I come bearing good news! I'm back! Or, at least my blog is back. I never actually left, but I did get a little remiss about posting here. (Okay, I got a lot remiss about posting here...it's been almost five months...)
I could make a lot of excuses, but let's just say sh*t happened (medical, personal, professional, you name it), and we'll consider this my second and final starting over point.
So, I'll skip the boring, repetitive parts (which pretty much describes July, August, and September), and get right to the fun and exciting stuff.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Reapers has been released out into the world! That's right! On October 1st, I became a published author. And here we are a month or so later, and it still feels surreal to say that.
The even more surreal part was that I had three books signings (my official book launch at Birch Tree Bookstore (Photo 1) and two other book signings (The Reading Attic (Photo 2 & The Crazy Book Lady (Photo 3)), and readers actually showed up to buy my book and get it signed...by ME!
I even did an in-person reading of the first few pages of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Reapers at the Book Launch (October 5th) and didn't even faint. This is a HUGE deal if you knew how big of an introvert I am. Public speaking is SO not my thing.
Two weeks later (October 19th), I did another book signing event at The Reading Attic on the Square in Marietta.
This one was a bit more of an adventure since I didn't know there was a festival going on around the square and parking was at a premium. We ( me and the friend who came with me) ended up in a parking deck blocks away from the bookstore. There also may or may not have been a little incident where I accidentally ran a red light on the way to said parking deck, but thankfully no one was coming across the intersection at the time I flew through it. I highly suspect my friend may not ride with me again any time soon, though. Ha ha. Needless to say, I was a bit frazzled by the time we finally got to the bookstore and got set up where I could sign the books.
Book signing number three at The Crazy Book Lady, which was last Saturday. It was the final event in my mini-book tour. This was another learning experience since through a comedy off errors, I didn't arrive until right at 12:00 (the book signing was from 12:00 to 4:00), and my friend got lost and went to another bookstore.
This was also the first time I was paired with another author, a poet, who was at an adjoining table next to mine. I had hoped to talk to him about writing poetry, but never got the chance.
Meanwhile, as you can see from my photos, my book display was ever evolving, and by the third book signing, I have to say I think I nailed it! I also learned some things about setting up for these events and book signings in general that I'll share in a future post.
One tip I will give right now to bookstore patrons, though, is...if you're asked by an author to sign up for door prizes...DO IT!!!
It was surprising how many people ignored us when we told them we were giving stuff away, or they just didn't want to fill out a piece of paper even after being reassured there was no purchase necessary. Since this was my debut book, I wanted to make a big deal out of it, and I had some awesome giveaways, including candles, coffee mugs, and even gift cards! Good news for the people that won, but just kind of sad that no one wanted to participate for a chance to win FREE STUFF!
Anyway, last week was the wrap for my book signing events for this year, but once the holidays are over, I'll start looking for new venues for 2025, so stay tuned!
Until next time...
~C.A.
Comments