Booth Duty

Booth duty :).

So, I'm sitting in my booth space at the Northwest Book Festival, and I'm with my friend Kirk who volunteered to help that day. People walk up to the booth and walk away. Kirk, who is new to sitting in a booth space, made some keen observations that I found amusing. First, we had many folks walk up the booth who clearly suffered from poverty -- and this is a political statement. What we found actually kind of strange when the say through their (how shall we say) "dental challenged" teeth that we should have the festival on the 1st of the month when they get "paid." It was Kirk who said, "Welfare pays at the beginning of the month." Paid? I thought paid meant you earned a "paycheck" ... you get "paid" for working (that is my fiscal conservative viewpoint). The other observation bemused Kirk. He said, "Why do people stand back, avoid eye contact, and look at the books?" I said, "Because it's like the used car salesman we all avoid." They don't want to be "sold" something. I can understand that one, too. The other people have what I call "lack of censorship" ... they say whatever pops into their heads regardless of its appropriateness. My favorite comment came from a writer who said, "So are you a 'professional' publisher'?" That one was annoying and rather stupid. I wanted to say, "No, we're unprofessional. See all these books and marketing materials -- ALL unprofessional." Instead my fork tongue produced, "As opposed to 'unprofessional'?" And the smart ass came out.