Our garage is now empty of pallets of books. This is because we hauled 2800 lbs of books into the house, had Howard sign them, the stacked the books to wait for sketches. I did all the re-stacking. This means I personally hefted over one ton of books today.
A nice Schlock fan with a forklift and a large truck helped us move the remainder of the books over to our storage unit. I should say our New storage unit, because our old one was far too small. So we also moved all of the stuff from the old unit into the bigger one.
I’m so tired I can hardly think straight, but I think I got all of today’s critical tasks done.
Tomorrow I need to get on the phone to a couple of independent bookstores and say “Hi. I’m going to be on TV and I would love to be able to say that people can buy the book at your store. Would you be willing to stock my book? Oh and while you’re stocking books, you should take a look at these Schlock books too, because they’re awesome and you should stock them too. And maybe we could arrange some author signings in the store.” Only I hope that tomorrow I’ll think of a much smoother way to say all of that.
Mention free advertizing on TV. Then it won’t matter how rough your presentation is, you’ll have them.
You could also let them know that you know people with heavy equipment, toddlers who are prone to peeing in the isles of their store and one or two rather odd folks who are not afraid to randomly fling things at their store with a trebuchet.
Be sure and let us know when and where your TV appearance will be as I not only want to watch it but will probably DVR it so we can replay it at your next con appearance and point and laugh.
Just kidding about the point and laugh part, unless you totally fall on your face, then it is going right up on YouTube, after which I will offer hugs of condolences.
Not to make you nervous or anything. ;D
I thought the way you said it was pretty smooth, actually. My guess is that the actual words you use will matter less than the personality (and decision-making authority) of the person you end up talking to…
you guys are soooo cool.
I want fans with forklifts!
I hope so.
The appearance will be next Monday September 29th sometime between 9 and 10 am on Kjzz 14’s You and Me Monday with Julie De Azevedo. If you do record it, or put it on You Tube, let me know. Unless I embarrass myself in which case you are not to record or post it anywhere.
Yes the person I’m talking to is the unknown factor. I have names, but I’ve never met these people. I also have no way of knowing if they just got off the phone with some other pushy self-published author.
Fans with forklifts are indeed very cool.
What you wrote for talking to bookstores sounds good to me. I’d tell them specifically what show you’ll be on and when, so that they know this is legitimate. You also may want to give a reason for choosing an independent bookstore, such as local talent wanting to help promote local businesses.
Embarrassing oneself is the whole reason YouTube exists. Now if you do a MASTERFUL job of embarrassing yourself, I will put it up on FailBlog.
I am just looking forward to a great appearance, I doubt you will be anything but charming. Julie doesn’t stand a chance against the likes of you.
You may want to think twice about that, some of us are rather off kilter and the forklift is the least exciting part of my job, I get to blow stuff up for a living.
I love my job.
I think Howard and Sandra are, at times, afraid of me. Not that I blame them, rabid fanboys with access to explosives should be a concern. ;P