Just to Drive the Point Home...

Booksignings probably are the best and most efficient methon of wasting time in which one can engage one's self. I was clocking in there at one book per hour for three hours. Apart from the awkward glances and painfully polite attempts to ignore my efforts, I did receive several interesting reactions. First, after pitching my sales attempt, one older guy bluntly declined to purchase anything and quickly proceeded to mention that I was attractive. It must be how Vanna White feels, I'd imagine. I was pretty much treated by the general public as an employee of Waldenbooks. People kept asking me where the bathroom was, where they could find their favorite author, if a certain book had been released yet, and so on. When I did get an interested party, they were pretty much dumbfounded that I was actually the person doing the work and not just selling it. Wow, girls can actually have talent? I had no idea we weren't living in the 1950's rural southern-Babtist bible belt. Hot Damn!

And then, of course, there was the issue of Scientology. One guy walked in, quickly refused to purchase anything and ran into the store. Later, the manager of the store came up to me and said the guy mentioned he was affraid to speak with me because he thought I was a recruiter for Scientology. He came back and appologized for being rude, but still didn't buy anything.

The only good thing that came of the experience was that several people I know, and who like my work, just happened to be shopping that day and bought some prints. I sold 6, which was enough to make up the printing cost. So, it really wasn't a complete waste of time.

Needless to say, I'm not chomping at the bit for the next event. People simply aren't interested in a book like this on a large enough scale to make a booksigning worthwhile. Unless, of course you are in California (hi, Miguel).