Louise Penny Country

My record is still in tact – thank heavens. I have never had an event at which I sold 0 books. But yesterday it was getting pretty tight. Robin and I signed at Chapters in Fredericton at noon and for the first half hour not only did we have no sales, but no interest. I was thinking this would be a record breaker, when the tide turned and all the lunch-hour workers and students heading for Starbucks left and the ‘real’ shoppers came in. So we did reasonably well, for a weekday afternoon in a suburban area.

Then it was off to Westminster Books in Fredericton. A very nice bookstore, quite large for an independent, and with a good mystery section. Total attendees: 0. I was lamenting that I had broken my record and had no achieved 0 sales, when Robin reminded me that someone had come in earlier and had bought a book. Yeah! Saved.

The question all authors ask: is it worthwhile doing booksignings. I still think so. We had a nice visit with the owner at Westminster, she now knows us and knows our books. She told us that Barbara Fradkin and Mary Jane Maffini sell quite well at her store after their (also sparsely attended) appearance a few years ago.

This afternoon we are giving a talk at the library which is only a block away from the bookstore and I understand that attendees to their events regularly go down the street in pursuit of books.

We will see. On to Moncton this afternoon.

On another note, the attached picture was taken in North Hatley, Quebec. I know that a lot of you are Louise Penny fans, so thought you’d enjoy a pic of the town that supposedly is the inspiration for Three Pines.