Book Signing Success

Samson, my photo-happy buddy on the Pittsburgh trip, shared the photos he had taken last week, including the ones of his meals. You can see several of them (sans the food pictures) on my flickr thingy by clicking here.

Samson took some great pictures of the book signing I did at Barnes & Noble, and speaking of which, I have to say I am completely impressed with the B&N folks. About a month before the event, when I’d contacted a few stores, the downtown location booked me in, but another location, in a Pittsburgh burb was already booked up but did offer to order in copies of my book if I was willing to swing by and sign copies.

Thank God for that, because on the day before my signing, I got a call from Leeann, the Promotions Manager at B&N downtown. My book hadn’t arrived, despite the fact that Ingram was showing over 100 copies in stock, and when she called the B&N distribution centre, they told her the stock wouldn’t arrive before the signing. I remembered the Squirrel Hill store had stock, so told Leeann. They were willing to transfer the stock over, and that night after work, Leeann went to pick up that stock. Excellent save.

The signing went well (which means I actually sold some copies of the book), a lot of my friends in the WPC Scripting class showed up to show their support as well, which was really cool. And the B&N staff read from a series of three different announcements I had prepared for the event every fifteen minutes. Apart from the overwhelmingly efficient, courteous, organized, supportive and friendly staff at the Sudbury Chapters, this B&N hosted the best bookstore event I’ve participated in as an author.

And I can say, without a lie, that it was the very best and most successful signing I’ve ever done in the U.S. (yeah, okay, it’s the only one I’ve done south of the 49th parallel -- but I did make a promise to the wonderful B&N folks at the Monroeville Mall, 20 minutes outside of Pittsburgh, that the next time I’m in town I’ll be sure to arrange something with their store. It is, after all, only a 6 hour drive from my steeltown to that steeltown.