Friday night was my first book signing for The Criminal Mastermind of Baker Street.
You guys, I can't even describe how awesome it was!
Deep breath. Okay, begin at the beginning.
When I first announced my contract with MX Publishing on Facebook, my local independent bookstore immediately said they wanted to schedule an author signing. This store is great. Afterwords Books in Edwardsville has been my go to store for the past 6 years or so when I first discovered it. Since then they've moved three times (once or twice I got conscripted into helping move those boxes of books), and every year Afterwords has become more and more important to me. My daughter's three year old pictures were even taken in the store!
Fast forward from that photo shoot to last Friday night. My wife, daughter and I arrived at Afterwords at 6:00 for the 6:30 event. After a few minutes of set up talk with LuAnn, the owner, a reporter from the local paper showed up to interview me about my book. (Side note, this is BY FAR the coolest part of the whole thing for my daughter. IT'S THE NEWSPAPER!) I wasn't sure what to expect from the interview, but when she started asking me about Mary Morstan and Lestrade's roles in my book, it was clear this reporter knew her stuff. It was a real pleasure to talk with her and I will be sure to link to the story once it's up.
And there was cake!
By 6:30, I was seated at my table with a stack of books and a reliable pen, and before I knew it, there was A LINE! Seriously, enough people came out to buy my book that they had to wait in line to talk to me. Insane. Some of my current and former fifth graders came by, which was especially awesome because they HAVE to spend all day with me. The fact that they drug their parents out to see me again was really meaningful. And, I got those kids into a bookstore. Double points.
A lot of the people in attendance were friends and acquaintances, and I think a little part of them is pretty happy to not see me post the event in their Facebook feeds anymore. Every time I looked up to see another familiar face, it was another jolt of happiness. It really felt like a homecoming picnic, except everyone was there for books, and a book that I wrote, to boot!
Afterwords did a great job promoting the event, and there were other people there who I'm not Facebook friends with or related to in attendance as well. It was really nice to meet some other local Sherlock Holmes fans. I made a few pitches for The Parallel Case of St. Louis, but we will have to see if we get any new recruits. One memorable exchange I had was with a guy who brought his seventh grade son, and the son started asking me about getting a book published. About halfway through our conversation, I realized that I was semi-qualified to be giving this guy advice on following a dream he had to write a book. Whoa.
Of course I was happy to see people buying my book. But seeing people carry stacks of books and other merchandise up to the register was just as great. I'm a big believer that it's important to support local businesses that are meaningful to us. MX Publishing has a great program where independent bookstores get access to titles 2-3 months before Amazon and Barnes & Noble do. I would really encourage you to get your local independent bookstore to look into stocking some MX titles. Because you know you're not the only Sherlockian in your town, and buying Sherlockian books from a local independent is a win-win for everyone.
As the night wound down, we realized that we had sold out of The Criminal Mastermind of Baker Street! Afterwords had their stock, and I brought a box of books to the event, just in case we needed one or two extra. We needed a few more than one or two. I have five more book signings scheduled over the next month and half, but I can't imagine anything topping this one. My local bookstore and my Sherlockian hobby coming together for a night was evidently no ordinary party.
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