At my signings last year in Silver City, I sold zero books, which might make you question my judgment in trying it again this year. My excuse is I thought I had a better venue this year. Silver City has no bookstore, but I had discovered that the Silver City Museum sometimes hosted authors, so I called them last year. They said I needed to send them a copy of the book so that it could be approved. After they reviewed it, they declined to host a signing because in my first book, The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras, my protagonist steals a pot from a museum. I thought that was small-minded of them. I don’t think they appreciated my response that Pythagoras is a work of fiction, not a how-to book. After being rejected by the museum, I called the public library, and they jumped at the opportunity to have an author appear. True to the librarians’ code, they had no interest in “approving” my book. Unfortunately, they also had no patrons, which explains why I had zeros sales.
This year I arranged for the signing to be in the lobby of the historic Palace Hotel. The owner distributed posters around town. I sent a press release to the local paper. They re-wrote it and printed it. Unfortunately, their re-write changed the date of the event. Nevertheless, I sold nine books. Even though this signing was supposed to be for my second book, The Pot Thief Who Studied Ptolemy, five of the nine books sold were Pythagoras, and each one of those buyers said they always read series in sequence. So if they like Pythagoras, maybe they’ll buy Ptolemy next. And even thought there is no bookstore in Silver City, they will be able to buy the book locally because the gift shop in The Palace Hotel has now been added to the list of places that stock the Pot Thief books.
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