Ehrenreich Tonight--Event Moved to Alphonsa Hall

The good news is that we will likely sell substantially more copies of Barbara Ehrenreich's Bright-Sided than venues in larger cities than Milwaukee tonight (11/4/09), when Ehrenreich appears at Alverno College. That's something to be proud of.

The bad news is that advance ticket sales are not good enough for us to fill the Pitman Theater. We're going to move the event to Alphonsa Hall.

The good new is that Alphonsa Hall is simply on the other side of the Parking lot from the theater. If you're coming from 39th street, it's west of the lot, instead of north. We'll have a bookseller stationed at the Pitman, and another in the lot, directing folks.

Unlike past Schwartz events, Ehrenreich's not going to presign copies. She really likes her time talking to readers, and we are at the manageable size where she can sign after the event.

More good news--you can buy your ticket at the door.

I don't have anymore bad news. I really liked the book and I'm excited to hear her talk.

Opera wrap up, Ehrenreich sales pop wishes, Credit Card dreams

1. Hurray for opera. We had 32 people at our Florentine Opera preview last night. Doesn't sound huge, but it was in fact bigger than Schwartz had done in the past. Really great event--the performers were wonderful and Corliss Phillabaum was a wonderful narrator. I can't wait for Elmer Gantry in February. You're going to read it along with me for our in-store book club, right?

2. When you subscribe to this blog by feed, it delays by 15 hours. I've got to fix that, but so far, I don't know how. Anyone have any ideas that don't cost anything?

3. Ticket sales on Ehrenreich are slow! We need to sell 300 seats to break even and we're well behind that. We're underwriting on WUWM and WMSE (note to WHAD, I promise to use you for another project!) and placing an ad in this Sunday's Journal Sentinel. We've contacting university departments and nonprofits. The book's gotten a lot of attention, Ehrenreich's a great speaker, and the ticket is reasonably priced, to my thinking. Ehrenreich is still getting 250+ people at events that aren't as heavily promoted. Any ideas on how to spread the word? Note: the budget is pretty much used up, so I'm not talking $$. Buy tickets to Ehrenreich here.

4. Five hints for me to delete messages without opening them.
--I've won anything
--A great list of dentists
--More than one exclamation point in the subject line.

I got all three this morning.

5. Today's project--make progress towards taking credit cards on our web site. Yeeks.

Press Releases on Blog Posts are So Gauche--Here's an Example One Now for Barbara Ehrenreich

Wow! The only way we were able to get Barbara Ehrenreich to come to Milwaukee was by hosting it at Alverno College's Pitman Theater. Why? Because the tickets come with a book purchase. If this works at any reasonable level, we will sell lots more books than an equivalent event without a book purchase requirement. And that's the way an event in a secondary market can look a lot more appealing.

So why not jump into the fire feet first? Or is that head first?

Here's a little about the book:

Being positive, we are told, is the key to success and prosperity in our personal lives, as well as in health, religion, business, and even traditional psychology. In Bright-Sided, an utterly original take on the American frame of mind, Barbara Ehrenreich traces this attitude from its origins and exposes the downside of America’s penchant for positive thinking: On a personal level, it leads to self-blame and a morbid preoccupation with stamping out “negative” thoughts. On a national level, it’s brought us an era of irrational optimism resulting in disaster. This is Ehrenreich at her provocative best—poking holes in conventional wisdom and faux science, and ending with a call for existential clarity and courage.

Here's a little to know about the author, in case you've been living under a rock:

Author bio: Barbara Ehrenreich is the bestselling author of sixteen previous books, including Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America and Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream. A frequent contributor to Harper’s and The Nation, she has been a columnist at The New York Times and Time Magazine.

(The author Daphne Beal taught me to unitalicize books and magazines when you are putting your general text in said italics. Thanks, Daphne!)

I inherited this program from Schwartz, and Nancy Quinn has already helped me out with some contacts. David Ravel, who runs Alverno Presents, has helped us in every possible way he can, and for that I'm grateful.

But we need so sell a lot of tickets. So what have we done.

1. We're keeping the price as low as we can; the $25 price is less than a dollar more than the list price of the book plus tax.

2. We're up front about the service charge, but give folks advice that it's per order. If you're coming as a group, buy your tickets together.

3. And here's another reason, we're offering a 15% rebate (that's $3.75 per ticket) for bulk orders of 25 or more tickets at a time. Since your other option is a $20 gift card, that's like spending $1.25 to see Ehrenreich. And the parking is free.

Alverno College's Pitman Theater is located at 3431 South 39th Street, between Morgan and Oklahoma. 39th Street is a side street so if you're traveling north or south, the bigger street is 43rd.

You can buy your tickets through the Alverno website: (http://alvernopresents.alverno.edu/Special-Events.aspx) or by phone (414) 382-6044.

You can sign up for your rebate at the store. Just bring in your receipt for 25 or more tickets. It was too expensive to program this into the Alverno site.