The Road to Book Sales: The Extraterrestrial Highway
We are two women on a quest to remove the fear of entertaining from young men and women everywhere! A grand mission! However, this was not happening simply by publishing our book and posting on a few websites. It was obvious that we needed to hit the road. Well, maybe more like the highway! But it is an unknown highway, one neither one of us had traversed. And are we talking real pavement or bits & bytes? Are we sure we really want to jump on this highway? We don’t know where it leads or when and if we can get off!! Or how much this ride is going to cost us!
Bottom line…we had work to do (and we thought writing the book was hard!) ….We determine that we need our own website. That we must get the books at a more reasonable price so we can sell our books for $19.95. We identify the need to get our books into the hands of newspaper editors…. we need an article written about us and our book! We need a plan. A what? Yes, a plan….. hmmm where do you get a plan on how to market your book? We need to go to the LA Times Book Festival and talk to publishers and book store owners and get our books in stores! We need marketing material. A postcard? A business card? A business name? A bank account? Are we really a business or simply author’s? Is an author a business? Hmm? Do I need a business license, I gather we need a sales license. You mean we have to collect sales tax and pay it to the state of California? Yikes, $30.40 plus tax! This was not good, no, not good at all….
Yikes! There was much to do…..more than we ever imagined….
I know it sounds dumb. But, well, what can I say….. our goal was to get our book published. And WE DID! And we had a great signing party at the Pasadena Rose Bowl Press Box! We sold out! Cool! But now what? We tell everyone we know about our book and suggest they buy it! It’s the holiday season 2006, what a great gift idea or better yet, use one of the parties to host your holiday soiree! Our book was available online at AuthorHouse.com for $30.40 (where they got that weird number I’ll never understand!) And it was on sale at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble for ah hem… $49.00. What???!!!! Yeah, that was the weirdness in the print on demand and mark up on each book required by Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Who was going to purchase this lowly little book for $49 smackaroos??!! No one! Well, we were wrong, a couple of really good friends did! Sigh….. On those book sales, we made a whopping $2.00. Remember, we made $4.00 on the books we sold on site and what was sold from the AuthorHouse website.
So once you tell your friends and family… now what? We hit the low hanging fruit and had saturated that market by the end of the holiday season. It was nice while it lasted. We went back to work, our families, our lives and looked forward to the royalty checks from our publisher that came out quarterly. Every once in a while, we would check our sales on line to see how we were doing… it was sad. Very sad…..
Well a PARTY of course! Pam and I had a baby! What?
No, our baby was not of flesh and blood, but the results of blood (knife cuts), sweat (cooking in 110 degree weather and no A/C) and tears (crap, the photos ALL have to be redone because the tablecloth looks like barf!). A BOOK. And not ANY book, a simple party planning book like no other on earth! In our humble opinion, of course!
Back in October 2006, after years (and we mean years) of shopping, cooking, writing, editing, hosting parties (too much fun), taking photos, taking more photos, writing, writing and more writing… our book Carefree Gourmet Presents Dazzling Desserts, Bountiful Brunch, Tea Anytime, Brazilian Bar-B-Que, Casual Cajun and Classy Cocktail For up to 20 Guests… (ooooh that was long!) was published. (We shortened it to Carefree Gourmet Buffets… ) Rather we self published through AuthorHouse a print on demand company. Which we thought was really cool! Except, we didn’t understand that our book, published one at a time, was just too expensive. Although our loving friends and family all support us and purchased our book for $30.00, it was not a $30.00 book. It was a $19.95 book. Oh and for every $30.00 they spent on our book, we made less than $4.00. Wow! We weren’t going to get rich very quickly on this equation! But I digress, we were discussing a PARTY!!!
Yes, Pam and I decided we needed to throw ourselves a book signing party! Of course! Now, I guess someone else could have thrown us a party… but no one offered and Pam and I love to entertain… so off we went planning and scheming and .. well, I should say, off Pa m went! I wanted something simple… after all, we were going to be busy shaking hands and signing books and glowing in the accolades of a job well done – having produced a book worthy of awards, we were sure! But Pam had other ideas. And you have to understand. We both love to cook, but Pam is the true nurturer in our business. And a wine and cheese was not going to do! Not at all!
Pam painstakingly took care of arranging for the location (the Pasadena Rose Bowl Press Box – how cool is that??!!) Created a menu. Did all the shopping and food prep. I was responsible for getting the books delivered, flowers and ice and to help set up. I had an appointment to get my hair done that afternoon in Glendora (can’t let anyone see those gray hairs)…. and there is where the disaster began!
