Had I had this blog up and running sooner, I would have given the blow-by-blow on finding someone to print the book, etc. Now that that's history, I'll hold off unless someone specifically asks about it.

Instead, I'll do a quick recap of what I've done to promote the book up until now. I've put together a website for it at http://www.shopping-cart-man.com/. (Can you believe that shoppingcartman.com and theshoppingcartman.com were already taken?)

I arranged for and participated in a radio interview with Donna Max on the "Talk of the Town" radio program on KSTAR 1400 am. That went ok. It wasn't stunning, just ok. She read the book beforehand and REALLY liked it. I think the problem was I didn't come up with a good set of questions or key points to be made. Donna did a good job, considering the limited info I'd given her.

I had the company that printed my book print off some posters and a few hundred bookmarks. The bookmarks are great for handing out at booksignings or leaving next to the register for customers to take. That way, if they don't buy the book on the spot, they can have something to remind them of it.

I did booksignings on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon. Signings can be fun, if people stop and chat for a while, but they can be killers otherwise. As I sat there watching people walk by and hoping some would stop, I think I gained a SMALL inkling of what a girl at a dance must feel like. It's certainly not an ego-booster.

If someone looked like they might be interested, I?d offer to tell them about it, otherwise, I didn?t pester them. These efforts met with minimal success. I think I sold about 1 book per hour. Hardly worth the time invested, BUT if it helps word get out and they start spreading the news that there?s a good book out there that their friends would like, then it?s a good investment. It?s much too late to be in any Christmas catalogs and I can?t afford much publicity, so I really need some sort of grass roots, word-of-mouth movement to make this succeed. Unfortunately, that probably means doing several more signings?

Read the original "Lines of our Times" post here.