Why I Love my Small Press

"Everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book." Stephan Mallarme

So this-coming Saturday, I'm doing a group book signing at the local Borders. I was really looking forward to this one, since it's my local Borders and a decent amount of my friends are planning on coming by.

Then I get an email yesterday afternoon from the author who set up the signing, saying that Borders waited until the last minute and won't have any of our books in stock. Thus, we should carry in our own books for sale. Now, this would normally not be a problem...if I had known ahead of time. I have exactly 4 copies of one book, and 0 copies of the other, in my house right now. And again, this would normally not be a problem if it weren't my local store and my friends weren't planning on coming.

So at 5:30 in the afternoon, I send a semi-crazed email to the women at Samhain in charge of ordering, with a plea to look into rush shipping if it's available. I figure, I won't hear a thing 'til the next day at least, considering it's well after 5.

Ten minutes later, I get a call at home from the Marketing Director, telling me exactly how much $$ 20 copies of One Night in Boston, ordered on a rush job and shipped 2-day air, will cost me. Then she spends another 10 minutes on the phone with me trying to figure out how to lower that $$. Finally, she puts in the order for what seems to us both to make the most sense and also promises to call the woman at the printer tomorrow morning to tell her how desperate I am.

And that is why I love my small press.