Sign Here

Recently had a 'famous celebrity' do a book signing in the store. Although none of the store's managers know of my previous life as an entertainment/event kind of guy, they assigned me to supervise the control of the line and the actual signing area, something I was more than comfortable doing. This particular celeb is a mainstay on a popular cable channel, and has several books out already, but the appearance was highly anticipated and, it seems, a big deal for the store. The celeb had made an appearance in another Bay Area store and the crowd totaled between 700-900 people. We drew 300.

A note to the types from corporate who shepard and run these event from store to store: 1 -- the celeb is a human being, not an icon; 2 - the people in line - customers, I'll remind you -- find your rules about how to have the book that they just purchased open to the correct page for signing an inconvenience, and they're all right with it, until you admonish them to do it while they're still eighty-feet away from the signing table and they're carrying a stack of books, and they're taking care of their kids; 3 - take a fucking chill pill.

The celeb had two former NYPD detectives as bodyguards, not because the store is in a bad part of town, but because in this day and age, sadly, you're better off being proactive rather than reactive, no matter how nice the environment is. Out of three-hundred people, we had two that were obnoxious. I was actually more concerned, and somewhat saddened, at the guy who FINALLY put the cap on his lens after I told him, in no uncertain terms, no pictures, and who had obviously been drinking, and had his wife and three small children with him. He was nice enough, in that chummy drunk sort of way, but that behavior's kind of old, y'know?

The crowd was smaller than they expected, though not by much, and the celeb spent the down time signing more books. Eventually, every copy of the celeb's books in the store were signed, which meant that, aside from meeting the celeb for less than sixty-seconds, everyone who stood in line for just under three hours could have waited and popped in to by an autographed book the next day.