The Free Book Giveaway Debacle

I've no idea how long the free book giveaway lasted, but it couldn't have been for much more than an hour after opening on Friday.

There should have been a strict limit on the number of books that could be taken: use a coupon system and exchange one coupon for a book, up to five books at the most. We met a lot of people who came later on Friday and the next few days who were disappointed they didn't last very long

 

I got in line when there were lots of books left.
By the time I got to the table, all I got were a couple of invoices and a post-it note.

Score!!!

 

Well I am sure I am going to get blasted for this post, but here goes.

When I first heard about the book give away I knew there was no way it would last 3 days even if they alotted a certain number of books to be put out each day of the con. Lets face it when was the last time you heard the words "free" and "star wars" in the same sentance.

After the long wait to get in friday I made a bee line back to the give away. there was about a 45 minute wait and the line only grew longer. The bags that they were giving you were huge, from what I could see on the table the stacks were growing shorter and shorter. By the time I got to the front of the line the guy said "please limit yourself to half a dozen or so". I had no problem trying to adhere to that, I did take issue with the guy who was running through just grabbing one of each and stretching the plastic bag to its limits, it would have been so cool to see that rip open. Anyway I was looking for specific languages and, for me, more interested in some of the cover art I had never seen before.

By the time I was exiting the guy was telling the people coming in to "limit yourself to 3 books" and no one was checking people on the way out. I felt really bad for the people standing in line, there was no way most of them were going to get anything, there really wasnt much left when I was going through the line.

These could have been handed out randomly, one each to people who wanted one, or some other way. It was a real nice gesture, then again I am sure Lucas was just cleaning house, but as usual some people just take advantage.

 

First of all, the word "free" and the words, "fill a bag" are enough to cause a frenzy with SW fans. I can't believe they thought 10,000 books would last very long at that rate. I took one look at the line and said no way!

 

I don't think LFL could have cared less how quickly the books disappeared, just as long as they did.

 

Yeah I went there Friday morning after going the the official store. I got some free books, but the problem was that the bags were huge and the first 100 people filled their entire bag. When I made it to the front of the line, the guy in charge said to take only a few. I got the Thrawn trilogy in German and 5 of the NJO books in Japanese because I like the artwork on them better.

They should have limited the number of books from the very beginning and made people show how many they took.

 

Wow, this is my first post!

All I wanted was one lousy book! I wanted to find "A New Hope" in German to give to my uncle. He is a german teacher and he was the one that took me to see Star Wars for the first time when I was in 3rd grade! I even remember, I was wearing a brown t-shirt that day with C-3P0 & R2D2 on it!

Oh well, I guess I can't win them all. At least I got the exclusive figure!

 

Wait....

You guys are mad you didn't get a few paperback books in a foreign language?



...I must have missed something...

 

I missed the opening ceremonies waiting in that line (I guess that's not saying much since my friends that were waiting to get into opening ceremonies didn't get in either). There wasn't much, but I managed to grab a scant number of french, spanish and hebrew books - also an insider or two.

 

MarkZ,

I took a couple German comics for my mom (she's a fan and a German speaker). I could give one to you if you like. PM me, and I'll send it to you.

I hope if anyone else spreads their wealth, you remember no selling on these boards or advertising for eBay links or whatnot.

 

I too was very disappointed about this one. I hadn't planned on going hog crazy and grabbing tons of books to keep to myself, but I would've liked to have seen the book give away and been able to pick out a book or two for myself. I never even saw them though. If not for a *very* cool guy I know from these boards (and he knows who he is ), I wouldn't have gotten even one. Because of him, I did get a nice French SW book.

~*~Bria

 

Hey MarkZ, I can't help you out with "A New Hope", everything at the give away was from like '95 and later, BUT, I did get a German copy of the Terry Brooks Novel for "Episode I, Die Dunkle Bedrohung" its a paperback with the Drew Struzan movie poster on the cover and a yellow sticker on the cover that says "Das Buch Zum Film".

If you want it to give to your uncle its yours. Just let me know!

 

I wandered by the free book area at around 2 on Friday, and by then, there were only a handfull of books left, and the line was still pretty long, so I didn't even bother trying to get any.

 

As stated above, the idea that this could be sustained for very long with 10,000 books was pretty short-sighted. The good news- Before the event I'd wondered how I'd carry a bagful of books all day if that was to be my first stop. Heh, the empty tables solved that.

 

With the books, you could take as many as you could fit in your bag. The only stipulation I heard as I went through was to not take more than 6 of any one book. I ended up with 60 different books that I will never read because they are in different languages. By the way, I went through the line at 12:30 Friday and most of the books were gone by then. The only english book I saw was a copy of the Insider with Maul on the cover.

