Hard to believe, but Safe at Home: A Season in the Valley made its debut a year ago this past Sunday at a book signing at the New Market Library. (Even harder to believe given this past winter is the fact that it was relatively warm that day with no snow!) To date, 618 copies have been sold, a very solid number for a book such as Safe at Home.
From that first signing in New Market and throughout the summer, I have been touched by the response from readers and continue to be pleased and humbled by the book's acceptance. Winchester, Waynesboro, and Woodstock all carried the book in their respective souvenir stands while Rockbridge not only sold books to fans, but distributed copies to host families. Just last week, Jay Neal, the General Manager of the new Strasburg Express has graciously agreed to stock Safe at Home in the Express' gift shop, a.k.a. "The Purple Caboose."
Throughout the year Bruce Alger and Melissa Dodge have tirelessly promoted Safe at Home for which I am eternally grateful. Mo Weber routinely begins many calls with "Hey, Austin! I got an idea for the book." Then, of course, there was the Kipps family who bought five copies, one for each member of the family, so that they wouldn't have to wait their turns to read it. This kind of response,even more so than my love of baseball, is exactly what motivated me to write Safe at Home in the first place.
I can summarize the experience this way: It's as if I was walking down the streets of New Market one day and found untold wealth just waiting for me to gather it in, only the wealth is measured not in money, but in friends. That pretty much makes me the highest paid author in America. Thank you.
Happy anniversary - I bought a copy for my dad last year and he enjoyed it!
Posted by: Jennifer Pickrell | January 14, 2011 at 12:38 PM