I just posted one of my biggest fears on Facebook:
"Couldn't sleep last night because tomorrow is the big signing at Borders for Bitter Things! First one at a store without other authors -- and I'm afraid no one will show up..."
And I've gotten a number of responses:
Michael Helfenbein: bring a live chicken and perform some kind of voodoo ritual. that's sure to attract some attention. seriously... you'll be fine. good luck my man!
Trudy Kimbrough: Andrew, the book is awesome...how could it NOT be a success? Borders also attracts a lot of Kindlers...you could tell them they could get it on Kindle, and you'd be happy to sign your card and give it to them to keep in the Kindle cover.
Mary-Anne Koller Rios: Sounds like one of those dreams where I'm in HS and I don't have my schedule and I don't know what day it is or where I am supposed to go and if I passed all my classes and actually graduated...that might mean something really deep though I haven't a clue as to what...
Jeanette Williamson: You KNOW I'd be there if I didn't move.... so again... I throw out my other option.... GET your writing behind down to the Tampa area we have BORDERS and a b&n right across the street from one another.... Dang nabbit
I appreciate all the comments -- but if only some of them would show up at the even tomorrow, I'd feel a lot better!
UPDATE: THE MORNING AFTER
So my fear was that no one would come to the store and that tumbleweeds would be rolling by. That wasn't the case, exactly, It being so close to Christmas, the store was packed.
But the tumbleweeds were in full force at the table where my books and I were set up.
I spent a lot of time thinking about my friends who couldn't make it but were with me "in spirit," as they said, and I was glad, because if I didn't have people there in spirit I wouldn't have had anyone there at all.
That's an exaggeration. My publicist was there. And his delightful fiancee. A fellow author had stopped by to pick up a copy, a friend from work and a friend from high school, too. But after a three-hour round trip drive and a three hour sit and stew, I was hoping to sell a few more books than the handful I did. My publicist said he handed out fliers days before; I had banner ads on select websites; my other publicist even set up local radio interviews and write-ups in the local Penny-Savers; I was chatting people up, and I had a multi-media display, complete with speakers and the trailer that plays the trailer on this website; black roses and candles, fliers and bookmarks, and my irrepressible charm.
None of it was charming enough.
Maybe I'm looking at this wrong. Maybe it WAS a success. It's a handful of books I wouldn't have sold otherwise, and a bunch of people DID take fliers and bookmarks, which might translate into a sale or two.
And if nothing else, I learned yet another valuable lesson in disappointment -- one that apparently I keep haivng to learn because it keeps repeating itself -- and that lesson is... um... what was that lesson again?