Did I tell you that I have managed to secure a book-signing at my local branch of WH Smith? (For overseas readers, it’s a major high street newsagent, stationer and bookseller.) I spotted a call to arms from WH Smith, encouraging authors to arrange signings, and leapt in with both feet. For those of you in the east of England, I’ll be sitting in splendour at the Cambridge city centre branch on Saturday 6 April 2019, from 11 am (I am reliably informed by the store manager than no-one buys books before that hour on a Saturday.)
And to advertise my presence, I wondered what to do. I’m hoping that the shop will put a poster in the window, and head office has promised to put my signing on their Events blog. But how to draw people’s eyes to little old me, in amongst the arrays of magazines and stationery and birthday cards? And then it came to me: I need Sam! And here he is:
This is a pull-up banner of the sort used at conferences and similar events. I ordered it online for the princely sum of about £30, having downloaded a template (which gave the size and some sample text boxes) and then spending an hour designing it. I’m sure I have made a dozen design faux pas, but it’s clear, eye-catching and readable, which is all I wanted. I’ll need to sell a few books to cover the cost but I figure I can use it at other events – or just set it up in the corner of the lounge for company.
(And I’ve made progress on another one of my writerly dreams: I’m assembling an e-book box set of the first three Sam books. More on that later…)
Susan Grossey 
Dear Susan
In answer to your question … no, you hadn’t told us about the book signing (with fingers firmly crossed in the hope that my memory is working and that an eagle eyed blog reader doesn’t point out an earlier post that I’ve forgotten).
What a brilliant idea the pull up banner was, and it looks great. To my mind, money well spent at a cost of £30 and I’m sure it will come in handy at various times.
I do hope that the signing goes well and I look forward to hearing all about it in due course.
Best wishes
Graham
No, I don’t think I did tell you about the signing, Graham – I was waiting until I could include a link to the event listing on the WH Smith website, but no luck so far.
I know: I’m delighted with the banner – much better quality than I had expected for that price, and not too tricky to “design” (all I did was choose a template and then cut and paste my own picture and words into that).
Best wishes from Susan
PS Stand by your beds: the monthly update is due out tomorrow, and it’s all about the railway (post-Sam, I know, but already starting to have an impact in the planning stages).
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