Get yourself caught up in a juicy scandal. It’s the best way to find yourself at the center of public attention. Some Hollywood press agent once quipped something to the effect that – The only bad publicity is NO publicity. Or, as Oscar Wilde put it, “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”
Unfortunately, if it’s a real scandal, becoming newsworthy is the last thing you want. You’d really rather crawl in a hole and disappear.
For independent booksellers, publicity is good – scandal is bad.
I was disappointed at the bank today, while making a little deposit. The teller counted the sum, printed the receipt, and glanced at the form I’d handed her.
“You sell books?” she asked.
“Yes,” I answered. I was somewhat taken aback by the question, and maybe didn’t answer loud enough. She asked again.
“You sell books?”
“Yes,” I replied again.
The pre-printed deposit slip she was reading had “McHuston Booksellers” and the store address right there in black and white. Under the name it says “Antique, Rare, & Otherwise.” I figured that would spell it out pretty well. Before opening for business, I chose the bank because it is down the street from the bookstore. On Main Street in Broken Arrow, OK. Not a big town. Not a lot of banks or bookstores.
McHuston Booksellers is wrapping up five years as a brick and mortar store at this location. Five years is not a long time, but then again… If you had a wanna-cry toothache, would you wait five years for a dentist appointment? Stay on a diet for five years? What about missing a house payment – would the mortgage company think five year’s of non-payment to be nothing more than a drop in the bucket? What if, in raising the kids, the terrible two’s lasted for five years? Five years can seem long enough for a lot of things.
Five years for a business is supposed to be the corner at which make-or-break is turned.
That’s why it was discouraging when my own bank doesn’t realize I’m in business, or what it is I do here. I suppose if I made big deposits instead of small ones, and made them a lot more often – there would be some sort of connection. Being located on the same short Main Street isn’t enough, obviously.
I’ve seen billboards for bookstores. Small newspaper ads. Not so much in the way of television or radio advertising. All that publicity costs dollars – the big ones. I’m still depositing little ones in that bank down the way.
A juicy scandal is still out of the question as to a means of raising a little publicity for the store, but the appeal is growing.