Book Signing Ups and Downs

 

I did a book signing last month!!! It was scary, awesome, exciting, exhausting, tough, and taught me a few lessons on preparedness.

 

What scared me: I forgot to rehearse my answer to "What is your book about?" The first person to ask me that question received a blank stare and a hasty half-answer. Thankfully, she asked lots of questions after that.  

 

The awesome, exciting part: Friends and family came. One of my students from my homeschool co-operative came with his mom, sister, baby brother, and grandma. Strangers I never met before came and bought my book. A pre-teen girl asked her mom to get both my books for her brother and then told me she planned to read them too.  It wasn't a big crowd, but it was good. :)

 

The exhausting part: I wasn't feeling well, but since the bookstore owner and I had both advertised with flyers, posts, and with the local newspaper, I went. It was a struggle to maintain a happy, friendly "ok" presence when I really wanted to go back home and sleep. The bookstore owner provided a nice chair.

 

The tough part: A couple came into the bookstore expressly to meet the "local author" as advertised by the big sign outside the store on the sidewalk. They didn't like fantasy. They didn't understand why I would write fantasy. I struggled to answer the "why," and the bookstore owner leapt to my defense.

An interesting question that I could have answered if I wasn't so tongue-tied: A representative from the local newspaper came and asked me just one simple question, and I was so nervous I blanked it completely. The question: "What books have you read on writing?" My answer . . . "Um." Sad, but true. Thankfully, as a writer of novels himself, he jumped in with his favorite writing books and we had a conversation.

Afterwards, I took the time to start compiling the list of books I've written. Some of them can be found on my page Books on Writing.
 

The lesson I took away from the whole experience: I couldn't have foreseen that I would get ill, but I could be more prepared. I've written out the questions I was asked and I've written up answers. I'm going to rehearse.
 

And, the local bookstore owner is a gem - she offered to have me any time for another signing. :)

 

Have you ever had a book signing? If so, what was it like? If not, what do you dream it will be like? Do you find it easy or hard to talk about your writing?

 

And, have you picked up a copy of Champion in Flight yet?