Author There…
Open Wounds gift Package
Open Wounds Gift Mugs
I went to two Barnes and Nobles in Denver – back in the trenches. The two managers were really nice people but one had no idea I was coming and the other thought I was coming the following week. I had contacts at each so I knew they had been called. But I guess they either get a lot of calls like this or they don’t take them seriously, or the writers usually don’t show up so they don’t take them seriously.
Jana, at the Glendale store, was especially nice, did remember my name (yeah!) but thought I was coming next week. She found an empty table and let me give her my spiel. She sounded interested and promised to read the book – I gave her one of my precious few ARCs – and she said she’d pass it on to other staff at the store. She told me she would put it with the rest of the ARCs they have.
I smiled at that and pictured a cavernous room filled with overflowing ARCs, signed by the authors, gathering dust.
“The process,” Jana told me, “Is I can send a note to the buyer and say I liked the book, in the hopes of getting it into the store, but that’s it..” I told her that would be wonderful. Every voice in the wilderness of book-land shouting out my name is a good thing. Thanks, Jana. Five minutes in Glendale and I’m out the door. I’m realizing at this point that I should have tried to go to more stores. I’d somehow thought I’d be at each store at least 20 minutes. What was I thinking? Well, if I’d really been thinking I’d have known it would be me pitching and them nodding and then moving on. No one had read my book yet. What else could they do?
At the Down Town store I met Manny, who spoke to me for ten minutes – ten minutes. He seemed genuinely interested. When I gave him the gift he smiled and said, “Chuck Palahniuk (of Fight Club fame) brought us handmade jewelry as a gift. It was really cool so thanks for bringing this.”
“I brought a mug,” I said. “It has a quote from the book on it.”
“Yes,” he said. “I see.”
A book-seller at the checkout desk, Miguel, motioned me to come over. He asked me about the book. He was curious. I gave him a mini-pitch. He wrote down my name and website address and said, “Thanks! It looks good.”
So the evening ended on a high note.
joemmama
This was great.
I had Lunch yesterday with Pam Felzien, her daughter Jennifer, and her granddaughter Victoria – three generations of Felzien women – all writers – and it was definitely the highlight of my trip. Pam is also reviewing my book later in May at Life Happens While Books are Waiting her blog on books. All three are voracious readers and I love Pam’s handle at her site: joemmama.
We ate at the Landsdowne Pub across from the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Highlands Ranch, Colorado where a spit ball flew onto Jennifer’s plate from the booth next to us just as our lunches arrived. Fortunately it was dry and simply an overshot from a woman who was aiming at her boyfriend – but it gave us all a good laugh to start off our meal with.
All three read my book as a PDF (never an easy thing to do from my perspective) – Victoria finishing it at 2am that morning. They met me at 12 so I hope she got some sleep. Since Victoria is a young adult and the perfect age for my book I was especially happy to hear that she’d enjoyed it.
All three were a delight to meet and speak with. It was so nice to be in the company of three book lovers who also happened to be writers. Talking about books – including Open Wounds – movies, what each was writing, and how we came to be sitting there at that table at this particular point in our lives seemed somehow full of karmic goodness. After the uncomfortable work of selling my book to booksellers (though it definitely got easier as I went along) who knew nothing about me and who took me in as a cold call salesman (even if they were gracious about it)- it was great to relax and enjoy Denver in the company of folks who had at least some idea of who I was. The real fun for me was finding out about them and commiserating on the trials and tribulations of writing.
The kicker was as I was about to leave I took out a pen to take down their address so I could send them a real copy of the book when it comes out next month and Pam took out a pen also. We were two writing gunslingers drawn pens in hand.
“Nice pen,” she said and I noticed what she had already noticed. We both held out a Levenger True Writer – mine the Sea Glass and hers the Kyoto. If you’ve never used one of their pens you’re missing something. They are awesome writing utensils made for the writer who, when looking for something to write with, needs… just the right pen. They’re worth every penny and it was a perfect way to end the lunch.
It felt like I’d just finished lunch with a few friends and the warmth of their company was wonderful. Thank you, ladies, for making my afternoon in Denver just perfect.
Author Here…
So I thought I was a somebody but after my first bookstore visit, sans review copy to give but loaded with a gift of two coffee mugs with quotes from the book printed on the outside… and filled with candy and… press kits… I’m back to being a nobody. It’s good for me. I wouldn’t want to get too big an ego over this writing thing.
At the LoDo Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver, Colorado, I met Lucas, a bookseller who took me to a back area and let me talk to him about my book for ten minutes. You’d think a professional speaker such as myself would be able to chat up his book without any difficulty but here’s the thing. It’s hard to do. Lucas was a good sport and listened to me stumble through a one sentence synopsis (God how I hate those) followed by some short Q and A about who Cid Wymann was and how it should be sold. He asked about – gulp – theme and I came up with something which I won’t repeat. Didn’t I just write about theme in my author interview for the press kit and at least one interview for a blogger? If I could only link my tongue and brain together.
A couple of things I said, though, did seem to be useful to him – things which I will remember to repeat as I go to the Barnes and Noble down the block for my next ten minute humbling session.
- I told him it was both a historical novel and that it was realistic fiction. I told him there was no magic, were no vampires, and dealt with real issues boys have to deal with. He liked that and took it down as a note.
- I told him it was a boy book and showed him the old cover and new cover. The cover grabbed his attention because it was not a picture of a girl. “Swords,” he said. Now his eyes could have lit up or it could have been my imagination. He said the whole YA section is filled with girl books for girls and knowing this was a boy book would help him to sell it differently – to make it stand out from the shelves of books for girls already out there. This was a good moment for me. I’m defining my market. Whew. I have a market.
- I told him there was a lot about swords and swordplay but that it was not a fantasy novel and had to do with both competitive fencing and stage combat for the theatre. That got a note too.
I swung through the bookstore’s YA section after we finished to see what was there and yes, indeed, there are a lot of books for girls and young women. Not just them, but that certainly is the impression from the face-outs. Interesting. Very similar, of course, to what Andrew Smith has been saying on his blog. But there’s nothing like first hand experience.
So I’d planned on 20 minutes of talking to staff and got 10. Now I’ve got two hours to go before my next appointment, a twenty-minute walk to get to the bookstore, and a beautiful evening to sit outside and write before I move on. My stomachs a little less upset now that the first one’s over with. Butterflies were floating around there before but now they seem to have settled.
Thank you, Lucas at Tattered Cover LoDo. You helped me get through my first promotional gig with only minor injury to my ego. It’s an absolutely beautiful bookstore, by the way. The kind of place I could hang out in to drink coffee, read books, or write. And from what I could tell of the customers, that’s what a lot of them are doing. Now it’s off to the dinner and the next stop.
Trip to Denver April 11 & 12
I’ll be at the Tattered Cover Bookstores (all three in Denver) on Monday evening the 11th and Tuesday morning/afternoon of the 12th. i’ll also be hitting a couple of Barnes and Nobles. I’ll be stopping by to talk to sales staff and bring some gifts! It’ll be my first visit to speak to booksellers about Open Wounds and I’m looking forward to it. In a previous secret life I worked a second job as a bookseller in a Walden Books for a few months before and up to Christmas. Thinking about it still brings a smile to my face. I loved talking to people about books.
Lunievicz 