You’ve written book…awesome! Not many people can slog their way through the maze of words and creativity to finish such a project. You’ve even gotten it published! Great work and congratulations on that aspect, it was the next big step. Perhaps you’ve had friends or schooling/training on how to write and all that jazz, which is wonderful. I wrote a post about education you can check out here. However, one thing that I found lacking from all the schmoozing and schooling, was marketing and how to handle signings. I’m still trying to crack the nut on marketing and I’ll write up a post on it later once I figure it out. However, I think I have some insight on book signings or convention presence.

I recently had a book signing at a Barnes & Noble which was a first for me. I’ve attended other signings and book events and I think I had an epiphany at this one. Going into it, I knew it was going to be tough. In a short amount of time, I had to try and move X amount of books. In this case, it was 15 books in four hours. Why did I feel the need to move ALL the books? Well because since I’m working with a small press, and the books were marked as returnable, Barnes & Noble had the option to return any unsold books back to the publisher which would, in turn, end up costing the publisher money. So before I even left the house I had it in my mind that I was going to move as many books as possible, which brings me to my first guideline to success: confidence.

You need to be confident in your product. If you don’t believe in what you’ve written, it will show in how you interact with customers. Your book is good. You wrote it well. People will like it. You need to have your elevator pitch down pat so when people ask what the book is about you have a clear and concise answer for them. It’s important that you answer is short and to the point too, narrow your story down to a couple of sentences and use it. This also will show that you are confident in what you’ve done. When people asked me what my book was about, I said the following: It’s about a guy who’s hunting in the Utah wilderness with his friends when the demonic apocalypse happens and he’s trying to get back home to his family. Sure there’s a lot more happening, but that’s the main theme of the story.

The second guideline or rule I made for myself was to only sit when I was actually signing a book. I stood the entire time and was active. I think it made me more visible to people and kept me from getting distracted with my phone which goes right into my next guideline: don’t play on your phone when people are around. You need to be approachable and engaged and tinkering with your phone accomplishes none of those goals. Along the lines of being approachable, I decided to not cross my arms in front of my chest if I could help it. It's an aggressive and off-putting stance so I did everything else I could. Sometimes I would catch myself and have to actively unfold my arms.

The next guideline I made was to actively engage everyone who came near my table. I said hello, how are you doing, or tried to make small talk on anything I could think of. One person was wearing a Star Wars shirt so I asked them what their favorite Star Wars movie was and we talked about that for a minute. Another dude had an awesome beard so I complimented him on it. People like to talk about what they are into and like to be complimented, so it was a way to engage them in conversation and get them talking in the hopes that they would then want to ask me about my book. However, you have to be sincere. People will be able to see through an act, so be genuine and only engage in topics that you’re interested in.

I’m not an extroverted person by any means and I had to push outside my comfort zone to make this happen; however, I sold every book Barnes & Noble had ordered. The staff was very impressed with how aggressive and successful I was, stating that a lot of first-time authors only sell a couple copies because they’ll sit there at their table and wait for people to come to them. If you want to be successful, you need to almost slap people in the face with your book. A lot of times they don’t want to come to you because they are also shy or introverted, so it takes that extra nudge to start the conversation. However, the majority of my sales that day were because I got them talking and had a chance to pitch my novel. It was exhausting and by the end of the day I just wanted to curl up in a ball in a dark room, but it worked and I made a good enough impression that they wanted me to come back and do a launch party for my second book (coming in December). Now the real test will be to see if this works again because I have another book signing at a different Barnes & Noble next Saturday. #writerproblems

I've decided to start a monthly newsletter. I'm going to call it the InBetween, which if you've read my book, you'll know that the InBetween is serious business (it's basically the dark dimension that creeps between all other dimensions and worlds). I plan on promoting my writing, giving access to secret pages on my website which will feature access to stories, sneak peaks, background information on character, places, and mythos tied to my stories, and more! Plus, as an added bonus, folks who subscribe between now and September 15th will be automatically entered to win a signed copy of my book, Consequence: A Novel of the Dark Tyrant Series. ​

It's that time of year again, elk scouting time. This last weekend I went up to my usual spot to put in some sweat equity and place a couple of trail cameras. I went up with my dad and a few other friends, and I have to say (if I haven't said it before) that patch of wilderness is hands down my favorite spot in Utah. 

My dad and I hiked out to a couple of spots that I thought had potential, spots that I came across last year during my hunt. A couple of other buddies went out to another location to check out some trail cams that they had placed a few weeks ago. While my dad and I didn't see any elk, we saw a lot of sign to include fresh (that morning) droppings. We placed the cameras in two spots where it looked like elk trails were converging. 

There were a ton of empty camp trailers up there. I probably came across a dozen or so. I'm not sure if people were taking them up there and leaving them to save a spot (which is bullshit) or what. I hope that it isn't an indication of the amount of archery hunters there will be.

I was able to try out my tent and wood burning camp stove. Both worked out fantastically, although I still have to mess around with the stove to figure out the optimum way to keep it burning. The tent was nice and toasty when it was running, and let me tell you, it got pretty chilly at night up there. Hopefully, these spots will pay off come hunting season. 

In other news, I've tried using a bow drill to create fire every time I go camping/hunting since I had that survival skills class and I haven't been able to recreate it. That just tells me that I need to keep practicing. I've come close a couple of times, but close isn't going to get a fire lit.