Well, I’ve done two signings now…. perhaps Covid is the wrong time for this lol. I have to say that they were both a little less successful than I had hoped but in the whole big picture, maybe they were exactly right. Let me explain…. my Editor at Atmosphere Press, Nick, explained it to me like this – the launch of your book is like the birth of a human; it’s just the beginning of the life…. So, now I’m starting to understand the process of my book’s growth. I thought the launch was going to be an explosion of orders and sales but no, it was probably about average for a completely unknown author, and not huge at all. My book is one of probably HUNDREDS that launched in the third week of May this year. Think about that! There are so many books out there that mine is literally a needle in a haystack of them, and it’s going to take some time before that one little needle pokes the right person in the butt who might have the capacity to really “launch” this ship. My book has so many directions for growth that it’s kind of daunting… but little by little I’m watching it happen and tho really slow, it’s very exciting to experience some of the “firsts”! I received my first “fan mail”, ACTUAL mail! A card sent to me by someone who loved my book! Then, a couple of days later, I took a book to a library to donate it to their collection, only to discover that they were carrying it already, 3 copies!! Wow, what a feeling that was! Several days after that I got an email from a store in the US who brought in my book and was reordering more DUE TO DEMAND – at this point I had to open a bottle of sparkling wine to celebrate my diligence in seeing this project through. I’m embracing every baby step along the way now and can’t wait for the next one!
