Read All Of It!
“I can’t. Over 100 dog lovers, who have all signed the same forms, agreed to the same rules, have the right to expect that everyone will abide by those rules. I’m sorry.” She said she didn’t know the rules. ....
Read All Of It! I’ve been operating my community dog park since 2001. It’s a membership park. The dog lovers join once for $135, and then annually pay $20 in March towards the maintenance for the summer. We have well over 100 life members, but average 60 active each season. When you join, there are three documents. 1) The rules, 2) the Membership Agreement which says you’ve read the rules and agree to comply, and 3) the registration for the dog that will be using the park. These are sent out fresh every March to be returned with the $20 if you plan to be active that year. I keep the wording simple and easy to understand, but that doesn’t mean the agreement isn’t a legal document. In all the years, I’ve only had one disaster with this contract. It was a friend I saw socially at the Country Club and went to Church with. Dave and I had been on committees with them and played golf. I discovered their dog, who had not been neutered, was in violation of the agreement. I notified them the dog couldn’t return until this had been taken care of. She was furious with me, saying since we were friends, I know her dog, I should make an exception.
“I can’t. Over 100 dog lovers, who have all signed the same forms, agreed to the same rules, have the right to expect that everyone will abide by those rules. I’m sorry.” She said she didn’t know the rules. ....
2 Comments
Learning To Say I Do One thing I learned early on was that to sell books you need to have books. Sounds logic-simple, but it took me a while to adjust to that thinking. I can tell you how it feels when someone you’ve just met is interested in your work and asks, “Do you have any with you?” And you have to say, “I’m sorry, I don’t.” I grumbled to myself for hours. I didn’t know I would need any.
It doesn’t matter where you’re going, you always need some books. I’m not saying you should pass your sell sheets around at Uncle Fred’s wake, for pity sake. Don’t hand out your business cards in the supermarket checkout lane. But one time I stopped in a cute little shop in Nowhereville for an ice cream. The scooper was a teenage girl and we were alone in the shop. She asked where I was going, where I’d come from and why had I gone there in the first place. I told her, and after a friendly chat she said, “I’ve never met an author before. Do you have any books with you?” I’ve sold books at soccer games, church suppers, dinner parties and in a parking lot. And it was never me who brought up the subject. It’s like where do you live, .................... Avery and Gunner Go Home! When I wrote the Avery and Gunner stories (Avery's Battlefield and Avery's Crossroad) my character Avery told me the story. He lived in the Kanawha River Valley in what became West Virginia. He seemed to know a lot about the area. I checked all his facts, and discovered he had it right. I, however, had never been there. I'd not seen the Kanawha River, or the valley or any of the towns he told me to write about. I didn't even pronounce Kanawha correctly.
I follow the Civil War reenactments picking out the ones I want to go to selling the books. When I saw one in Parkersburg, West Virginia, I was excited. I wanted to take Avery and Gunner home. Silly, I know. I've written in previous blogs about my friend Chris who sometimes travels with me. She was with Avery and me on our first venture out in spring of 2012. I asked her to come to this one. It will be our last time to travel together since she'll be moving in August. I wanted her to come to Parkersburg for our farewell to see Avery's home. Parkersburg is an unusual town. It's architecture is potpourri, ala carte, a little of this a little of that. Not any particular style, or era, or construction materials. The town itself is about five blocks by four blocks. Streets crawl with odd angles and sudden one way spurs. The city of amazing bridges spanning the Ohio River and its tributaries, is surrounded by an awe-inspiring flood wall, bigger than the one ..... Sideswiped by Reality I love it when my writer's life just sails along. Don’t you? I think we’re all creatures of habit, and we like it that way. We know what we have to do, what we want to do, how we prefer to do it. It’s those unexpected events that throw a wrench in the best laid plans of everyday living.
I love my weekends on the road selling books. During the week I have to do the ordinary stuff, groceries, laundry, that sort of thing, and I know how I like to do it. And, of course, I need to write. I enjoy my quiet mountain life where I write, edit, rewrite, mostly alone in silence. It’s my simple, selfish life. Next week Dave and I will be driving to Michigan to bring my parents, 91 and 92 years old, to live in North Carolina. The Fidelia Eckerd Living Center where they are “going on a vacation” is a short distance from our home. Remember my book Just for the Moment: The Remarkable Gift of the Therapy Dog? Much of those stories happened at the Fidelia Eckerd Living Center. (www.booksbydeanna.com). My parents have been married for 73 years. They live in the same home they bought when Dad came home from the army. I was three years old. That little town .... No is also a Word I’ve suggested in my blogs (actually preached rather than suggested) that we need to grab every opportunity that comes our way to promote our product. For authors that means take advantage of every offer to share or sell our books. We need to extend ourselves, I’ve bravely stated. Fearlessly reach out and try new venues. And that’s true. But! I’ve also learned that sometimes it’s prudent to just say no. I have, of course, learned that the hard way.
