Every September in Toronto, there is an event entitled “Word on the Street” which brings together authors, bookstores, writing organizations, and magazine companies in an open-air venue.
For a little over $400, self-published authors can rent a booth and attempt to sell their books.
I tried my hand at this on September 22, 2013, bringing along copies of MPTR. I sold a paltry nine copies although there were a number of people who took away bookmarks that advertised my novel.
I was still teaching in those days and one of the administrative assistants from a school I had worked in purchased the book to put in her school’s library. I was touched by that but wonder if, by now, the book has been removed due to being outdated.
When we expose our books and our reasons for writing them to people, we can always assume that not everyone will support us. When I explained to one man what MPTR was about, he went off on a tangent, talking how corrupt the world was, that the ice-caps were melting in the Arctic, that people were destroying the planet. I didn’t see any connection between my book and his concerns and figured that he just needed someone to absorb his anger. At one point, he said, “Nobody is listening,” to which I responded, “I am listening.” And I was.
My book went “international” in July 2014 when I visited one of my favourite destinations, San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. I brought along copies of the book and left one for my favourite waiter at my favourite restaurant so that he could give it to his son. I took another to a used bookstore called “Garrison and Garrison” and left it for the owners to sell. I didn’t want the money; just the recognition. The person I spoke to was delighted and said that she always tried to flaunt books by local authors. Since I visit SMA numerous times, we considered myself a “local” author.
Also in July, I paid to have my book reviewed by some prestigious book reviewers. Some reviews were disappointing; some encouraging. I will get to this in my next blog.
The front cover of my book:
