Nancy Young wrote:

> I forgot to say, I don't know if they make money for their
> appearances. It might be in the contract they signed when the
> publishing house agreed to print their book that they must do
> publicity and signings.
>
> Has nothing to do with how they treat their fans, of course. It's
> a book signing, sit there, sign books, all the time smiling and
> pretending you're nice. It's not like Margaret cornered him in the
> men's room.
>
> (laugh) There's a thought, Margaret chasing celebrities into the
> rest rooms.
>
> nancy

I recently organized a conference with a nationally known speaker/author
and was shocked to find out that even after 30 years of doing public
speaking she still had stage fright! She was rude, obnoxious,
threatening to go home if anything was out of place,,,,her head was
spinning right up until she took to the stage and turned her performance
"on" and started speaking. No one would have imagined this humorous
dynamo of a speaker was feeling so nervous! I asked her if she'd tried a
beta blocker to help quell the stage fright response and she already
took one. LOL When I drove her back to her hotel the first thing she
said to me was "Do you hate me??" which was probably about as much
apology for her earlier behavior as she could muster?

So perhaps some of these authors aren't as comfortable doing the "off
the cuff" chatting and glad handing as they are assumed to be?