First Book Presentation/Signing...Total Success!!

Well, our first book presentation and signing could NOT have gone any better. There were probably 40-50 people present at Lake Forest Community Center. Eleven students, who are pen-pals with some of the Lake Forest residents, were there for the show. Jim, my husband, manned the DVD and projector. Nick (my son and illustrator of the book), Amanda (my daughter and book helper/bookmark hander-outer) and my mom (book editor) sat in the front as contributors. Johnny Mitchell of Silver Lining Photography and Video (great friend, great neighbor, great photographer) was there to take pics for my web site and promos. I've never seen my mother so proud of me! The audience was completely engaged throughout, Jim told me after.

The presentation lasted about half-an-hour, then we had fun! We brought out some props and I did a Q&A session. The kids hands flew up in the air! I was able to reach out to every single one of them. I believe I've met an up-and-coming future President of the United States. I was honored to be with them. Their hopes and dreams keep me going.

Oh yeah, we sold some books, too :-)

Peace out.

Lake Forest Senior Center - Adirondack Nightmare Presentation!

Well, we're getting ready for our very first book signing and presentation. It's on Tuesday, May 8th at the Lake Forest Senior Center in Plattsburgh, NY. It should last about 40 minutes with time for questions and signings afterward. I'm a bit nervous with my left ankle, it's not healing as well as the right one did. But my kids, Nick, the illustrator of the book, and Amanda are more than enough to cheer us on. It should be fun, there'll be students from Momot school who are pen pals with some of the residents of Lake Forest.

My mom, Beth Brush, is one of the pen pal mentors there. What a wonderful program it is. Lake Forest is such a great facility and we're lucky to have it in the area.

We haven't practiced together for the presentation yet. We're all to busy! My husband, Jim, will be working the DVD player as we have a short, trailer type of DVD. I just hope we get everything set up in time. Nick will be there for "illustrator" questions and Amanda will be there to help hand things out and to put stickers on any books which will (hopefully) be sold.

Time to update the web site and rehearse for tomorrow! Take care!

Pounding The Pavement In The Adirondacks

Well, this being my first blog post and all, I guess I'll try to catch folks up on what I've been up to. My son, Nick, is a sophmore at Peru Central School and he is the illustrator for our new book,
"Adirondack Nightmare: A Spooky Tale in the North Country". The book is published and it's time to get it into stores!

I have a distributor but, well, a little legwork doesn't hurt. I could use the exercise and fresh air. I've gained some weight (ok quite a bit of weight) this winter and really need to do something about it!

So, on Friday, April 22nd I grabbed a bunch of books and fliers (for our upcoming book signing/presentation-our first, gulp) and hit the road on Friday. It was sunny and beautiful out. Sold books to 2 bookstores, 2 museums, a beauty salon, and 1 to my kids' orthodontist. The only retailer who said "no" took a flier to display. So did all the other retailers. One museum is going to let us do a presentation at the end of June! A good day.

On Tuesday, April 24th I went to a school book presentation. The authors are Gary and Justin VanRiper, a father and son writing team residing in Camden, New York of the Tug Hill region. They write the "Adirondack Kids" series of books and are very friendly and supportive. They've been doing presentations for a long time and since we have our first one coming up I thought I'd go to get some ideas, meet the authors, etc. I showed up at the wrong time and the presentation was just finishing. I asked when the next one was and found I had 2 hours to kill. I hit the pavement. I went to 6 locations. Two local pharmacies (I've learned that small towns have pharmacies which carry local books) and sold to both of them. They're in two different towns. I sold to two apple orchard giftshops (the book has an apple recipe in it) and will return on Thursday to two other places when the owners are in. Got back just in time for the presentation, learned a lot and hooked up with another local author team. Good day #2.

Wednesday, April 25th, I made 2 follow-up phone calls to 2 important retailers. It looks like a big NO from both of them. Drat. Not such a good book selling day.

Thursday, April 26th I hit the road again and traveled deeper into the Adirondacks. I was able to get our book into 4 giftshops and 1 bookstore in 5 different towns. After 3 weeks of trying, I decided my book WAS going to get in our local Borders store in Plattsburgh. I had faxed book info to the manager, sent him some info in the mail and followed up with an email. The employees would tell me to stop back in each time I went, as he was always on a conference call. Today, the manager was in the store after being on the road for a bit. When I went in, he was on a conference call. So, this time when the sales clerk asked, "May I give him your name?" I said, "Halle Barry" with a straight face. He eventually got off his conference call and when I met him he said he'd already ordered the book through my distributor. When I asked how many copies, he said, "Dozens". The most I've ever sold at once is 10 copies so I'll find this interesting when I see them in the store.

Well, I've caught things up to speed here. I'll keep learning how to live in blogosphere and plugging away at getting our book in regional stores.