Recapping My First Official Book Signing

I probably should’ve switched the order of the books to match my sign.

This past Tuesday was my first official book signing as part of the Long Island Authors Group at The James Joyce Restaurant in Patchogue, NY. As I wrote in an earlier blog, I’ve signed books before at an event, but that was really my cousin’s book signing in New Jersey, and she was nice enough to have me play along. So, was the book signing an unmitigated disaster? Nope! Was it an unparalleled success? Mmmm…not really. It was in between, as most things in life are. If I’m being honest, and I always strive to be honest with my blog readers, I didn’t sell as many books as I had hoped (I really didn’t need to bring three boxes), but I was told by more seasoned book signers that selling a lot of books at these things isn’t necessarily the point; it’s more about exposure and getting your name out there, which has traditionally been something very difficult for me, as I’m a very shy person in real life. (I’ve been writing books for almost 3 years, and this is only my first author signing.)

I should say it didn’t help my ego that I happened to be stationed next to a brilliant, superstar author who just landed a big publisher and was featured only a few days before in Newsday. (For those not in the know, that’s Long Island’s premier newspaper; incidentally, my very first job was a Newsday paperboy.) Of course, I’m happy for the success of a fellow, (former) indie local author, but it wasn’t much fun standing around by myself while she always had a line. Still, she gave me a lot of good advice that I hope I can translate into future success. Who knows? Maybe I’ll be the one with the long line someday.

Another problem I ran into is that I didn’t realize most people don’t use cash anymore, so all the time I spent going to the bank and getting multiples of each type of dollar bill so I had change was more or less a waste. The only person who paid cash had exact change. Also, a few people only had Zelle, when I just have Venmo. Oops! Finally, some people only wanted an eBook, which begs the question of why they attended an author signing in the first place. (I can’t sign an eBook.)

By far, the highlight was the surprise appearance of the guitarist from my old ska/punk band you’ve never heard of called All Out Riot. (I used to play sax and occasionally sing and rap during my younger days.) We hadn’t seen each in years, and it was great catching up. I also discovered that Danger Peak was being sold at a bricks-and-mortar Barnes & Noble in Nashville, Tennessee, where he was living for a short time. So I’m still learning things about my books several years into this process. You can see a photo of the two of us below.

Reunited (and it feels so good).

By far, the lowlight of this event occurred just before it happened. As I was lugging my books and sign of my headshot and images of my two novels to my car to make the book signing (I was running late), I dropped the plastic frame holding the sign, and it shattered into several pieces. I stood there for a good half minute staring at the mess, slack-jawed at my clumsiness. Then I immediately rushed to the nearest Michael’s (luckily, there’s one right around the corner from me) to find a replacement frame. In the meantime, my wife was trying to fit my sign into one of our home’s picture frames (the ones that held baby photos of our children), to no avail. The only plastic frame they had at Michael’s that matched mine was cracked across the bottom, so I haggled with the cashier to take several bucks off. Luckily, I found a better frame just as I was leaving the store and bought and used that one. (You can see it in the top photo above.) Anyway, I made it to the signing on time by some miracle (Okay, I was speeding), so all’s well that ends well.

And just for fun, here’s a candid photo my wife took of me giving the elevator pitch for Danger Peak for the hundredth time that night to a potential customer. (She ended up not buying.)

“Oh, I’ll make you the best deal! Two for twenty-five!”

Surprisingly (at least to me), people seemed more interested in the story behind Déjà View than Danger Peak. I thought it’d be the other way around, probably because Danger Peak was my first book.

I’d like to thank everyone who came out and also extend a special shoutout to my wife who had the awesome idea of bringing a sign-up sheet for my blog. That was by far the most successful part of my signing. And speaking of which, hello to all the new subscribers to this blog. You can expect one blog about every week, but there are times I take breaks when I’m particularly busy writing/editing my work. I promise not to spam you and overload your mailbox. (I don’t like when that happens to me either…looking in your direction, DNC.)

So, onwards and upwards as they say. As I wrote, this was my first rodeo and was a great learning experience. There may be another Books & Bites event sponsored by Long Island Authors somewhere else later this year that I will probably attend, so I’ll keep you posted if that happens.

MTP

P.S.: Next week’s blog: Explaining the Changing Signs in Déjà View

P.P.S.: Déjà View is now available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble:

AmazonBarnes & Noble