Signing Books

Damn, that's a great cover!

The books arrived this week and I posted on Facebook to announce their arrival, and a strange thing happened.

A whole lot of people messaged me to get a copy.

And it really amazed me.

I've been doing it for quite awhile, and I'm confident in the book (I loved doing it) but there's so much doubt in the moments when it is going to be sent out to the public.

I've always said that the strange part about writing is that it's a very lonely task that when completed, results in the writer having to be the exact opposite person of the same human being who was locked in a room alone writing it.

But it's still really cool...and I enjoy it more now that I am not worried about how many copies it sells or if I am or am not considered a real author.

Yet...it still makes me laugh a little...

I was in the center aisle of the local grocery store trying to sell copies of the first book. The book was horrible. The experience was ridiculous and people walked by me, looking at me as if I were one of those religious nuts trying to peddle eternal salvation.

And people are really weird to writers:

"I'm gonna' write a book," they'll say. "Not something like this, but a best-seller. I have a best-seller in me!"

And I would smile and nod and think, 'Damn. Good luck. This one took me awhile!'

Yet the strangest part is when they would feel comfortable enough to ask this:

"How much money have you made?"

I've yet to meet an author...and twenty-five years in I've met a lot...who know quite how to handle such a question.

And when you break it all down...every single book you sell pays you less than minimum wage because there really is a lot of time spent on trying to make it all work.

Yet when it does work.

Even partially...

...it's a feeling that is absolutely unmatched.

Because I was a kid, reading a book by Lewis Grizzard, a humorist from Atlanta, and I remember thinking, 'Dang, I want to write something that means something to somebody...someday.

I really hope I did it again.

Because in the end, when all else fails, signing books is still a lot of fun.