Two summers ago after returning from a tiring round trip to Michigan, Lily and I drove one very hot day 3.5 hours from home to help a librarian with her summer reading program. She had called me on the phone weeks ago and begged me to come with my “Reader Dog.” She told me their summer funding had been cut, and the community ..... Simple Money TalksJust for the Moment: The Remarkable Gift of the Therapy Dog, my first book, was priced at $11.95. As I headed out to my first signing adventures, I carried rolls of nickels in my money bag to make change. No one wanted the nickel and said, “Keep it.” So I did, and started selling them at $12. I noticed the customers appreciated the simplicity in that. So did I.
Avery’s Battlefield and Avery’ Crossroad are each priced at $10. This is lovely for me at events. Many times a family purchasing Book One hands me a $20 and then decides, “Oh, just give us both books.” Selling books at a dog event, I sold the two Avery & Gunner books and Just for the Moment, the therapy dog book, bundled as Three Dog Books for $30. Customers love a bargain. It sold a bunch! I decided to continue with $10 for the therapy dog book after that, which encouraged multi-book sales, without making change. Bread Upon the Water joined us at $12.95. With what I’d learned by observing my customers’ money habits, I called it $13. I needed to bring single bills for change, but no coins. When Cracks in the Ice joined the table at $14.99, I saw a new trend in the money handling. It’s easy for parents to hand over $10 for a book for a kid. Fifteen? A little more hesitancy. Knowing that families would like to buy multiple books ................ The Pentecost Example Our priest’s homily at Mass on Pentecost Sunday helped me realize why Good Samaritan Catholic Church in Ellijay, Georgia, had chosen this particular Saturday for their international festival. I read about their festival in a local magazine when I attended the writers conference in Blue Ridge, Georgia, last March. I called the number for information, told the chairman I had two books with the Seal of Approval of the Catholic Writers Guild that I’d like to bring to their festival. They’d never had an “outside” vendor before and needed to discuss it with their committee, who approved me. I would donate 10% of my sales to their festival funds.
Good Samaritan, nestled in the green North Georgia mountains, seems to be a small parish, maybe 200 families, but one with lots of heart. From my book table I watched friends greeting friends, hugs and laughter, volunteers doing their part, good times shared, memories made. Women in aprons buzzed about the kitchen, ...... Keys are in My Pocket I try to learn something new on every trip. In Greenville, SC, I visited the Einstein Academy where my friend Jamey Weathers taught at that time. This is a school for learning disabled students who are cheerful and excited to have a visitor to their school.
I’m greeted by a girl who was such a dear helper, determined to be my right hand. She’s probably about twelve and is very strong. She’s determined to get my boxes unloaded from the car, and she really was a great help. Chattering while she works, she’s so excited about the new books and says she will read them all. My favorite audience! While I set up my display and connect the video trailer to their system, she volunteers to go to my car for one forgotten item. She comes back proudly with the item in her hand. She tells me she might have locked the keys in the car. I didn’t really think she had. My car has a feature that makes it difficult to do so. I’m not worried about it and try to relieve her concern. At the end of the visit, we haul the boxes back to the car. It turns out she was right. A janitor, who also has a bit of a learning disability, shows up with his “tool kit.” It’s a scary looking conglomerate of tools ... The Veteran's Honor Flight What a beautiful experience and wonderful day I shared with my dad last Saturday. May I start by saying this: if you ever have an opportunity to volunteer with Veteran’s Honor Flight, if you ever have a chance to attend a fund raiser for this event or make a donation, if you ever have an occasion to be the guardian for a veteran on the flight, you must do it. You will give yourself a gift and reward veterans in so many ways. It does make a difference. It’s written in their wrinkled faces.
The logistics in planning this event are totally mindboggling. Eighty veterans 87-95 years old arrive at the Kalamazoo airport at five am, along with a guardian who has taken a four-hour training either in person, or as in my case, online. We’re given ID, breakfast, boarding passes and wheelchairs. The airport was buzzing with volunteers. The veterans are beginning to hear the mantra of the day: Thank you for your service, sir. The jet is a charter waiting for us. There is no security line, .... |
Sign Up for the Blog thru the RSS Feed that follows:
Author Deanna lives in the inner-coastal area of Eastern North Carolina in historic Edenton. She belongs to a local bookclub, SCBWI, Catholic Writers Guild, ACFW, NCWN and other writing groups. Categories |