Sunday, January 17, 2010

books and bears and a car

Multiple conversations: Yesterday was packed with a lot of practical considerations, especially relating to getting a car. There were calls to the dealer/garage, Worth Unlimited, about the car itself; calls to & from Toole-Peet about insurance (personal or commercial classification?); calls to & from the auto auction place that will be picking up my written-off Crown Victoria.

Conversation: Kevin has been urging me for a couple of weeks to call Chapters/Indigo. So I called a couple of locations about getting BlueBeary and/or Notes from Over the Hill in Calgary stores. Unfortunately—though reasonably—they only consign books if the author is around to do a booksigning and help drive sales. That’s out of the question for Martha, who is 88 years young. It’s a possibility down the road for Kathleen.

I already knew that Chapters/Indigo is not the right place to start. A few weeks ago I attended a presentation by Paula McGarrigle of A Baby Guide to Calgary. Her book is into its 3rd printing, with nearly 10,000 copies sold (5000 = bestseller). Chapters/Indigo came later in their marketing strategy. So it will be with us.

Really, what I need to do is get books into BC stores and get Kathleen doing booksignings there as well as speaking in Lower Mainland elementary schools. That alone would keep us all busy.

Conversation: I had a final sewing session with Kevin’s mom, prepping bears for Stephanie’s birthday party. It went quite smoothly and we finished ahead of our estimated finishing time. This was a crazy idea. But I believe it will be worth it in the end.

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