Wednesday, September 15, 2010

In Which I Receive 1,500 Copies of My Book! (Pictures)

Since my last post, I've been a busy beaver.I mounted my $150 canopy on my $1,500 pickup and drove to Spokane, WA to pickup 1,500 long overdue books. (Due to an overrun, I actually picked up 1,594, but saying that would ruin the number scheme.) (That's my dad making a cameo appearance in the picture above, helping me mount the canopy.)I signed books, crisscrossed the county delivering books, packaged books, shipped books, and dreamed of books. If you entered in the HUGE ONLINE PARTY and/or ordered a book from me, expect to receive a package in the mail very soon. And if you don't, let me know.

This morning I walked into the post office to ship out 149 packages.

"Hi! I have roughly 149 packages to ship!"
"...Come again?"

And each and every one had to go through the system. All told it took about an hour. And when it was done, I received what the ladies told me was the longest receipt they'd ever had.

That's right.
I own the record for longest receipt at the post office in my county. I'd like to thank everyone who ordered and the post office ladies for making this dream possible. I couldn't have done it without you. There is no 'i' in 'team.' But there are sure a lot of 'i's on that receipt.

The Nez Perce County Fair starts a week from tomorrow. I am excited about this because it's a much larger fair than my first one. I sent out press releases to all media in the area, and a reporter from the Moscow-Pullman Daily News replied that they'd do a story if I toured nearby Moscow, Idaho. I immediately called the Hastings at the Palouse Mall in Moscow.

And lo and behold, despite the fact that booking anything up to this point has been a real chore involving multiple phone calls, (seriously, the other night I was overjoyed to receive a real-life returned call. Then I woke up) they were happy to book a signing with me literally FOUR DAYS from the date I called.

FOUR DAYS!

My previous bookings have been 1.5 months+ in advance. So I am really excited to sign books this Saturday at the Moscow Hastings, my first official book signing, the day after the story mentioning the event is supposed to release to a metro area of 50,000+.

From there I will continue south to the Nez Perce County Fair. No word yet on if any media will pick up the story there. But stay tuned.

In my next post I want to show you a picture of the seven foot tall banner I ordered, and the hilarious (read: embarrassing) story behind it. Or maybe I'll just take a picture of my setup at the Hastings signing, and you can see it then.

Books Sold to Date? Ummm... 300... or so. (Not counting online or physical bookstore sales.)
Miles Traveled? I really need to be keeping track of this stuff...
Events Total? Does that Post Office record count as an event? Because that was pretty cool.
Jacob's IQ? Hahaha! Wait, what?
Marriage Proposal Success Rate? You know, I think it's time to wrap this post up. ::Clicks "Publish Post" repeatedly::