Monday, November 9, 2009

The Baby's Launched


Yesterday was my first book signing. Sitting at the Webster Groves Historical Society table surrounded by the sounds of Christmas and the sun beaming through the greenhouse roof, it was definitely a unique launch. I had set up the table and chairs on Saturday afternoon, and then needed to be at my table by 9:30 Sunday morning. At first it was rather slow, to be expected as most people were at church. Jim hung out with me, which was really nice, and my sister and a few of our friends arrived early. My first sales - yay! Fredbird was in the house from noon until 2:00 as a batting cage was set up to raise money for Backstoppers. There was a really nice crowd the whole time he was present, and he was very agreeable to photographs. Too bad I can't caption mine "Fredbird says 'Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed(room)?' is a winner!"

Other friends came throughout the day, and Bobbi noticed black horizontal lines going across one of the pages in a book. OMG! I hurriedly looked at the others and did not see any with a problem, thank goodness. At least not then - more on that later. By the end of the day I had sold 10 books, which I thought was pretty good for the venue. But more important was getting the word out on the book. A special collections librarian for the St. Louis Public Library (the city system) stopped by, took my card and said they will want to carry my book in the city libraries. And the Vice President of the historical society took my book to a meeting she had that afternoon with other local societies. She showed the book, and let them know I am available to give presentations on house research. One of the societies wants to order 10 books!

So at the end of the day (4:30 to be exact), I felt that my time was well spent and I made some great contacts. Bring on the December boutiques!

This morning I began looking through the books, searching for any other flaws. So far I am up to 15 books that have the striping issue. And I probably have over 50 books left to review, not to mention going to the bookstores to check their inventory. Guess who is not getting my re-order?

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