While it would have been easy to sleep in, to stay in bed until noon watching TV reruns on the laptop, we decided to do something different with our day.
It was forecast to be the hottest day of July on record. And it was. And we had no shade. And no hat. And it was a spectacular display of sweating. Book covers baked in the sun. Vendors of iced products raked in cash.
But despite the oven-like conditions, books were sold and readers (heretofore unaware of the small press/independent literature world) were connected with. The best part was turning people on to books that we loved, to be able to say you will love this book, and have them trust you. It was cool to know that they are about to embark on a journey that’s worth their while and you were a part of that. And maybe they’ll have their eyes opened to all the amazing things that are happening with all of these presses. It was worth the v-neck sunburned received.
See you in a month, Brooklyn Flea.
Glad to hear it went well for you guys, too. Last week at the reading, a good handful of people who’d never heard of or seen small press books got hooked. It was awesome to see the excitement in them as they looked over the covers and titles and poked through the books, reading some line and tapping their friend on the shoulder and sharing it with them, and then buying the book.
Hey Chris! So Vouched went well? I wanna hear about it. Did you take any pics? Are you going to do it again?
chris i am back in a week. i’ll be sort of in and out during august, but if you need a hand let me know. i’d love to help out at some point.
Would you mind posting what some of these books are? I’m drawn to the cover of the black one with red and blue text/line.
Sasha: I will keep you posted, sir. Always good to have an extra hand on deck. We are waiting a month for it to cool down a bit. Hoping the crowd will be thicker then.
Tim: that’s an Ampersand book. You can check it out here: http://www.ampersandreview.com/Store.html
Yeah, man. Vouched went well. It wasn’t too big an event. A reading with 30-40 people, but there was a lot of excitement around the Vouched table.
Definitely going to do it again. Trying to get booth space at a big art/theatre festival downtown in a few weeks. I wish I could set up at this month’s First Friday gallery walk, but it’s looking like I’m going to be in Chicago that night.
I’m also talking with Tadd at Artifice about expanding into a reading series called Vouched Presents in October, and helping Tadd set up a reading/release party here in Indy for Artifice 2.
That’s rad, Chris. I just checked out the Vouched blog. That’s a great shot of you behind the table. I like pics of people gesturing with their hands. It means they’re into what they’re talking about. That’s awesome you have to restock some stuff. We sold a bunch of Jello Horses. Was pushing that one hard. Love that book.
Yeah, man. That’s a great book. There were a lot of comments on the cover and title, but no one actually bought that one.
I sold out of “When All Our Days Are Numbered” and “How To Take Yourself Apart, How to Make Yourself Anew.” Both of those went really fast because I billed WAODAN as my favorite book so far of 2010, and HTTYA as having one of my favorite short stories in it.
I seriously heard at least a dozen times over the course of the evening about how well designed the books were and how they’d never read or seen anything like them before.