Book Signing

I was asked to do a book signing at annual conference this year. Fortunately, it was a book signing instead of a book-sitting.

But there was one interesting phenomenon . . . every few minutes someone would walk up to me and ask a question about the merchandise. They assumed that, by virtue of the fact that I was sitting behind a table with a pile of books, that I worked for Cokesbury.

One woman walked up to me, held out a catalogue, and asked, "Now, let me ask you. If I order this robe for my pastor, can you guarantee me that it will fit?"

I looked at her and said, "Mine fits, lady, and I'm a rather large man."

Another guy walked over, held out an Adam Hamilton DVD and asked, "Do you have this in CD instead of DVD? You need to make sure you keep your inventory up. It's getting low."

I looked at the the DVD for the guy and said, "Are you sure you wouldn't rather have the DVD, chum? You can watch it on your laptop that way." He gave me a sneer and walked away. I think he was a district superintendent. Probably want to move me to Potato Run.

And then there was the woman who walked up to me and asked, "Why are you just sitting here? You've got customers waiting in line. You need to open up another cash register!"

"Yeah, yeah, lady . . . just join the rest of the deadbeats already. I'm selling books here. Wanna buy one?"

Anyway . . . always glad to help Cokesbury any way I can. But being a customer service rep instead of an author ain't easy.