The End of the Book Signing Battle...The End of the Big Book Store!

[Vincent Zandri]

The battle is over, the bombs dropped, the shots fired, the smoke cleared, the dead lay scattered across the battlefield, the wounded picked up and carted out to the mobile hospitals. Me, I sit with my back up against the trench, face hot and dirty from the soil that sticks to my sweat, my breath beginning to even out, lit cigarette danging from trembling fingers.

Yesterday was the day I wanted to see if I could sell more books online than I could at a traditional signing. As you know, for eons, traditional signings have been an integral part of the writer's job in promoting his or her work. Remember the old stories about writers getting into their cars and traveling cross country to stop at every bookstore possible in order to "move units?"

Well, that kind of thing has not only become out-dated, it's become an anachronism in this the age of global media, internet, and social networking. Why get in the car and travel to a bookstore to move a few copies when you can move three, four, even ten times the amount by doing some social networking and pushing right from home?

Anyone who knows me, knows I've never been fond of book signings.
I've never had much luck with them. I remember once showing up in LA at a signing scheduled at a pretty popular mystery bookstore, and my books hadn't arrived yet. I recall others where it snowed and no one could make it. More recently, a bookstore owner purposely double-billed with an author she was promoting due to his local celebrity news broadcasting status. I was told to "go to the back of the store!" I signed books for the people who had shown up to see me, and then I walked out...

...Get the rest of the story at The Vincent Zandri Vox!