Another Book Signing. Had another book signing over the weekend. This one wasn't quite as successful as the others. In fact, it bordered on disaster. Had we not managed to sell five books, I would have been extremely displeased. This was a book signing last Sunday for Tiffany Blue by Patricia McCraw. It is an excellent book about John Patrick McNulty, Patricia's great-grandfather, who was the forman of the Tiffany turquoise mine in Cerrillos, NM in the early 1900s. Anyway, I sent notices to the Alibi, Journal, and Tribune, and only the Tribune bothered to list us. I sent emails to the 200 people on my mailing list. Then, on Sunday, I put up big signs in the store window, and waited for the asuthor to show up. And waited, and waited. Pat was scheduled to talk at 1:00 pm. At 1:30, no sign of Pat. I had to turn four customers away who wanted to hear her. I didn't have her phone number at the store, so I had to go home and call her while Dad minded the shop. He called back and said she was stuck in traffic. She finally showed up at 1:45. We sold five bboks from 1:45 to 3:00 pm. The signing was scheduled to stop at 3:00, but Pat agreed to stay to 4:00. I changed the times on the signs. During that last hour, only two people showed interest. A lady let Pat lecture her about the book for a half hour, then said, "Well, maybe I'll think about buying a book later." Then right after that, one of my fellow Old Town merchants, who shall remain nameless (allow I'd like to call him a bunch of names) came in, heard Pat's entire speech about the book, then tried to get her to sell him a bunch of books wholesale for his store. The nerve of the bastard! He didn't even have the tact to do it behind my back! He said it right in front of me. The least he could have done was buy a book from me, then call her later, and buy some more books directly from her without my knowing.I became very angry, and I really wanted to chew him out. I didn't beecause he is a friend of my father. But I was so angry about this, the lack of people, and the late author, I told Dad I had to leave to cool down. Dad spoke to Pat about it, and she agreed the guy was a jerk, and refused to sell to him.

I get very frustrated about business sometimes. It seems I do everything humanly possible to make these events suceed, and then events I can't control, like late authors, idiots, nonresponsive email recipients, and sparse crowds
intervene. I know there's nothing I can do about these things, and I'm sure I'll keep trying, but sometimes I feel like I'm just banging my head against a wall.