The great thing about Wild Rose Press is that they have great covers. Another great thing-they have great relationships with their authors. One more great thing-they published my books. That's the greatest great thing. So, I'm published. A not so great thing about Wild Rose Press is that they are a small publisher which means you won't see The Jinx when you walk into a bookstore. Yes, you can order it, but it won't ever be sitting on a shelf available to be picked up, back cover read, pages flipped through, and ultimately bought and taken home to be read.
Or will it?
I visited my local Waldenbooks in the mall yesterday with book in hand, introduced myself as local and a published author (the FIRST time I've introduced myself that way!) and asked about the availability of my book at the store. A woman I knew had tried to order the book there, and they had not been able to find it for her in their system. But they did tell her to tell me to come in and talk to them about it.
So I did.
I thought at the least I could give them the ISBN so if anyone else came in, they could order the book. At most, well, I didn't want to get my hopes up about them carrying The Jinx because, as I've already said, most bookstores won't stock books from small publishers.
But the Waldenbook people were friendly and receptive. No, The Jinx wasn't in their database but they could order copies from Books in Print though it would take a bit longer. The guy even suggested a booksigning. How very cool is that? Not that I actually want to do a booksigning because I've seen too many people sitting behind the table peddling their wares (books or Avon or ShamWow-I am so sick of that ShamWow guy. He is ALWAYS on TV. Okay, I know. Mr. ShamWow is not sitting down). Anyway, I don't want to be the gal who is looking all sad at the table because nobody wants to buy my book. I talked with a fellow author who was thrilled to see his book in the bookstore and stood there 45 minutes without one person showing interest in what he had labored over. I suggested he trip a few people causing them to fall into the display, but then you get into liability issues and such. It can get so uncomfortable.
If it works out that Waldenbooks can get The Jinx and will carry it. If it works out that we set up a booksigning, I've come up with some ideas of how it could go.
1. Have a raffle for something. Or someone. Wonder how many people would enter a raffle to go on a date with somebody. Who could I get to be the date? Oh, wait! I have a single guy friend who would be perfect! And he LOVES chick flicks!
2. Candy bowl. Who doesn't love free candy? It would need to be individually wrapped though.
3. A cool light up pen which plays a tune while I sign.
4. Impromptu ping pong. Although I don't think there's room for a table.
5. Some kind of game that would be fun and would make being in the public eye not so disconcerting. Bowling? Frisbee? Irish Dancing? Hmm. These don't seem to lend themselves to being in a bookstore. What would be fun, relatively quiet, not take up too much space, and not be indecent or illegal?
Anyone? Anyone?
6. I'll need a new outfit. Something to go with the red fancy shoes my Aunt Ruth gave me when I went to see her last week.
Best Selling Romance Author Jennifer Johnson
