![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The First Sign of The Apocalypse
Nov. 8th, 2009 08:30 amSo, the signing yesterday was a complete disaster for the most part, having nothing to do with us, the authors, or the bookstore itself.
Basically what happened was, we get to the bookstore. The books are out, tables set up, CRM there to greet us, etc. We settled into the store, all of the authors arriving, and start the selling. At first, it looks like it's going to be dead, since there aren't many customers and none of them seem interested in fantasy. But then things start to pick up. We're making some sales, chatting with the influx of people, being entertaining . . .
And then the lights went out. Emergency lights came on, but the registers are down, so no one can buy anything. We all automatically assume that the lights will be back on momentarily, so we continue on our merry "buy my books" way, but after a while, still no lights. Word is that the entire section has no power. We start making jokes about the zombie apocalypse. After much longer, still no power. Word comes in that there's been a fire at the Outback (someone ordered a Bloomin' Onion) and in the attempt to control the fire the power to the local grid was cut. The bookstore starts telling people before they even come into the store that there is no power and they can't check out, so two thirds of the potential customers aren't even seeing us at the store. We are managing to sell some copies to those that come in, but they can't actually buy them, they have to put them on layaway behind the counter and come pick them up later. (For a brief moment, the staff was allowed to do some cash sales even without power, but that didn't last long.) We were supposed to stay until 4pm, but when it had been over two hours without power and it hit 3pm, we decided to call it quits.
We signed everything they had in the store, so if you're in the area and want signed copies either for you or for gifts for the holidays, please feel free to stop on by and pick some of them up. The staff was great in the face of adversity and it really sucks that the power went out. Considering how much we sold with the power out, it makes me wonder how many we COULD have sold if everything had been running normally.
Basically what happened was, we get to the bookstore. The books are out, tables set up, CRM there to greet us, etc. We settled into the store, all of the authors arriving, and start the selling. At first, it looks like it's going to be dead, since there aren't many customers and none of them seem interested in fantasy. But then things start to pick up. We're making some sales, chatting with the influx of people, being entertaining . . .
And then the lights went out. Emergency lights came on, but the registers are down, so no one can buy anything. We all automatically assume that the lights will be back on momentarily, so we continue on our merry "buy my books" way, but after a while, still no lights. Word is that the entire section has no power. We start making jokes about the zombie apocalypse. After much longer, still no power. Word comes in that there's been a fire at the Outback (someone ordered a Bloomin' Onion) and in the attempt to control the fire the power to the local grid was cut. The bookstore starts telling people before they even come into the store that there is no power and they can't check out, so two thirds of the potential customers aren't even seeing us at the store. We are managing to sell some copies to those that come in, but they can't actually buy them, they have to put them on layaway behind the counter and come pick them up later. (For a brief moment, the staff was allowed to do some cash sales even without power, but that didn't last long.) We were supposed to stay until 4pm, but when it had been over two hours without power and it hit 3pm, we decided to call it quits.
We signed everything they had in the store, so if you're in the area and want signed copies either for you or for gifts for the holidays, please feel free to stop on by and pick some of them up. The staff was great in the face of adversity and it really sucks that the power went out. Considering how much we sold with the power out, it makes me wonder how many we COULD have sold if everything had been running normally.
