Christian Store Day Report
As you saw last Tuesday, I participated in the 2010 Christian Store Day event Saturday with a book signing at Heaven Help Us Christian Bookstore in New Albany, Indiana.
It takes me about two and a half hours to get to Louisville* (New Albany is a suburb) from Nashville, but I “lose” an hour going because it’s in the Eastern time zone and Nashville is in Central.
This is what’s passing for fall colors around this area (this is south of Elizabethtown, KY on I-65).
This is the second time in the back six of this year that I’ve gone somewhere for a several-days event (ICRS in St. Louis/ACFW in Indianapolis) and then within a month turned around and went halfway back (Paducah/New Albany). It’s made those second trips seem much shorter since I was “just” there!
Here I am with the wonderful owners and staff of Heaven Help Us. I was scheduled to sign from 2 to 4 p.m., but because I’d allowed three hours to get there (since New Albany is north of Louisville and looked like it was pretty far off the interstate from the directions Google gave me, and I always allow “getting lost” time whenever I go somewhere for the first time), I actually pulled into the parking lot a few minutes after 1 p.m. So I got started early . . . and I ended up staying until almost 6 p.m. Not because of the huge crowds, but because I was having so much fun just sitting and chatting with the other authors who were there:
Me with historical romance author Jamie Carie
Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture with the other author who was there, Vanessa Miller.
Between the books that sold that day and the few I signed to leave behind for people who couldn’t make it out to the store on Saturday, I signed a total of twenty-six books—fourteen of which were copies of Stand-In Groom! And I’ve already promised that I’ll go back for at least one if not two more book signings there next year—probably around the time Ransome’s Quest releases and then maybe next December after Turnabout’s Fair Play comes out and I have three complete series I can sign.
- *Lori Benton and Laura Frantz—everyone from New Albany pronounced it Lou–ee–ville not Lou–uh–vull.
Did you make it out to a Christian Store Day event in your area?
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KayeDacus.com 
Your trip sounds like it was a great success! I’m glad. 🙂 I’ve never been to a book signing. Are all those books that you signed ones that were sold there that day or do some people bring in their copies from home for you to sign?
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One person brought in two books that she’d previously purchased, and she bought one more while she was there. All the rest of them were books that people bought there.
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Wow, that was great for you! 🙂 Do you bring the books with you or do the customers get them at the bookstore and just bring them to your table?
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The publisher sends extras, which the store staff set out on the table where I’m sitting so that the customers can look at all of them and pick them up right there at the table.
When I do events at libraries or other non-bookstore locations (small conferences, meetings, speaking events), I bring my own stock of books and sell them myself.
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Hmm, I wouldn’t have thought being so close by they’d pronounce it like us Yankees. 🙂 Glad you had a great time. I love it when an author comes to the Parable store in our mall. I always go and have lunch with them first and stick around to chat for a while. Bonnie Leon and Ann Shorey have a signing here each once or twice a year.
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When I’m doing an event out of town, I always try to get together with other writers and/or readers while I’m there. I did that when I did the signing in Charleston, SC, this summer. A couple of ladies from the ACFW chapter there met my mom and me for breakfast at a great little diner not too far away from the B&N, then came over and hung out at the bookstore for a couple of hours (and got to meet a bunch of my extended family, who were all also in town for my cousin’s wedding and were wonderful enough to drive all the way over to the other side of town to support me, too).
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Kaye, I’m glad you had an awesome day. Booksignings can be such an “unknown” in terms of turnout, staff help, etc. Also glad you got to spend some time with Vanessa, who is one of Abingdon’s authors. She’s cool.
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Vanessa is awesome, and I’d love to read her books. She and the bookstore were excited to have her November Abingdon release there for her to sign—which sounds like a great book!
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Sounds like you had a great time! I so wish I could have attended one of the events! I was working at the library, checking out Christian Fiction! Does that count?
I’m not surprised that STAND-IN GROOM was popular! It’s such a great book – and people like to get in on an author where THEY started!
As for the pronunciation of Louisville, I’m not surprised that the good folks in New Albany pronounce it that way. They are, after all, Hoosiers. I can only say that because, though a staunch Kentuckian, my high school diploma is from Indiana. Sigh.
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My mom lived in Louisville for several years in the 1970’s. What she has said, regarding pronunciation, is that people from Louisville pronounce it Lou–ee–ville, while those of us from the rest of the state pronounce it Lou–uh–vull.
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