Duncan Lay's Blog, page 12

With a glorious three days off so close that I could taste them, I just had two more days of store appearances to go.
After arriving back home at 10.30pm from Adelaide, it was up early the next day to see my son's soccer team fight out a thrilling 3-3 draw before hading up the road to Leading Edge Books, Lakehaven.
This is a fantastic store, run by two lovely people, Sue and Howard, and they are always well prepared for me coming up there. They've been great supporters and it is the fourth time...

My last trip away for this amazing month of selling books was to Adelaide.
My main reason for going down there was A+R Edwardstown, which has been a great supporter my books and so I was keen to support them back.
I was being met by HC rep Anthony down there, who would look after me for the first day, then Graeme would take over for day two.
I was a little nervous, as they had warned me it was not like Sydney but at the same time I was confident I could make a good impression.
After all, this is...

I had a day off - at last!
It was lucky, because I had brought back a virus, or perhaps I was just exhausted. Either way, I spent most of Monday on the couch, trying to recover.
I seriously doubted if I could get out to Penrith Dymocks the following day and I started thinking about perhaps putting it off for a week. My voice was shot but, more importantly, I was exhausted. I had also picked up a cough - not good when you need to speak a great deal!
The welcome news that Radiant Child had hit num...

I arrived at my friends' house in Horningsea Park, near Liverpool, late on Saturday night, to beers and roast lamb.
I was feeling pretty tired but really positive as well ... Canberra had gone really well.
It as great to be with friends - Ann desperately wants a part if the series ever gets made into a movie and has even offered to play a prostitute, an extra - anything!
After being spoilt with a big dinner and then scrambled eggs for breakfast, I was ready to tackle the day ahead, at A+R Macart...

Two days in Canberra, with seven stores, hundreds of eager readers sure to walk past me and the guidance of HarperCollins rep extraordinaire, Jodi Callas. I was looking forward to it!
I kicked off in Queanbeyan, the NSW town on the border of the ACT, early on Friday.
The bookmarks had just arrived, which proved handy, although things took a while to warm up ...
One hour in, I had sold two books and had the nasty feeling that this was not going well ... then it all turned around.
People started bu...

My last Sydney date before the big south coast-Canberra-Campbelltown road trip began was at A+R Warringah.
Some days you get the feeling that people are just not in the buying mood - happily, they were at Warringah! I sold out of Wounded Guardians in little more than an hour and so was able to get home early and prepare for my big road trip.
One of the more interesting people I spoke to was the father of Mark Timmony, the manager of Galaxy Books in the city, which will finish my 50 stores extra...

Saturday July 3 saw me zooming around the Central Coast, visiting Mandi at Book Bazaar in Umina and Kate at All Good Books Gosford, before watching my son play soccer (they lost 1-0) and then tackling A+R at Erina Fair.
Book Bazaar and All Good Books are not the biggest stores, nor are they in the busiest shopping centres but I really enjoy going there. The independents, more than anyone, work harder to bring people in and I sold 18 and 14 books respectively at the two stores, meeting some won...

I checked out of the Royal Albert Hotel at 10am and had an hour to spare before heading up to Pulp Fiction, the specialist fantasy store in Brisbane. So I wandered around the streets, ducked into an internet cafe to write the first part of the Brisbane blog, and found myself noticing far more of the buskers and spruikers on the streets.
I listened to a busker and threw a couple of dollars into his guitar case, shook hands with a Red Cross spruiker, who had a nice line in greeting patter ... I ...

Well, here I am in Brisbane, it's cold and a little rainy - perfect book-reading weather I say!
My first day here was both interesting and frustrating - interesting because of the people I met and frustrating because all the roadworks going around the place freaked out the GPS I was using in the hire car!
I still have to return to the airport, and must admit I am dreading to hear those metallic words ``re-cal-culatating''. Not only it is infuriating to know that the GPS is baffled, it is also a...

The Big July is off to a flying start, with 69 books already sold at the first two stores!
Well, I kicked off the humoungous tour of 50 stores, across three states and the ACT, over 30 days, at Maitland.This is the third time I've been to the A+R at Maitland and one thing I have learned is they love a chat up there!
I would have to say Maitland is probably the friendliest of all the areas I have been to - even the people who brush me off do so very politely, with a smile!
I was met up there by D...