(The picture above is our fearless leader Rusty holding his new book about James Crawford.)
On Saturday, August 11th, 2007 Rusty and I made our way to the Nevada State Museum in Carson City with a truck full of cases of fresh hard cover James Crawford: Master of the Mint at Carson City – A Short Full Life books to sell.
Rusty was signed-up to host a book signing inside the museum that day from 10:00 A.M. that morning until 3:00 P.M. that afternoon. As soon as we got there we were greeted with open arms by the wonderful staff and volunteers at the museum. Our good friend Joe who volunteers at the museum helped us bring in all of the fifty pound boxes of books at no charge! Gift shop manager Charm had a large table for us to set-up shop at as well as a nice refreshment table filled to the brim with cold iced tea and lemonade and mounds of fresh cookies. Yum-yum! Karen, the security guard on duty that day, helped keep on eye on our outside posters promoting the book signing as it became a pretty blustery day and no one wanted to go chase the wild posters into the busy street. The front-desk receptionist Sonja was actually our first customer that day and when we left at 3:00 P.M.
Just as with the ANA book signing event, this book signing event was not publicized very much either. When Rusty released his first book in 2004, his book signing at the museum brought in a crowd of at least fifty people. By the end of the day this time around we sold a full case of books. This was just a small fraction of what we sold in 2004. But then again, in 2004 we had the local newspapers' buzzing about that book signing and this time around that wasn’t case. Just another example to how powerful the press is in our society today.
The highlight of our trip was that we got to spend it with the great people of the Nevada State Museum. Rusty even got a chance to meet the head director of all the museums in Nevada, Peter Barton. They had a great conversation regarding "CC" coins and the importance of the Nevada State Museums involvement in that field. Also, Patrick Cates, the deputy director of the museum stopped by our table and got his copy of the new book as well.
And thinking about it– aside from the book signing events that Rusty has attended over the past couple of weeks, people are also making their way into our store to get their copies of the book as well. In one of my last weblogs I mentioned C4OA club member Richard Bishop coming from Northern California to pick up his copy. And since then the great staff at the Nevada Historical Society has gotten their copies of the book. Along with the handfuls of mail orders we receive each day from people all over the country. And even my parents made a trip to purchase a book all the way from Southern California! Everyone knows about this exciting book and what it has to offer in the field of numismatics, biographies, the Wild West, and so much more. Forget about that Potter kid, the new James Crawford book is where it is at.
So my question is this – what chapter are you on?
Until Next Time, Amy
(The picture above is Rusty with Michael Maher and Arline Laffery of the Nevada Historical Society Staff. The picture below shows my parents picking up their autographed copy of the book.)
