from the photo, it’s an extensive booth (usually taking up three to four booth spaces).

This year’s trade show is August 28-31, 2012. To take advantage of this great marketing opportunity, your book must be pre-approved!

We are representing the Guild and its mission, so books must be approved to ensure they conform to Catholic principles. The books do not need to be exclusively Catholic, but they do need to be free of any philosophies or elements that are contrary to Catholic beliefs. We also look for a minimum standard of quality of writing. Because we have so many members and because we anticipate a high number of requests, we have a few rules. Please read them carefully, as we will not be making exceptions:

1. If your book has been approved for the booth in 2010 or 2011, it is still approved for this year. (We probably still have the copy you sent us, plus any ordering information.)
2. If your book has been rejected in the past, it will not be considered again unless there have been significant rewrites.
3. If your book has the Seal of Approval or an Imprimatur, it is automatically approved for the booth.
4. If your book has not been approved, you can either submit it to the SOA committee (link above) or submit it for screening by July 1, 2011.
5. Books scheduled to be published after July 1st can be submitted digitally before this date (if approved, a hard copy must be made available for display).

If you are able to attend the conference, there are additional opportunities to take part in author signings and readings at the booth.

For more information, please contact me – (Ellen Hrkach, VP and Booth Coordinator) at ellengablehrkach(at)gmail.com.

Ellen Gable Hrkach is an award-winning, Amazon bestselling author. Her five books have been downloaded over 620,000 times on Kindle. Currently, she works as the Marketing Director for Live the Fast, a non-profit Roman Catholic apostolate based in Boston. She does freelance writing and editing for a variety of other websites, she blogs at "Plot Line & Sinker" http://ellengable.wordpress.com and is also self-publishing book consultant and a publisher. She and her husband are the parents of five sons ages 16 to 28 and live in Pakenham, Ontario. In her spare time, Ellen enjoys playing board games with her family, watching classic movies on TCM and reading on her Kindle.