Many elements combined to create the perfect storm that was bent on destroying my launch party and first three signings.
First, the place I originally ordered my back-up books from fell through. I hurried and ordered them from my publisher. Those books were delayed. Now they will be arriving after my launch party and first signing. The day after.
Not a huge deal, right? The bookstores should have my books.
No. My print run sold out so fast (from preorders and such), there were no books for the bookstores to buy. The bookstore where I'm having my first signing can't get the books in. The bookstore for my second signing can't get the books in. In the last 36 hours, I have spent hours on the phone trying to fix things.
I called my publisher, who called my distributor and printer. I called other bookstores. No one has my books. No one can get my books for another one to three months.
Insert panic attack here.
And then my publisher fixed things (for the most part). *hugs to Rhemalda* Bookstores can now order my books and have them in ~10 days. Much better than 1 to three months. And we won't be having this problem again (they switched our distributor and printer).
I was able to round up 20 books for my first signing (we pulled the newspaper article and will run it later when I do another signing).
At my launch party, people will preorder the books and I will sign them and drop them off at the library for people to pick up.
I have two more shipments of books coming which I will use for the conference and signing the next weekend and the signing the weekend after that.
That's the best I can do, and it will just have to be good enough.
Q4U: Have you ever planned some huge event and had everything fall apart last minute?
Whew. /cheer for your success but just listening to you talk about this makes me cringe. Best of luck Amber. I shall see you in Layton :)