Sometimes you have these surreal moments in your life that you never actually thought you’d experience.

A few days ago, I signed copies of my short horror story collection, Losing Air: Dark and Strange Tales for patrons at Adventures Underground in Richland. Note that I’ve been a loyal customer at AU basically my entire life- from coming once a week during freshman year to pick up the next Harry Potter book after I finished the previous one, to placing orders for backordered records I couldn’t find anywhere, and now getting all my book preorders from them through Bookshop, these guys have been part of my life for a long time.

As a frequent customer, I’ve also been seeing local authors sign books there for years. From debut self-published writers to the legendary Patricia Briggs, AU has graciously hosted many writers.

Somehow, they agreed to let me come and do that.

Boy, the imposter syndrome was rampant after I sent that first email to their team. All I did was self-publish a dumb little horror story collection through KDP. The only ratings it had on Goodreads were from my dad and Saige. I really had no idea if it was actually good, or if I was just being politely lied to by my friends and family because it would be a little awkward for them to be like, “I got bored halfway through” or “Have you considered a career in accounting?”

So what made me qualified to sit down at a table, sharpies in hand, and delude myself into thinking people would see me sitting there, look at the optimistic stack of books for sale, and actually want to buy it and have me sign it?

No clue. But I’ve always been a big believer in the “act like you belong” ideology, so I went ahead and arranged the event with the lovely Erin at AU.

The Preparation

After receiving a gracious “Yes!” from Erin, I was informed that I would be provided a table (and tablecloth), as well as chairs and a free drink from the cafe (fuck yeah, I would’ve stopped to get one anyway). This was when my brain started to work.

Step one was designing some graphics. As you know if you follow me on Instagram, graphic design is most definitely not my passion, as Saige designs all my posts. I knew without hesitation that it was time to call Saige.

After a two-hour discord call, Saige had effortlessly created the vision I came up with in my head: those old monster comic book covers, but I’m the monster.

I love this design so much, and I know we had a lot of fun coming up with it on that call.

Once the time of the signing came closer, I set out on a lovely Saturday afternoon to inquire about advertising in the windows of various shops in the Uptown. Lovely folks who allowed me to plaster my goofy mug on their shops included The Emerald of Siam, Family Garden, Luna Roja Tattoo, The Caterpillar Cafe (of course), Octopus’s Garden, and The Yellow Cafe. I purposely chose these businesses because I have a connection to each of them: I’ve been a patrons of all these businesses for years (most of my tattoos were done by Courtney at Luna Roja, and I’ve been going to shows at The Emerald since I was a child). It was also a great excuse to buy more books at AU and eat a bunch of food.

That done, I hoped the word would spread at least a little bit.

Next step was to design a table setup that would serve two functions: draw people in, and inform them adequately of who the hell I was and what this book was.

I am very fortunate to have such lovely and supportive parents. I don’t take it for granted- many creatives don’t have such support readily available. But since I do, I enlisted their help.

Between the three of us, we were able to secure some table decorations and signage. And let me tell you, if you need any sort of signage or other printing job done quickly, well, and for a fair price, go to A Lettered Home in West Richland and ask about it (and also buy some books while you’re there). These guys handled the giant poster, the free bookmarks stuck inside each book (after a disaster trying to have them printed by Walgreens), and even the printing of my Creative Writing certificate from Cornell. They are lovely.

For table decorations, I got some battery-powered candles, string lights, a campy, lifelike human heart pen cup for my sharpies, and a cute coffin-shaped tray for some dice rolls (we’ll get to that). Everything arrived with plenty of time to spare, and I felt pretty good about my potential setup, despite my well-known terrible interior decorating skills.

Just like that, I had everything: the actual books to sign, table decorations, a lovely poster printed to set up behind me, and a terrible paranoia that nobody would want to come up and talk to me.

Signing Day

April 11th came, and I started the day off getting lunch with my family. We sat down for crepes at The Yellow Cafe in Richland, going over the items we’d brought, my table setup ideas, and how many copies we thought I might sell. After, my mom and I made our way to AU with fifteen minutes to spare before we needed to start setting up. So, of course I bought some books. They had a hardcover of Monstrilio!

Finally, the time came to announce myself as the author of the hour (yikes) and start setting up the table. The lovely Candice greeted us with delighted surprise, making sure we had everything we needed, including a complimentary coffee from the Cafe for me. Candice, if by the off chance you happen to ever see this, I am so sorry. I’m 80% sure I spelled your name “Candace” in the book I signed for you. I will never forget this atrocity.

Anyway, after some jostling and jangling, we managed to get the table decorations and my lovely poster set up in the way I thought looked best.

And then, with no ceremony or fireworks, 2pm hit.

And I really didn’t have to wait long for someone to be interested.

I spoke with many lovely people, most of which actually were legitimately, organically interested in my stories. It was fascinating. I got to talk gothic horror with one patron, give out free stickers to the occasional child waiting for me to finish jabbering with their parent, and I even had one person roll a natural 20 with my offered dice and receive their book for free!

Candice was even lovely enough to let me stay an extra half hour and see if I could sell any more of my stock! Lucky she did, because I sold two more books in those last thirty minutes. You rock, Candice!

When my time was up, we went over our invoice, which really made me feel like a real adult author. The shop even bought two copies from me to sell on their shelves! So, if you are local but missed the signing, you can pick up a copy there still.

(psst. I’m also selling copies at the Koala Cafe in Richland. Gotta spread those seeds far and wide!).

Reflection

*leans back in therapist’s chair* So, how did that make you feel?

This entire experience was incredibly fun. I loved feeling like a part of the crew at the bookstore I’ve loved so much my whole life. The little chats and conversations I had with those who stopped at my table were invigorating and enjoyable. And it was such a strange feeling to look at the stack beside me and realize I’d sold over half the stock I’d brought with me.

I’m working on securing some more signing events at other indie shops, throwing my net across cities nearby- Walla Walla, Hermiston, even Ellensburg and Spokane. Even just to get my book stocked in other places will help extend my reach, hopefully leading to getting the book in the hands of that right person- the one who recommends it to someone who recommends it to someone else, and so on.

While I know this is my very first time on the merry-go-round, I feel like this was a great success, and it’s motivating me to really pursue more direct marketing than I thought was within my reach. The most important thing with this book is not sales numbers- I’m not delusional, I know those are not going to be impressive as a debut self-pub- but the people it’s reaching. The impact it’s (hopefully) having on these lovely readers who’ve decided to support me based on my pitch alone is what I want to see coming back.

This experience has had another effect on me as well: I can’t wait to do it again! I really hope AU will have me back when that time comes!

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Monthly Writing Goals Update

11,893 / 20,000 words

I am delighted to say, “So far, so good.” I’ve stuck very well to my goal of writing at least 1,000 words every weekday. Most of the time, I’m going over that.

I’ve mentioned previously that I’m now focusing all of my attention on Kaja, as I am nearing the finish line for it to be a novella of about 30,000 words. Here’s the thing, though.

I’ve gained a lot of confidence in my writing over the past few weeks, what with the release of Losing Air and the general not terrible reception it’s gotten so far. Here’s another thing- with how much of this story I’ve been cranking out, I might even go over 30,000, depending on how everything comes out. And it got me thinking.

I’ve been skipping over events and periods of time and summarizing them in-narrative for the sake of pacing. But I realized that the events I’m skipping over, if paced just right, could potentially give me enough plot to boost this thing to 40,000 words, or even 45,000. That’s nearly enough to be a novel, though on the shorter side. And I’ve been seeing many shorter novels get major releases the past few years, the biggest example being Eric LaRocca, whose agent is on my list of to-query individuals.

So now I’m not so sure what I’m going to do with Kaja. I may leave her as a novella and self-publish (or try small-press indie publishing) like I planned, or I may try to flesh out those skipped events and see if she can get big enough to put in front of my agent wishlist.

I’ll keep you guys updated! Wish me luck!

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