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Sunday, November 15, 2009

Making lemonade

So my first ever book signing was on Saturday. I was looking forward to this for a while. The good, no GREAT, folks at the Mystery Bookstore hosted me and I thank them deeply for inviting a newbie in to their hallowed stacks of books where I have seen so many giants of crime fiction read and sign.
Small hitch...we had no books. There was a shipping snafu. Hard to get angry at Veterans Day but that one day of no mail deliveries apparently screwed us. So there I was with no books to sign and no books to sell. What to do? Solider on and do the event anyway!
I read a section from my proof copy and people placed orders for books which I will then sign when books come in on Monday, only one shipping day late.
Was I disappointed? Sure. These things happen. No sense looking back. Aside from being a little embarrassed it all went fine. People were very kind and very forgiving.
Now to make lemons into lemonade! When the books come in and I get the chance to sign them I will take as many as I can for those who are local and hand deliver the signed copies. You just don't get that kind of attention from the big time authors. If that's what it takes I am happy to do it. How cool would it be to deliver every single copy of the book myself and say thanks for giving it a try? I'd love it.

I hope to capture a little bit of video of the deliveries and maybe post it on here soon.
In the meantime here are a few shots from the event which was still a dream come true and hopefully only the first of many.
It is not too late to order an autographed copy from the Mystery Bookstore . If you place an order with them and specify you'd like it signed I will go by and sign it up for you any time, not just this week. Any time at all. I live close and any chance to go  in there and browse around I will take. I can't ever leave empty handed.

Bobby, Mystery Bookstore manager,  introduces me.


What to read? I went back and forth but picked a section that people seemed to like.


More people even showed up later. Marie baked cookies!


Reading my own book. Weird.


A lively Q&A followed.

2 comments:

Angel Zapata said...

Great idea with the hand-deliveries. Definitely doesn't get more personal than that.

Hmm...now if I could only get Pamela Anderson to drop by with her novel...

Sheila Deeth said...

Hand deliveries sound wonderful. And what a nice way to make lemonade!