Well, that was invigorating. Even though I came home feeling exhausted, I was constantly bouncing while I was at my second signing in West Edmonton Mall. (Actually, that's probably why I came home exhausted now that I think about that.) The store was very busy, thanks to a long weekend, back-to-school, shopping rush. It was perfect! I handed out a ton of bookmarks. Even if only a few of those people check out my website, that's that many more people that have heard of Cargon.
And people have heard of Cargon. I almost fainted when my first sale was to a woman who, upon hearing my elevator pitch, said, "Oh, yeah, I've heard of this one. You'll sign it for me?"
You've heard of this one?! Word of mouth actually works?! I have a word of mouth compaign? As soon as she was on her way to the till, I did a happy dance and squealed. I couldn't believe it. That was about 40 minutes into my signing when I was starting to wonder if anyone would stop at my meager table and ask about my book. I was buoyed by that sale. I took a copy up to the registers and left it on the table atop many many copies volumes from the Game of Thrones series. As the line lengthened, my book moved slightly, got flipped over, turned around. People were reading it! No one bought that copy, but maybe, along with the bookmark I gave them, they'll look it up on Google Books or better yet, my website.
Every time the line got longer than 8-10 people, I'd hustle myself up there holding a fan of bookmarks with the selling first line: "they're free." The store was having a buy 3 get the 4th free sale, so anyone holding books held a few. Of course they want a book mark. Sure, most won't leave that book they put it in, but some will.
One lady said, "It doesn't really work with my Kindle." Well, I just had to tell her about the Kindle version available on Amazon. "Of the bookmark?" she asked, and I giggled. She sounded eager to try a book from a local author available for her e-reader. I had another woman with the same response. "Sometimes I feel like a traitor for reading on it," she admitted. I just urged her to look me up as the e-version is cheaper. I'm pretty sure she will.
Finally, I set a copy of my book on the table with Hunger Games, Vampire Diaries, and other hot 'teen' books, thinking, "if you're reading those, you're my audience." The copy wasn't there when I cleaned up. It wasn't on the next table, or any nearby table. I'm pretty sure someone bought it. Score!!
And with that one I had a total of six sales to people I had never met previously. Two to online friend and two to relatives rounded the sales to ten. I'm pretty happy about that! It's only three shy of my sales in Medicine Hat where I didn't sell any to non-relatives/friends. And I KNOW I handed out more bookmarks this time. Also, people at the tills were talking about my book the manager told me as I cleaned up. I couldn't ask for more. The day was a complete success!
Today, I hope to stand a little less, relax a little more, and enjoy a sunny day with family. Thank you to everyone who stopped by, said hello, and took a bookmark. I appreciate each and every one of you.
