Ahhh! Christmas morning. I got to sleep in until 7:30 AM this morning! LOL So much looking forward to relaxing with my family here in St. Louis today. No matter what, however, the book bug is always on your back. I'm up before everyone else and going over my list of bookstores to contact and my book selling tour.

I got my first taste of selling in the malls yesterday. I didn't get a chance to do this in Cleveland like I wanted, but I went to the malls in St. Louis to try to sell my last 12 books to shoppers. I passed out about 100 postcards, cruised the mall for 6 hours and sold a whopping 3 books! Whew! Okay, this is going to be hard work, I see. I scoped out strategies. First, of course I did the Toilet Campaign. Then I also found that it was better to actually hang out by the bookstore and catch people coming out. They were more receptive than people just randomly walking in the malls. However, I did find that women in the shoes and designer bags areas in department stores were receptive too. So, I'm taking my strategies and doing it again in malls in Cleveland this weekend.

Sales have been great, but I know there are going to be some rough times ahead. Days where I won't sell a single book. Who knows, it could be a week like that coming. But I already know I gotta keep plugging away and don't let myself get discouraged. Everyone has to start somewhere. I'm paying my dues right now.

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Finally got everything in and it seemed like it took forever. Just a lot of little minor corrections to make most of the time. I know that I can be a perfectionist at times. For the most part, I think it's a good thing. Thus far, I've received tons of compliments on the quality of the prerelease. Still, other times, trying to get everything just perfect causes major delays and many headaches. I'm sitting here already thinking about little things that I wish I could change. At this point however, unless it's something major that's going to take away from the reader's enjoyment of the book, I know I need to let it go and just make the change in the second printing. Yes, I'm praying for a second printing.

There's a never ending stream of little things to do, it seems. Getting the book to the printer was a major project. Now, that it's done, it seems to have been replaced with a million and one small items on the to do list. The next major task is working on more distribution, mailing sell sheets and calling bookstores to get them to order. Also, we're putting together the book tour now. If I can pull it off, it'll be great. I'm looking to do more than just sign my book though. I love it when people email me with questions about my process or need help with some part of the publishing process. So, I want to work that into my book tour as well. Provide an opportunity for other writers to ask whatever questions they want about my process. I'm not an expert, but I can definitely relay what I learned. That's what I'm looking forward to the most.

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