Return on Investment

Event:

• A four-hour slot to sell books at Off the Beaten Path bookstore in downtown Steamboat Springs.
• Date: Friday, February 15.
• Time: 4 to 8 p.m.

Expenses:

• Seven hours of driving (354 miles round-trip, including the return home through a major snowstorm via Wolcott and Interstate 70).
• $79 for a room at the Travelodge in Yampa.
• $10 for a Jimmy John’s Italian subway sandwich. (That was dinner; my favorite hamburger joint was jam-packed.)
• $10 for a bottle of wine.
• $13, including tip, for a two-egg breakfast at Penny’s Diner (open 24 hours!) right next to the Travelodge in downtown Yampa.

Income:

Couple of bucks?

Thoughts & Analysis:

Yes, in a four-hour “meet and greet” at Off the Beaten Path, I sold two books. The date and time were selected by the fine folks at Off the Beaten Path—late on a Friday afternoon before a big mid-February weekend.

The heavy winter snows had packed the town—thus my decision to stay in Yampa, 30 miles south, to avoid the $200 nightly room rentals in Steamboat.

The bookstore was positive the traffic would be good. They had been having a great year! I was right next to where the line forms for coffee and goodies at their in-store café! What could go wrong? And when I arrived, a few minutes before 4 p.m., I found a small table with copies of all five of my books in a little display. The store had done everything right.

They were ready. I was ready.

They thanked me for coming all the way up. We chatted briefly about the fact that if I sold all the books they had ordered in (about 30 in all), I had more with me to backstop their supply. All good! Away we go.

One problem.

The store was dead, stayed dead, and got deader.

I sold a copy of my first novel to a high school English teacher, and a copy of my third to a dad from Virginia. Nobody bought a copy of my fifth novel—my latest (The Melancholy Howl)! The reason I was there!

I think a few potential buyers said they might buy an ebook. One sounded interested in—maybe! perhaps! thinking about!—getting the audio version.

But, other than that, yawns.

The store staff was chagrined but, hey, I know they don’t control the flow of retail traffic. I laughed, they laughed, we all laughed. We talked books, we talked about the business, we had a great time.

At one point, as my four-hour window was coming to a close, I drifted back to the mystery section. I noted a gap on the shelf in the ‘S’ section. The missing books were now on my table—and would soon go back. That space was right at eye-level. Perfect.

Then one of the staff members said, “Hey, just so you don’t feel so bad, I just checked the computer and we’ve sold 200 of your books.”

Say what?

“Yes,” he said, “you do very well here. We keep your books in stock, and the locals here love reading books set in Colorado, particularly western Colorado.”

In short, the staff appreciated my effort. And, well, the whole roll-with-the-punches thing. If you’ve got a book out, you know one thing for sure: there are ups and there are downs. You may as well leave the bookstore folks knowing that you appreciate everything they do. Books have sold before you got there. They will sell long, long after you’re gone. Leave your booksellers with a good impression, right?

Two books in four hours? It happens.

Onward.

Keep on plugging.

Next up: Grand Junction Barnes & Noble, Saturday April 6 at 2 p.m.