There were two large problems with the Scrapyard book launch party. I did not line up help ahead of time, and I forgot a crucial box containing my cashier tools. The first was solved for me when Christie Richotte walked up to me as I was running to set up. She said “Can I help?” and then functioned as extra hands for me over the next several hours. Other people volunteered as well. I’m not sure who hung the banner, but I am grateful that they did so that I could set up the merchandise. Afterward we had an abundance of clean-up help. 40 pizza boxes vanished into the garbage, taken by someone who quietly saw that it needed done and did the job. Merchandise was put back into boxes and two people helped me haul the load to my car. I had more helpers than I had work. It was wonderful. The cashier problem was solved by getting some fives from the front desk and grabbing note pads for credit card transactions. I enter those into our online merchant account later. (*Head smack* I just realized that I could have taken my laptop to the party and just run the transactions on the computer as I created the receipts. Oh well. Next time maybe.)
The first hour of the party was crazy. I had no time to do anything except greet customers and process transactions. The flow of people coming to our table was non-stop. Then they went to stand in line so that Howard could sketch in their books. The room got really crowded. Even more so once the pizza arrived. But there is a satisfaction to filling a room to bursting. It was a good thing. The crowd dwindled in the second half, so that the room became comfortably full instead of insanely packed. We should have some good pictures because Stacy Whitman went around taking some. I certainly did not have time nor energy. Neither did Howard.
Howard and I are constantly conscious of how much we owe to our fans and particularly to the local community. They show up to help us and support us. They come to our panels. They laugh at our jokes. They help ship our books. We wish we could thank the more far flung fans effectively, but at least we can throw a really big party and feed everybody. It doesn’t feel like enough thanks to express the gratitude we feel. The point of a book launch party is to say “Hooray we did it!” In this case that “we” includes all the fans everywhere, even if they could not be physically present.