Minor Rant About Being Good
OK, so here's the situation: I have a new book out (WELL OF SORROWS by Benjamin Tate; order it now!). Somehow, DAW worked a deal so that the book would appear on the shelf at Wegmans. Great! I'm ecstatic! I see it on the shelf and think, wow, cool, I'm giddy, and perhaps I'll sell some extra copies. I begin telling everyone that it's there in the store on the shelf, go buy it. (If you have a local Wegmans, see if it's there!)
The next week, another book by a local author shows up on the shelf and there's a sign saying, hey, look! It's a local author! I didn't realize signs were allowed at Wegmans, so I work up a sign saying, hey, look, it's a local author! and take that sign to the store. Being a good person (at least I like to think so *evil grin*), before putting the sign up, I go to the customer service counter and ask if it's OK. They say that in order to put signs up, you have to get permission from the offices in Rochester, which are only open Monday-Friday. It's Saturday. And they won't be open on Monday because it's July 5th.
Ah. OK, fine. I'll call on Tuesday then, even though Tuesday is usually the day the books get changed out, so who knows if my book will still be there. But, oh well.
It's Tuesday (in case you didn't notice), so I call the offices in Rochester and ask permission to put up a sign saying, hey, local author, buy me! And I'm told:
We can't put up such signs because it would be considered solicitation.
But, I say, there's a sign up already saying, hey, look, local author! for another book on the shelf.
She says, Oh, really? Well . . .
Then she takes down all of my information and the book title and author name (since it's a pseudonym) and the ISBN number and whatnot. She says she'll look into it and get back to me.
So now I'm thinking that either a) she lied her ass off to me and gave me a line in order to get me to go away so she wouldn't have to deal with it, OR (more likely) b) the author of the other local author book just put the sign up without asking permission.
This second option ticks me off, because what's going to happen here is the person who wasn't responsible enough or courteous enough to ask permission has had his sign up in Wegmans promoting his book for at least a week, probably more, while the author who actually asked permission is never going to get to put his sign up at all.
Life. Sometimes it sucks.
The next week, another book by a local author shows up on the shelf and there's a sign saying, hey, look! It's a local author! I didn't realize signs were allowed at Wegmans, so I work up a sign saying, hey, look, it's a local author! and take that sign to the store. Being a good person (at least I like to think so *evil grin*), before putting the sign up, I go to the customer service counter and ask if it's OK. They say that in order to put signs up, you have to get permission from the offices in Rochester, which are only open Monday-Friday. It's Saturday. And they won't be open on Monday because it's July 5th.
Ah. OK, fine. I'll call on Tuesday then, even though Tuesday is usually the day the books get changed out, so who knows if my book will still be there. But, oh well.
It's Tuesday (in case you didn't notice), so I call the offices in Rochester and ask permission to put up a sign saying, hey, local author, buy me! And I'm told:
We can't put up such signs because it would be considered solicitation.
But, I say, there's a sign up already saying, hey, look, local author! for another book on the shelf.
She says, Oh, really? Well . . .
Then she takes down all of my information and the book title and author name (since it's a pseudonym) and the ISBN number and whatnot. She says she'll look into it and get back to me.
So now I'm thinking that either a) she lied her ass off to me and gave me a line in order to get me to go away so she wouldn't have to deal with it, OR (more likely) b) the author of the other local author book just put the sign up without asking permission.
This second option ticks me off, because what's going to happen here is the person who wasn't responsible enough or courteous enough to ask permission has had his sign up in Wegmans promoting his book for at least a week, probably more, while the author who actually asked permission is never going to get to put his sign up at all.
Life. Sometimes it sucks.