 

I looked on Ebay last night and found someone selling Jorg Sacul along with several foreign language books they picked up at the book give away. It didn't surprise me to see them up, but it did make me mad.

~*~Bria

 

I wouldn't go so far as to label the International Book Give-Away a debacle, but it wasn't very clear as to how to get to Hall F. My husband (whose mission it was to line up at the Give-Away first thing on Friday morning) went to the hallway door marked Hall F, but he was informed that he had to go around and enter through Exhibit Hall D. (They did finally put up a sign telling people of that fact.) Having the program state "come fill your shopping bag" was a big mistake. I know that the official site said it would be while supplies lasted, but it also indicated that you could fill up the bag! They needed to use the smaller blue Wizards of the Coast shopping bags instead of the mammoth, noisy white bags! It would have limited everyone to a more reasonable number of books. We have six grown children and nine grandchildren, and we wanted to get one book for each of them (especially the Japanese books). We were able to get fifteen total books.

 

It truly was a debacle. I never got in to see the madness but I met someone in line who was bragging about swiping as many as he could stuff into his fat bag. He even went on to say how he literally took a book out of some kid's hands! The guy even told his goofy friends/family that he kept stuffing the bag even after being asked to limit his haul to six books or less.

I asked him if he was proud of himself that he dashed the hopes of hundreds of other conventioneers because of his gluttony. He responded that the materials stated that he could cram as much as he could into the bag and that he shouldn't feel badly about it. But what about the six book limit that was asked of you, I asked. Same answer. He then went on to say that I should quit trying to make him feel bad, that it wasn't going to happen and that if I was truly upset to lodge a complaint with the WOTC people.

I told him that I'd like to lodge something else up his...lousy attitude. It's amazing to me that this sort of person is even allowed to exist. I don't know what I was expecting; maybe one random book handed to each person as they went through the doors? It just pisses me off to no end that certain people continue to plague these sort of events. Bah.

At least I got to see the shows I went to see. But it would have been nice to pick up a Japanese/German/French book to keep on the shelf.
MG

 

I was in line to get autograph tickets at about 10:45 Friday when I was told by the guy behind me, who had just come from the book give-away, that they were nearly all cleared out. I did, however, get three free books from the nice folks at Del Rey. Vector Prime, Star Wars: Galactic Phrase Book & Travel Guide and another R.A. Salvatore book whose title I can't remember right now.

 

You will all be happy to know I took two issues of the Insider and didn't take any other books as I went through the line.

 

I cant see anyone really making a fortune selling these books on ebay? They were more of a novelty if anything. They were mostly Galaxy of Fear or Young Jedi Knights titles. I was more just looking for books from different countries and for ones that had different art work that was, well sometimes pretty bad looking. I did pick up a copy of the Insider, a bonus for me, it was the Tusken Raider coverof the issue subscribers got with a TIE Pilot on the cover. Did anyone else notice this?

I knew the "stuff your bag" comment on the initial announcement was going to come back to bite them in the arse. As for that moron who took that to mean it was his right, well he has some bad karma heading his way. "He was seduced by the power of the Free Books"

Thats what I forgot, a comment on something else said above, werent the people at the del rey booth incredibly nice? and I didnt even get any free books from them. Also did anyone catch Salvatore and Luceno at the Hyatt bar friday night? Two incredibly down to earth people, just great guys! sorry for getting off topic!

 

Oh yeah, the people at Del Rey were great, and some of the ladies were also great looking as well . They managed a bad situation very well when they had their signings on the con floor. They could have taught the "red shirts" a thing or two about line management.

 

Hmmmmmm....now would not be the time to mention that I got the pick of the litter on Thursday.


Oh, did I say that outloud? D'OH!

Finding the only 5 Japanese Star Wars Encyclopedias by Steve Sansweet in the 15 skids of books was a rather unique score on my part...getting to hand out 4 of them to my friends was cooler though.

 

This was one of those things I wanted to do (I was looking for the old Star Wars Adventure Journals) but never had the chance. I was too busy doing everything else! And eventually, I realized they were GONE after Friday, so I just moved on.

BTW, I did pick up some SWAJ on ebay a bit ago so no real tears!

 

*Sighs @ Sebulba*

Did the associates in all the other areas get cool perks too? I keep running into people who did, at which point I sigh mildly annoyed.

(As great as it was working with the kids and everyone, I don't think I'll do it for C3. I wasn't really able to DO anything.)

My complaining aside, does anyone know where to get star wars books in Spanish? Thanks.

~Caleigh