A best-seller in my own store.

I sold all six copies of Led to the Slaughter I had in the store within 2 hours yesterday.

Like, Wow.

I've figured out the most effective phrasing, the combination of words that best sells the book, which goes something like this:

"I wrote this book..." I say in a mild voice.  I lean over and touch it.  Sometimes, I'll put it in their hands.

"Oh?"  Either zero interest (about 50%) or tiny interest (about 25%) or actual interest.

So if they evince actual interest, we go on.  Otherwise, I shut up.

"How cool!" they might say.  "You're Duncan McGeary?  What's it about?"

"Do you know what the Donner Party was?"

Most people say yes, otherwise I explain.  Then I point to the sub-title, the Donner Part Werewolves.

Some customers nearly throw the book back on the shelf, but others are unfazed, so I continue.

"Well, I wrote it as if I discovered the original journals of the Donner Party.  You know, they all wrote in journals in those days.  So I try to keep is as real as possibly, the real people, the real sequence of events...except, at certain important points, I put in the werewolves (which I treat as natural creatures.)

Customer either 1.) put its back.  2.) starts leafing through it.  3.) Carries on the conversation.

I then offer to sign it.

And then, I stay silent.  Waiting.  And amazingly, a certain number will put it in front of me and say, "I'll buy it."

So the paradox is -- I can sell my own books when I'm in the store. 

But I can't write my books when I'm in the store...