Slightly Off the Mark: book signing

Showing posts with label book signing. Show all posts

Our Author Appearance Necessity List

It's been a few years since Emily and I did an author appearance, so I dug up this blog from back then just to remind myself. We're going to be at Albion's Fall Celebration this Saturday, on the Courthouse Square. Never mind the weather--we'll figure it out.

I'm sure you all added our upcoming author appearances to your calendars and phones, and possibly had the dates tattooed backward to your foreheads. I mean, all those vendors together--it'll be Indiana's social event of the decade. (Although I'm told the world's biggest greased pig chase and cornhole contest will be next year in Muncie, so we might be in second place.)

If I did post a link to the 10 am - 2 pm event, which includes a classic car cruise-in, food, and almost two dozen vendors, I'd put it here:

https://www.albionstarteam.org/fall-celebration

But I won't. It's our first author appearance since 2022--even before COVID we didn't do them often, so I started a list of what we needed to bring. Then I realized, surely I already made a list? I do that. I went back and sure enough, there it was.

So, what does every good author, and most of the bad ones, need to bring?

1. Books. This is kinda important. If you do a book signing, you should have something to sign.

2. Change. When one goes somewhere to sell books, one must assume some books will be sold. Thus: change for those high rollers who walk around with hundred dollar bills. (I don't know any of them, either.)

3. A calculator or, these days, a calculator app. After all, the whole reason I became a writer is because I can't do math in my head.

4. Tylenol. You'd be surprised. No, probably you wouldn't.

5. A camera. My wife took a photo of me signing a book for an Indiana State Senator who, apparently not having read my columns about politicians, was very nice. You never know what you might get a picture of when you're out in the public.

6. Paper and pens. The pens are to, duh, sign books. The paper is because, even though We'll have phones with us, I don't trust technology.

7. A tarp and an umbrella, if the venue is outside. There's a reason why books aren't usually sold outdoors, but I laugh in the face of danger. Well, I cringe, which looks a little like laughing, if you squint. (I just looked at the forecast, and I'm scared.)

8. Business cards. Emily designed me my very own business card! Sometimes, when it's slow at events, I sneak around the crowds and pull the opposite of pick pocketing, leaving my calling card behind. Come on, you knew that was me.

9. A table and chairs. The basics, right? We bought a folding chair that's so comfortable I'm thinking of throwing away our couch. I can't find it.

10. Liquid refreshments. I'm thinking water. Hey, I don't need any help from alcohol to look foolish.

11. Displays and signs. To display stuff ... like signs.

12. Scotch Tape. It's the author's duct tape.

A lot of that stuff will fit nicely into the totes we bought for the purpose, although, man, books can get heavy when you're carrying them a long way. The good news is, we have actual copies of all our books for the first time, now that Storm Squalls is in print. How about you other authors? What's on your "to-bring" list? And what would you potential readers like to see an author supplied with?

Remember, every time you miss an author event, Edgar Allan Poe rolls over in his grave. You don't want to wake that guy up.

(But if you can't make it, find our books at:)

· Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

· Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

· Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

· Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/

· Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/

· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

· Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/

· Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

· Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter

· Substack: https://substack.com/@markrhunter

· Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/ozma914

· Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914

· Audible: https://www.audible.com/search?searchAuthor=Mark+R.+Hunter&ref_pageloadid=4C1TS2KZGoOjloaJ&pf

Remember: Some authors can only appear on the full moon, so be nice to them.

Call For Books, and Authors Appear!

I can type again! .... some.

A few author appearances are coming up:

On September 20 we'll be at Albion's Fall Celebration, which is on a Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Lots of vendors, plus a car show, all on the Noble County Courthouse Square in Albion. We plan to have all of our books available, and fingers crossed for good weather. Honestly, outdoor appearances make me very nervous, what with rain and all the paper.

https://www.albionstarteam.org/fall-celebration

On September 28th Emily and I are going to be guesting on the Easily Distracted by Cemeteries podcast, in a discussion I suspect will involve ... cemeteries. They're based not far from Diamond Lake, which, along with its accompanying hill, has a rich tradition of the supernatural.

https://rss.com/podcasts/easilydistractedbycemeteries/

"Join us as we discuss cemeteries, ghosts, and the antics of those visiting cemeteries with many distractions and laughs along the way."

