On The Promo Wagon

Last Saturday I participated in an "eBook event" at one of the Barnes and Noble bookstores in town. A very ambitious author who happens to write for the same publisher as I do set it up with the manager there. I was a little apprehensive. The last time I did a book signing, I was disappointed. But then I had only one novella to sell, which I had burned onto some CDs. And I was in a room full of people who had print books, which were sold in the hallway by a local bookseller. People came into the room having already purchased their books and went to the authors to have them signed.

This time, I was inside the bookstore, and the people around me also had ebooks. Only two people had print books with them. I met some really interesting people, including my fellow authors. Five authors with my publishing house participated, and we're in the blurry picture above. It was great to connect with them. We had lunch together first, and then walked over to the store, which had us set up in the mystery section. I set out my bookmarks and my origami birds (I didn't have candy or other trinkets, so I thought those would be something nice to give away), and waited.

My family showed up, which was wonderful. I gave away several bookmarks and even signed a few. But it really wasn't all that busy. It would have been nice to have more visibility in the store. There were two announcements made during the two hours we were there, and one sign, which was brought upstairs, so unless people knew we were there or happened to be shopping for a mystery, they wouldn't have seen us. I guess I could have been more aggressive about approaching people who were browsing there.

I have absolutely no idea if there were any sales generated that day. I guess we'll find out sometime soon.  But all in all, it was a good experience, and one I'd like to try again.  There was talk of setting one up during Black Friday weekend. That will be nice, because I'll have a new release then. If I get my mind in gear, I might even have two.