While I may not have had a maze of long lines (or people camping out the night before) like fans did for Sarah Palin and Dog the Bounty Hunter—both of whom were at our local Borders in Springfield, MO recently—I did have a strong, loyal showing for my first-ever book signing for It All Changed in An Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure, which I had the thrill of being part of along with more than 800 others from SMITH Magazine’s community.

Approximately 40 friends, colleagues and family members stopped by on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, April 10, to receive an autographed copy of It All Changed in An Instant. My sweet husband bought a special engraved pen for the occasion, which unfortunately (or fortunately) ran out of ink in one hour. Thirty books sold in two hours and friends who weren’t able to attend have promised to buy even more. I was touched and humbled by the support from so many.

Two romance writer friends helped adorn my table with balloons and cookies. A mystery writer friend took tons of pictures. Yet another served as an I-reporter and put constant updates on Facebook. My parents gave me a bouquet of colorful daisies. I donated a “Movies & Memoirs” gift basket and had a drawing for the basket (my marketing ploy to get a mailing list for future books!) The basket contained movie tickets, four popcorn containers, large candy bars, microwaveable popcorn, bookmarks, Six-Word Memoir postcards, and naturally, It All Changed in An Instant.

A local company, Opfer Communications, was gracious enough to loan a flat screen television for the event and even hauled it in and out of Borders. One of their directors downloaded the SMITH feed/loop thingy of Six-Worders (see why I needed technical assistance?) onto a disk. Several chairs were set up in front of the TV so onlookers could see excerpts from the book. Borders management was extremely helpful and gracious. Weeks prior, I promoted the event to my writers’ groups and put the book signing info on my blog, Facebook and Twitter. I updated my business cards with an image of the book cover and had special magnetic bookmarks made featuring the Six-Word Memoir logo, website address, and my memoir that appears on page one: “Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nothing published. Yet.”

It’s interesting how everyone’s perception changes once you’re published. Seriously, it all changed in an instant.

Tags: six-word memoirs