Current Events

Update

by Robert

When I was approached to sell my book at The Villages Barnes and Noble last spring, I jumped at the chance.  Twelve local authors had their books sold for a three-month period.  Mine was available April, May and June.  We each introduced our works in a public presentation.  Six people spoke in April and six spoke in May.    We had eight minutes to present the story behind our books.

We were warned that if history repeated itself, sales would not be brisk.  Most books would be purchased by the authors friends within the first couple of days they hit the shelves.  We were encouraged to invite our friends and family to the store.  I had two attend to support me.  I don’t know if they bought a book, but they offered kind words about my emotional presentation.  I was happy they were there.
NAME SOLD
 CHOCHOLOUS 2
DEMACARY 0
HIATT 1
MALLON 1
MARTIN 3
MEEHAN 0
OLSEN 3
VILAR 3
STERTMEYER 0
TEBO 9
THOMAS 12
WEAVER 6
40
The final tally is in.  As predicted, no one got rich.  My total of nine books sold accounted for almost twenty-five percent of those sold.  When you add my total with “Thomas’s” twelve, the two of us had more than half the sales.  Thomas has published several books over the past few years, so I feel good about the results.
There’s an old question, “If a tree falls in the forest with no ears to hear it, does it make a sound?”  So, I wonder if something is written and no one reads it, was it really written?
The book, and this blog, are ways I get to express myself.  I look forward to writing more and I hope you continue reading.

 

3 thoughts on “Update”

  3. Bob–It is somewhat humbling, isn’t it? I was “bragging” to my kids the other day that, even after nearly 10 years, my first book still sells occasionally on Amazon and at our local bookstore. So, my son sent me this from the Amazon site:

    Best Sellers Rank: #1,589,049 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
    #46,112 in Memoirs (Books)

    Apparently, there are 1,589,048 books ranked higher than mine.
    That took dad down a peg!

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