Hello everyone,

I just returned home from a discouraging evening where I gave a one-hour information session on how to prepare for a total hip replacement, and I did not sell one book! This is the third talk that I have given in the last month and I have yet to sell one book this way. The first two talks were at retirement homes and the one tonight was at an organization for seniors.

Moreover, I sent out almost 30 PSAs advertising the event and not one person came based on my ads. All of the people there had been recruited by the Seniors Association.

I am beginning to get the message that I will not sell my book in that type of venue. I am scheduled to speak at three branches of the local library; whenever I have been to hear a guest speaker at my library, no more than 5-8 people even show up and hardly anyone buys a book.

This is all costing me money in terms of making transparencies, photocopying, paying someone to drive me, and it is taking up huge amounts of my time. So, my first question for the group is: should I continue doing these free information sessions? The next ones coming up will be at the library, another retirement home and the Unitarian church.

Secondly, I have more than 100 copies of my own book sitting in my room and I want to sell them. I was thinking of selling them directly off my web site at a discounted rate -- something cheaper than Amazon or my publisher. Do I need to use PayPal? My friend said that it is a deterrent to Canadians because they have to go through some long hassle in terms of filling out huge forms. But I need to be protect myself if I'm acting as my own vendor. I think it's worse to ask people to send the money order. It's a real pain in the neck to go down to the bank to get a money order.

Lastly, following my TV appearance last week, my book has been doing quite well on Amazon.ca, but my ratings have dropped considerably on Amazon.com. Is there some way for me to rectify this?

Thanks in advance to everybody for their suggestions :-)

Sigrid

[ February 11, 2005, 11:13 PM: Message edited by: Sigrid Macdonald ]