Becoming Mother

So Black Friday selling wasn’t a complete bust.

Here are some highlights:

I was yelled at by a woman who was disgusted with my book.

She had corkscrew red and white hair and wore thin penciled eyebrows and a rumpled cream tunic. And she was most likely crazy. The interchange went like this.

“Becoming mother?” she said in disbelief. “What is this?”

“It’s a book about becoming a mother,” I stated the obvious.

She shook her head in disgust.

“What do you need a book for? God. What the hell?”

She points to the women walking behind her before she continued.

“We all did it! And we’re fine. We didn’t need a book!”

“Well, it’s for first-time moms. Do you remember being a first-time mom?”

“Yeah, I do!” she yelled.

“Oh, okay. And you think it just wasn’t that hard?” I asked.

She shook her head in utter disbelief.

“I mean, what’s there to talk about?” she asked. “You have the baby, you take it home, they grow up, and then they die! God!”

(No, I’m not exaggerating this conversation at all. My mother was there to witness the whole thing–along with the other crazy dude that wandered behind my table and demanded to know WHAT I WAS DOING WITH ALL OF THIS!!!)

My guess is that this woman’s disgust with the concept of my book is a generational thing. Her comments struck me as implying something like, “Real women don’t think this is a big deal. You younger women need to get over yourselves and get on with being a mom. God!”

But then, I also had some nice conversations.

Besides the crazy people, I had some nice conversations with several women who were expecting babies in March and April. I talked with some excited future grandmothers who were thrilled to buy something for their newly pregnant daughters.

One pregnant woman told me that she had had four miscarriages in the last year and she was now at 23 weeks with her fifth pregnancy.

“This is the farthest I’ve gotten so…”

We commiserated about obstetricians and pregnancy and wondered why some doctors don’t try harder to figure out why you miscarry. (The culprit in her miscarriages was low progesterone levels–left undiagnosed throughout all of her miscarriages).

She bought a copy and I wished her good luck.

One woman had just become a grandmother twice in the last two months. She bragged about how big one of the babies was (“Eleven pounds, sixteen ounces!”) as she bought two copies of my book.

I sold five copies of my book, packaged in $20 gift sets, so I’ve covered about half of my booth fee.

Okay, so I knew I wasn’t going to be raking in money hand over fist at this event, but I don’t think my time spent today was a total loss.

I reached five new readers that I wouldn’t have otherwise reached.

I realized that it doesn’t really matter if I stand at my table or if I sit and do something else.

All of my customers have approached me while I’ve been typing or while I’ve been talking with my mother or sister. Not one person paused at my table while I was actively trying to get their attention or start a conversation. In fact, I think people preferred to not have the pressure of the vendor trying to reel them in (Hey, I know that I hate that…)

Tomorrow, I’ll go easier on myself and just try to enjoy the possibility of selling more books.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing this journey with me!