The ups and downs of Chicken Soup

Well, it looks like my fifteen minutes of fame has stretched to sixteen. Our local community paper, The Kitchissippi Times, did a piece on the book. That has helped with our fundraising campaign. Together with my parish of St Josephs, we are selling one hundred books, with proceeds going to the St Joes Supper Table. Sales are going well and it feels good to be able to help out in this way.

On the harsh reality side, I visited a couple of Chapters stores. I was curious to see how they had displayed the book. I expected a table, piled high with various Christmas books. After the rah rah book launch in Toronto, it was a downer to have a salesperson tell me that Chicken Soup does not really sell well anymore. They had a whole two copies in that store. Now I knew it was not a contender for a Giller, but two copies? In the next store, they could only find one beaten up copy, in their interior design/arts and crafts section. In the last store I ventured into, it was on a table they have labeled, "For the Old Soul." Yikes! What am I? Ninety-five?

Oh well, all that matters to me right now is that we have sold almost all the copies I ordered for the supper table and people seem to be appreciating them as Christmas gifts.