We're starting at 2 p.m., but I assume this isn't live. I'll let you know when I have a broadcast time.

On October 30, from 6-7:30 p.m., we'll be at the Assembly Room of the Community Learning Center in Kendallville. I'll be giving a talk, then hosting a Q&A. But on the brighter side, I'm told there'll be drinks (non-alcoholic) and snacks. I'm reasonably certain I'll be able to string two words together, maybe three.

https://thecommunitylearningcenter.org/

This will be a ticketed event, which wasn't my idea, and please show up! It's to cover the CLC expenses, and it's a pretty great organization. The Community Learning Center is at 401 E. Diamond Street, in the old Kendallville High School, which was more recently the old Kendallville Middle School.

Hope to see everyone there, which would be quite a crowd. But if you can't make it ours books are all available online, pending operations by Skynet:

· Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

· Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

· Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

· Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/

· Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/

· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

· Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/

· Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

· Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter

· Substack: https://substack.com/@markrhunter

· Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/ozma914

· Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914

· Audible: https://www.audible.com/search?searchAuthor=Mark+R.+Hunter&ref_pageloadid=4C1TS2KZGoOjloaJ&pf

Remember: Fresh air never hurt anyone. I mean, outside of blizzards. And heat waves. And ... never mind.

Prices and Shipping Costs, and Other Boring Book Stuff

Pardon any typos, I'm still doing the speech to text thing.

We investigated the costs of producing and shipping our print books, and got some bad news: We're actually losing a little money on a couple of the books, and making hardly any on others. I'm all for a fun hobby, but this is also supposed to be a business, and when it comes to style--red is a bad look on a business.

So we have to increase the price of a couple of the books, by a dollar. This, of course, doesn't apply to the traditionally published books, Haunted Noble County, Indiana and Images of America: Albion and Noble County. In those cases the publisher sets the retail price.

On the matter of shipping costs, we took some books to the Post Office and did some figuring. Basically, sending our books to anywhere in the U.S. is $4.77 to ship, plus the cost of envelopes. There's also handling, but we don't get enough mail orders to charge for our time.

It means to mail one book to you is $5.00, which for Haunted Noble County is now set up on our website:

https://markrhunter.com/haunted-noble-county

Hitting the buy button will take you to a PayPal area for payment, and it will give us the address to ship it to. According to the Post Office, ordering two books would increase shipping to $5.22.

You might be money ahead to buy the book direct from Arcadia Publishing, where shipping and handling is a dollar less:

https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/collections/vendors?q=Mark%20R.%20Hunter&contributorID=14550

Last time I checked Amazon S&H was actually more, but a lot less if you have Prime, or a larger order to go with it:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Mark-R-Hunter/author/B0058CL6OO

It's also online at Barnes and Noble and--wait for it--copies are available at the Barnes and Noble store at Fort Wayne's Glenbrook mall:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/%22Mark%20R.%20Hunter%22

Has anyone seen Haunted Noble County, Indiana for sale at any other brick and mortar locations?

So you can get a signed copy direct from us through the website, or from Butterfly Alley Gifts here in Albion: https://www.facebook.com/p/Butterfly-Alley-Gifts-61551021355135/

You can also get signed copies at one of our upcoming author appearances, which I'll give you information about on my next post. If you show up somewhere with a book you already bought, of course we'll sign it ... but don't count on that increasing the book's value.

I have to stop for now ... my talking muscles are getting tired.

Oh, just one more thing: When I say "we" set up this or set up that, it's actually Emily who did it. Even if I could type right now, my lack of talent on computer design verges on legendary.