Book Sales At Conference

I did okay with book sales at the conference - 8 books sold.  That's not impressive in and of itself, but I have to remember this was a conference focused on marketing, performance, and improving professional speaking skills, so it's not like I was marketing to my target audience. 

One cute comment did arise from the conference.  My co-presenters current books are titled Don't Murder Your Mystery and Why Is Everyone So  Cranky?  My book is titled, Lessons In Stalking.  The valedictorian of our tract pointed out in her speech that coming in everyone was afraid they would be learning about stalking and murdering cranky people.  We hadn't put the three together, but good point!

Sales Totals for Lessons In Stalking

My first online order for Lessons In Stalking came on October 6, 2005.  Since then, I've "sold" 450 books.  Not too bad considering I've mainly hit local sales.   And I say "sold" because, for example, I might drop 10 books off at Borders or The Fat Cat, but that doesn't mean they've sold.  That just means they're out there for public consumption.

My number one salesperson to date is, by far, Gwenn Lance at The Fat Cat here in Madison.  I think she's sold over 50 of my books and just put a order in for another 15.  I'm thrilled not just that the books are selling, but that they're selling so well in Gwenn's shop. It's a contemporary art gallery with aisles of fun, whimsical, unique merchandise and I wasn't initially sure my book would be a good fit for her store.  But Gwenn is a huge supporter of local artists and has gone out of her way to talk the book up.  Which I really want to go to a few other art shops in GSO that have my book but aren't selling many copies and say, "Hey.  The book will sell for you if you give it some attention. Take a page from Gwenn's book. "

I'm speaking at NSA University in January in Tucson and they'll purchase 100 copies of the book, so I'm slowly selling off my initial print run of 2,000.  The dream of course is to have such demand that I need a second printing.  I'd like to have all 2000 sold by this time next year, at the latest.  If I get to work in the New Year and start targeting gift stores and speciality shops, I see no reason why that shouldn't happen.

Until then, sales are book-by-book-by-book. But I'm having fun.

Any Super-Hot Books Selling? Oh yeah, mine. ;)

I'm so happy.  I just received a phone call from the manager at our area Borders.  I've been sending people there who want to buy a copy of my book but don't want to pay shipping and handling.  A few people recently told me they were out of copies, so calling Borders was actually on my "to do" list for the day, anyway.

They want 10 more.  The manager said, "We were in staff meeting and I asked, 'So, are there any super-hot books selling?' and a few people offered, 'We've got a lot of requests for this Lessons In Stalking book.'"  So yea--I'm a red-hot book!  Many thanks to my friends who went to Borders to buy the book--keep it up! =)

What's odd is that I never saw my book on the store shelf.  I thought for sure I'd be in there Day 1 taking photos and I kept meaning to get by but never did.  But this time I'll get by and get a picture of me standing next to my title in a Borders Store--turning my book face out as all authors do, trying to up our chance for a sale.

Painted Plate - Book Signing

       

My illustrator Linda Santell and I teamed up at her booth today for the Professional Women's Forum holiday shopping event at the Painted Plate in Greensboro.  Local artists set up booths of jewelry, scarves, lotions, food, carvings, furniture, etc.  We had an excellent day, selling a dozen books as well as some of Linda's Whimsical Women creations.