June 24th, 2010 – Atlanta, GA
W Perimeter Hotel
I descended the elevator from the sixth floor to the lobby as my stomach churned butter into cream. It was 9:15 am. Walking through the lobby and finding James and Steph setting up our booth, I wondered how long it would take for us to make our first sale. Even though it was pretty quiet overall I had no doubt we would be successful. But I felt the anxiety I typically experience just before a big corporate presentation or a big basketball game back in my balling days.
There were only two or three other vendors setting up alongside us. I noticed them gazing curiously over at the three of us, surely wondering which of us the author was or whether the three of us had penned the book together.
Ironically, either response would have been met with an affirmative head nod.
SELLOUT may have James W. Lewis’ name on the cover and spine, but is also has the TPC BOOKS logo there as well. That means that James’ rep wasn’t the only one on the line here and probably explains the jagged spike in my heart rate as conference attendees began to pass by – clearly intrigued by the SELLOUT cover, poster, and ultra dapper author before them.
It’s one thing to do the behind the scenes work to bring a book to life, it’s quite another to face real-life potential readers. I had to stop myself from overanalyzing their every reaction and tic.
Some people engaged the three of us directly. Others read the poster and picked up a flyer. Many picked up the book itself and read the back cover copy – some stoic, other wearing their interest all over their features.
As for the product itself, I was supremely confident. Not only had James written a character-driven provocative evocative page-turning novel, but our fans had helped us design the cover and crystallize the back cover copy. So we weren’t alone – we were repping the nearly 3,000 collective fans of Stephanie Casher, James Lewis, Omar Luqmaan-Harris, and Qwantu Amaru…the real Pantheon Collective!
And when all was said and done, eighty percent of people who stopped by our booth left with a copy of SELLOUT gripped in their possession. Not bad for our “soft launch”. A launch that only six weeks before seemed almost certain of not happening (props to Steph’s superhuman copyediting skills). It’s really a testament to James’ talent and the power of three people living their dream. If we can do it, anyone can!
BWRC Exhibition Footage
{ 1 trackback }
{ 0 comments… add one now }