First Word

It's Friday and time to go skipping through the long grass aka I am not serious. When I don't feel serious I don't want to be all vanilla and ramble about business. But alas one must stick to topic and write something at least remotely useful. I need to network more. If I networked more I would get more business, which equals BONUS. And the best part, my observations of human behavior would produce many amusing yarns to spin. Of course, my only goal is to make you laugh. The general population always produces humor. People watching is a great source of entertainment. So onward ... here is an entertaining reality. Do you know people will line up for free ice cream but if you give away free books  people will actually turn it down. Yes, it's true. Free ice cream works. Free books fails. Here is the truth about free. People assume that if something is free it must be junk (of course free ice cream couldn't be junk ... ice cream on a hot summer day is always good ). If ...

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 ...

I am prepping for the Northwest Book Festival  that is scheduled for July 27 in Portland, Ore. I have a great tip for you if you ever need to buy a table and chairs for your booth space: Costco . So, I went over to Costco and picked up this really cool fold-up long table with a handle to carry it like a suitcase and two (padded) folding chairs. It cost me $75 for the whole shindig. We also needed a canopy tent structure (I guess it rains or too much shines) in Portland. So I borrowed an easy-up tent from a friend. I am set for my display already ... so check! Done. Now I emphasized padded chairs ... have you ever sat for 8 to 10 hours on a metal surface? Not comfortable so make sure you get padded chairs if you're going to sit for any duration of time. We also have the standard banners and the dog-and-pony show necessities. FYI, do you have the following for your display: Poster-board signage Business cards or (in this case) bookmarks with proper contact information Drop cloth...