My hairdresser was late. Very late…. then she was slow. I anxiously watched the clock as time ticked on by and my rear end was stuck in a chair. It was a Friday. The books were to be delivered to my house no later than 4:00 PM. AuthorHouse PROMISED! They LIED! UPS delivers to home addresses until 7:00 PM. I didn’t know this yet…. I frantically drove to home to pick up the books, the flowers, makeup and a change of clothes so that I could fly to Pasadena. When I got home… no books. When I called UPS… no help. How could we have a book signing party without any books??? I was frantic! But I had to get to the Press Box in Pasadena. Pam was in chaos as I was supposed to have been there hours ago to help with prep. And what do I hit on the way to Pasadena? Traffic! Major Traffic! Yes, I know its Friday at 5:00 pm, but there isn’t supposed to be traffic going in this directions. Murphy’s Law? I guess!
I call Pam, give her the news. I am late and bookless! I call Rod (my hubby) and ask him to pick up party ice and get it to Pam ASAP as the drinks are warm… never serve warm drinks at a party. Serving food late? Ok. But always have refreshing drinks ready for your guests – that is rule #1 in entertaining! We had warm drinks…. And then I call my niece Jessica Gordon, a student at Cal Poly Pomona and ask if she can drop by the house and wait for the books. UPS promised they would deliver ASAP. (It just killed me that I was on the end of the route when the distribution center was 10 minutes from my house… I asked if I could just come pick them up??? “Sorry Lady, they are on the truck!” UGH!!).
I arrive at the Rose Bowl, a hot, sweaty, anxious mess! But my hair looked good! It was showtime in just a few and the Press Box was chaos. Friends had starting arriving and instead of being greeted with a refreshing beverage, they were quickly assigned a task! Platter this, ice that, put the flowers in here.. and all I could think about was needing a glass of Pam’s famous Sangria… what if our books didn’t arrive in time??
Well, the flowers looked a little funny swished as they were into the vases… the kitchen was a war zone, but the food got out, the friends filled the room, the books arrived and Pam and I finally got a chance to sit down with our sangria and sign books, and more books and more books, til our hands were crippled.
Pam and Andrea Signing Books at the Rose Bowl Press Box Party
We have so many people to thank for making that event happen! Pam’s sister Robin, her hairdresser (and my new hair dresser) Diane, our friend Julie , my mom, Jackie, my sister Tina and of course, my niece, Jessica, who lugged in 150 books. And of course, we owe thanks to all of our friends and family who came out to support us, toast with us and purchase a book! We sold out that night! It was the best book signing party ever!
So now what were we supposed to do? We were done right? Wrong!
It started out a simple idea. A party in a box. Friends and family had been calling out for help for years with their home entertaining concerns. Those years working in catering in college were valuable! And as I shared menu ideas, decorated tables and gave out catering secrets… I figured I had a product. Nothing like Martha or Julia or Julie and Shelia of the Silver Palate fame…..no something much simpler. For non-cordon blue trained. For the woman or man, who simply wanted to throw a nice party for friends and not freak out!! Entertaining had gone from potlucks and easy going gatherings to kitchen meltdowns and hysterics as people tried to keep up with Martha’s perfection.
And so began the journey of outlining, writing, menu development and parties. Yes, always tasting parties. In 2000 I graduated with an MBA and was ready to start a full-fledged business. So were my classmates.. and so was Pam Kietzman, my first boss at the City of Pasadena (yep, she hired me because she new if I could cater, I could juggle a lot and deal with customers) and now colleague, and we met at night working up the business plan for the Digital Wife. Three women and three men starting planning, writing, developing and creating. And of course, looking for seed money. The Tech Boom was Booming and we wanted a piece! Money was flying in the hands of Internet Startups. Our hands were wide open! But we didn’t catch anything and we later decided our business model wasn’t going to work. We didn’t have a way to monetize our website. We didn’t see any venture capital in the near future… and so we turned out the light on our borrowed conference room and parted disappointed but still friends.
Of course, Pam and I still saw each other everyday! Well, not exactly, but you get the drift. And our passion for food did not die with the death of our digital wife. And so Pam joined forces with me on developing Carefree Gourmet Buffets. She created new menus and took all the photos! I did the writing and together we tested and cooked and hosted parties. We had a ball! Did we get discouraged? Sure. Did it take forever? Sure! We have families, full time jobs, commutes (well I did) and other commitments on our time and energy. And so, after 6 years our baby was born. That was 6 years work in partnership… that didn’t include my three years prior. Sometimes ideas and dreams take awhile to achieve. The goal is to not give up! And to enjoy the journey… and we did!
And now we had the result of all of our hard work and dedication… now what?
