Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Hey, there's only one B & N in RI, and two Borders.  I'm sanguine about 
it--  They don't care about any other stores, just Borders.
  

    

I am also surprised that they can institute that kind of rule.
  

    
Borders is a publisher's nightmare, only worse! 
I'd be happy if we never did any business with them.
  

    

How so?  What do they do that's so heinous?
  

    
- Trash your books completely, poor in-store management.
- Attempt to mail back completely annihilated books for credit.
  (We're talking books so badly mangled that they can't even be
donated or used for sale samples.)
- Claim greater refunds amounts than actual quantity of returned
books.
- Slow to no pay.
- Rude, sub-professional staff.
- Dun you for money after their shipping company has assumed
responsibility for loss/damage.
  

    
I haven't found that to be true (as of yet)  But time will tell.

I was doing some checking on Amazon.com

If you search for books with the word Rhode Island in them, there are 748 
of them.

We are the #14 best-seller (according to Amazon!)
  

    

Number 14 overall, or number 14 of the 748 books about Rhode Island?
  

    
I can't imagine it would EVER be #14 overall (unless it was about sex,
or money, or Harry Potter).
  

    
#14 of the 748 books with Rhode Island in their subject or title.

We are #1,200,759  (which is up around 500,000 books from where we first 
started!)

Hey it's a rise, and although it is a meteoric rise, we are not yet a 
meteor!
  

    
> #14 of the 748 books with Rhode Island in their subject or title.

congrats on being #14!
  

    
I bet Top Ten is just around the corner.  Good going, Adam and Donna!
  

    
Thanks!

In other news, I've got two booksignings coming up in Providence on 
February 16.

11 am at the Brown Bookstore Warwick

2 pm at Barnes and Noble in Warwick


I also booked another weekend of Flea Circus in May in Boston!

 I will be performing my Flea Circus at the Puppet Showplace again!
 
 May 3, 4, 5
 
Tickets are $8, $7 for Members

 Friday   May 3 @ 8 pm
 Saturday May 4 @ 1 and 3 pm (kid's show)
 Saturday May 4 @ 8 pm (adult show)
 Sunday   May 5 @ 1 and 3 pm (kid's show)
 
 Puppet Showplace Theatre
 32 Station Street
 Brookline, MA 02445-7338
 Phone: (617) 731-6400
 E-mail: info@puppetshowplace.org 
  

    
We've been selected as the IPNE Spotlight publisher!

IPNE is the Independent Publishers of New England.

It's  a pretty new organization, but over 142 publishers are members.

<http://www.ipneonline.com>
  

    

The kudos just keep on coming!
  

    
And more kudos (these just in!)


I'm glad to report that the book made the local best seller                     
list at Barrington Books (and got published in the paper this past     
Sunday!)

Okay, we're #10 on a list of 10, but we're there!

<http://www.projo.com/report/html/books/07235121.htm>

Also, we've moved up approximately 80,000 places at Amazon.com 

When last I checked we were 1,200,759

Today we are                1,120,745

 
I'm pretty pleased about all of this!

Can cracking the millionth barrier be far behind?  :o)
  

    

Watching your success is almost as much fun as watching you tell us about 
it!
  

    
Well, i doubt that the big boys will be knocking down our doors 
threatening to sign us to a big deal, a la  M.J. Rose, but it's fun to 
know that people like the book....
  

    
Yep, you have a hit.
  

    
I'm always tickled with even a tiny whack of publicity. We may just
nudge our 15 minutes of fame up to 16 or even 17.

Over in the California market, the Acorn Naturalists catalog just gave
my southwest books a nice group of listings. They listed "Ancient
Harvest" twice. Once under "Connecting Science, Nature, and Art" and
again under "Botanical Forays". I highly recommend this catalog for
anyone into nature subjects:
http://www.acornnaturalists.com
  

    
Here's some upcoming performances and events if  you are on the East 
Coast:

1) I'll be performing my flea circus in Newport, RI on Sunday April 7 at 2
pm.  Tickets are free for adults!  (Kids 3-13 are $5.00)  This is at the
Newport Art Museum, 76 Bellevue Avenue.  Call 401-848-8200 for 
reservations,
or see my website http://www.trainedfleas.com

(I'll also be performing the night before at the High Society Newport
Artists' Ball, but tickets are $50 at the door!  I expect everyone to be
there!)

2) Saturday April 27, I'll have two booksignings at two different Borders 
in
Providence.  (The book is Rhode Island A to Z-- A Coloring/Learning Book 
all
about Rhode Island.  To find out more about the book, check out
http://www.riatoz.com )

Borders in Cranston from 12-1   401-944-9160
Borders in Providence from 2-3  401-270-4801

These booksignings are part of teacher appreciation days, and there will 
be
special bonuses for teachers.

3) The weekend of May 3 I'll be performing 6 shows in Boston at the Puppet
Showplace Theatre in Brookline.

Friday May 3 @ 8 pm
Saturday May 4 @ 1 and 3 pm (kid's show)
Saturday May 4 @ 8 pm (adult show)
Sunday May 5 @ 1 and 3 pm (kid's show)

Puppet Showplace Theatre
32 Station Street
Brookline, MA 02445-7338
Phone: (617) 731-6400
E-mail: info@puppetshowplace.org
Tickets are $8 or $10 (I can't remember which)

Check my website:  http://www.acmeclown.com/schedule.html for accurate and
up to date info.

Hope to see you at one of the performances!

========"Dat's Some Joke, Hey Boss?" --Chico Marx==========
|  Adam Gertsacov,
|  Clown Laureate of Greenbelt, Maryland
|  http://www.acmeclown.com/greenbelt
|
|  Boss Clown, Chief Bottlewasher, Big Cheese of the Acme Clown Company
|  http://www.acmeclown.com
|
|  Psycho-Entomologist and Flea Trainer Extraordinaire!
|  http://www.trainedfleas.com
|
|  Author of Rhode Island A to Z, A coloring/learning book
|  http://www.riatoz.com  (AVAILABLE FALL 2001)
|
========"damn everything but the circus" ee cummings=========
  

    
 Amazon Sales Rank Update!
 
 December 10, 2001  1,705,232
 January 21,2002    1,477,513
 February 4,2002    1,200,759
 April 4, 2002        895,081
                       
Yes, that's right folks, we are now in the top million!
(And we've almost halved our original rank!)

Also, when you search on the words "Rhode Island" we are the #2 most 
popular book!
  

    

The hits just keep on coming!!

When's the next printing?
  

    
Not sure.  We've still got quite a few books left (over a thousand)  When 
we are down to about 400 or 500 then we really have to start working on 
it, so that by the time we get down to 100 or so, we'll have the new books 
in stock.
  

    
Did my first school presentation yesterday.  It went very well.  It was a 
combination of "How I wrote my book" along with interesting facts about 
Rhode Island.

One of the things that was fun to talk about was the book life cycle.

author sells book to publisher
publisher sells book to store
store sells book to customers

Some customers are authors, who end up buying books in order to do 
research in order to start the whole process over.

Did 4 presentations to the various grades.  K-1, 2, 3, 4.

Some sophisticated questions surprisingly.  

Some less so.  

(A little boy thought that Q might have been for Ice Qube!)
  

    
What fun!