Matthew Wayne Selznick

Some folks have been after me to blog about my first-ever booksigning, which went down this past Saturday. I apologize that it’s taken me so long, my faithful handful of readers… I’ve been swamped with three different freelance projects, one under a hard deadline (should be working now…!!!)

Anyhoo…

I’ve hosted / babysat many, many first time authors in my former life as a manager for a major bookseller (the one headquartered in Ann Arbor, MI.) I know what a first-time author should expect… that is, they should have no expectations at all, except perhaps that they’re going to have a fun four hours watching people buy other people’s books.

So I went to my local B&N with a nice flier featuring the cover of the book in an acrylic standee, a bunch of business cards, a couple of fine-point Sharpees (the bookstore provided a handful of black ball-point pens… um, host many signings, Victorville???) and prepared for nothing. And I was disappointed, because nothing did not happen.

I was there as part of a “festival” of five local authors. We were all set up next to each other behind a long table to the left of the main entrance of the store. I wondered if this was such a good idea at first, but it turned out to be advantageous — we were a presence, where we may have been lost if we were all at different tables scattered through the store.

The range of subject matter represented at that table helped matters, too — there was me and my alternate-history quasi-young-adult comics pastiche, a thematically connected collection of fantasy-horror, a book of poetry written by a fourteen year old girl, a futuristic message fantasy, and a WWII memoir. (Sorry I don’t have links for everyone!!!)

I made a point of smiling and saying “hello” to every warm body wandering close enough to snare, and the other authors picked up on that and added their grins and greets to our collective friendly, but not the slightest bit desperate, thank you very much, presence. It helped… there were even a few kindly folks who went down the table one by one, asked us all what our books were about, and bought one of each.

I had a couple of nifty moments:

First, a woman drove from about an hour away as a favor to one of my podcast listeners who lives in another state. While I was signing the book, she called the listener and I chatted with him! Turns out he listened to the podcast, couldn’t wait for it to end, bought the MP3 CD version, and now wanted a signed copy of the book. That brought a smile to my face… and still does!

Near the end of the day, a woman came up, picked up a copy of the book, and said, “You wrote this?”

“Yep,” I said.

She stuck out her hand. “Congratulations. That’s quite an accomplishment.”

We shook hands. I was bowled over, because I have to say, most people don’t realize what’s involved with writing a book. Damn it, it is an accomplishment, and I thanked her for recognizing that. That was pretty darn cool.

Also fun was talking with a young guy about his own interest in writing, and hyping Lulu.com to my fellow authors… two had used the more expensive, less friendly POD services out there, and were crying about the hundreds of dollars they’d dumped to get their books into print. They were shocked to hear that they could have done it all for about a fifth of the price, or less. So there you go, Lulu, enjoy the future business and remember me.

I sold eight books… about half the stock… and signed the others to rest semi-permanently on the store’s shelves (BMR is non-returnable!) It’s possible that at least some of the other authors and I might team up for future signings, as the whole “we’re all independent authors” thing really seemed to work in our favor.

So my first booksigning experience was 100% positive. I know enough to recognize that I was lucky, and that the next one may not be so rosy.

Whenever the next one is…!