Coaching from the chief
Waterstone’s Alex has been giving me more tips on what to do for tomorrow’s signing session in Princes Street.
Always eager to learn from the master. I mean I’m no slouch when it comes to cold-selling The Well-Tempered Clavier. But that Alex … he’s as canny as a sack-full of weasels.
“Have you checked that they’ve actually got the books in?” he said.
“No. Course I haven’t. I kind of expected that since I was going to be signing my book there they might have got in a few extra copies.”
“Not necessarily.”
“So you mean I might turn up and there’ll only be two copies of the book there?!”
“It’ll be the quickest signing session in history.”
“Yeah! Sold out in under two minutes!”
“But what you really need is some unique tag for the book. It’s a love story, right?”
“Of course it’s a love story - I thought you’d read the thing.”
“Gave it a skim. Anyway. What’s so special about this weekend?”
“Dunno. Got a dinner party to go to on Saturday. And might run the Lasswade ten on Sunday.”
“And it’s Mother’s Day …”
“Dohhhh!”
“And your signing pitch is going to be that the Clavier is just the perfect present for mother’s day!”
”Brilliant! Do you think it might do for Margot as well?”