I’ve never had a book featured at the LA Times Book Fair, although I’ve attended many times to hear speakers and discover new books. But this year, I was generously offered a space on someone else’s table for free! I’d never met this person, “in person,” but we are part of a group of self-published writers. I jumped at the opportunity to attend this fair as the author of Restarting Your Life When You Are No Longer A Wife. Starting over after divorce (and being cheated on) led me to write this book. To set up my book on a display table and have passers-by peruse it. I was thrilled at this person’s seeming generosity. (The keyword in that last sentence is “seeming.”)
As can only happen to Diane, this generous offer was rescinded the very morning of the Book Fair!
It was a pouring rainy Saturday morning, and I was puzzling how to park and get my books to the booth when I was texted that I should not come. The layout of the table had changed due to the rain. She felt my book would not fit. I was sent a photo of the layout of her and her friend in the very back of the booth space, avoiding the rain. There was space in front of the tables they’d shaped into a “V”.
I was puzzled.
I’d spent the day before packing the books into the plastic boxes with secure lids I’d purchased in anticipation of the rain. My friend Judy, who was going with me, was literally on the freeway driving to my house when I received the “dis-invite” text. Deciding not to tell her while she was driving, I waited and told her to her face. She was livid. She had her rainboots on for God’s sake!
Judy was ready to battle the forces of nature for me to have this opportunity.
I thought it was luck that fell into my lap. I’d posted it all over Facebook and everywhere else! What do I do now? “Hey, Everyone! I’ve been disinvited to share a booth after all. Don’t bother looking for me. I’ll be at home, swearing up a storm.” I was mad and disappointed because I wanted to share my book, hoping it could be the perfect self-help book to lessen depression after divorce.
I decided not to tell anyone on social media.
Too embarrassing. Made me feel like a huge loser. I mean, what was I gonna tell people? And who gets disinvited to the largest Book Fair in America? Evidently, moi…
Has this ever happened in the history of generosity? Where a person offers things and snatches them on the morning of the event!? I was dressed up and had full makeup on by 8:30 am on a Saturday! I spent the day watching TV and whisper-swearing at the World and all the stupid people in it. Yes, others in this country were experiencing floods, tornadoes, and fires caused by lightning. But dang it all,
Diane had been canceled from The Book Fair!
It didn’t help that by 11 a.m., the rain had stopped. There were six more hours of the book fair! I was too angry to contact her. She had told me I was not wanted there. I decided to treat her like a guy who asks you out, and you never hear from the rest of that night. To let it go. Yeah, let’s practice kindness every day. But a little itchy thought would not go away. To check in and see if she even responds. I waited till the last few minutes of the fair and sent her a fake-nice text asking her how it went.
She said she was surprised how many people showed up despite the rain.
I acted thrilled for her. Then, to my amazement, she re-visited the rescinded offer to share her table. She said I could come the next day at noon. It was not supposed to rain. Her offer was that I could stop by and put all of one book on her table with a link to the Amazon page. That was it. One. Book. No author. How does any of this make sense?
Now I had designed flyers with reader reviews to put in a clear stand, and another stand with a few quick paragraphs from the book. That was it. Was there really no room for two clear stands and one book? It was quite a long table when no longer in a V. She’d sent me a photo. My friend came over, determined to display the stuff we’d spent time designing and printing days before, as well as actual books to sell.
Like you do at a book fair.
We drove there and arrived a few hours after the start, per her request. Now, she thinks I’m leaving one book and a QR Code in a stand and leaving. What good would that be? The whole point of a book fair is that the author of the book is there to talk to you about it. So we paid the twenty bucks to park and walked to the fair, which was at the USC College campus. We found the table in no time and introduced ourselves.
There was plenty of room on the now straightened-out tables.
She moved a poster over. My friend shoved a pile of paperback and hardcover copies of my book onto the table. No one said a word. There were three chairs behind the table, and only she and her friend were there, so my friend plopped herself on that third chair. I hung out standing until the other woman took off to go visit another booth. I parked myself in her chair. It was clear that the original woman did not want us there at all, let alone sitting at the table. At one point, my friend went to get something to eat.
Clearly, this woman did not want to mess with her.
But the moment my friend was out of sight, she handed me a pile of bookmarks that highlighted the company and group we were part of and told me to go pass them out. I didn’t want to leave my books unattended, but someone was starting to speak on the main stage, so I decided to go listen to that person, who was Josh Gad. I faked passing out the bookmarks, leaving them here and there while laughing along with Josh and the stories of his acting career. After a few hours of wandering around, which included getting terribly lost but having a nice conversation with a man in a penguin costume, I found my way back to the Booth of Discomfort.
Speaking only with our eyes, my friend and I decided mutually to pack up and leave on our own.
That was when, if you can believe it, the Dis-Inviter decided to purchase two copies of my book. One for her and one for a friend. What was she really up to, I wondered, as I tried to figure out what to write in those books with my Sharpie. I wondered for one tenth of a second if I should return the favor and buy her book, but you know what? I stood up for myself by standing up and leaving.
As I rolled my cart of unsold books back to the parking garage, a tiny smile forced the corners of my mouth upward like a powerlifter.
For even with all the negatives, the disinvite, the almost zero sales, I can still say with a grin that my little self-published book was at the LA Times Bookfair! Amongst the Josh Gads and Chelsea Handlers was little ol’ me, the self-published author who didn’t have to pay a dime for the booth! And who in the end had a great day being part of something much larger than she ever could’ve dreamt of. Maybe it wasn’t such a crappy thing she did after all. Nah, it was really crappy. But I’ve got twenty-two bucks burning a hole in my Venmo.
We all go through major life transitions when relationships end… Through the Leftat50.com website, I will share my thoughts as I walk the path of “New-Self” discovery. It doesn’t matter which side of 50 you are on. The real question is, ‘Are you ready to live life? To forge a Path of Your Own Making (For a change!)?’ Then stop dwelling over the What-Might-Have-Beens and join me. Share your thoughts here, comment on mine, and let’s do this together! And check out my book, “Restarting Your Life When You Are. No Longer A Wife,” I wrote it just for you!