I’m doing a book signing Feb 1, and you’re all invited

No need to bury the lede:

I’m doing a book signing at Indigo Oshawa Centre, on Saturday, February 1 from 1 to 4 p.m. And for everyone in the east end of the GTA, consider this your invite. If you don’t already have my book but are interested in reading it, come out and buy it from me. And if you already have a copy and want to get it signed, you’ll know where to find me — ground floor, front door of the book store, sitting at a table with a pile of hardcovers and a hopeful smile.

I’ve done a few events since My Fighting Family first hit stores in Canada. Libraries in Vancouver and Hamilton; the Wolfe Island Literary Festival outside Kingston; BlackLit Durham here in Ajax; even a corporate event at Salesforce. If you think the headquarters of a sales software company is the wrong place for a lively discussion on AfroAmeriCanadian relations, you’d better reconsider. That morning with the SalesForce team was the most fun I’ve ever had in an office, and I worked in one for 20 years.

Those events all happened because somebody invited me. This in-person signing at Indigo is the first one I’ve ever solicited myself, so please stop by and act excited, if only to create the perception that my book and I are both big deals.

That’s the perception.

The reality is that I’m moving into an crucial new phase of my book marketing journey. Twelve months ago I’d have sidestepped any suggestion that I post up at a book store and pitch my memoir to shoppers who might never have heard of it. That kind of session, I thought, was more suited to self-published authors hustling their books from a standing start. Felt a little too much like selling CDs out of the back of my car. Why would I do that when I had a major publishing house behind me?

Because a big publisher’s publicity arm is a powerful tool but a blunt instrument. That’s why. If you’re with the book world equivalent of a major label, they can land you on CBC Sunday Magazine, or The Social, or other places most of us could never access on our own. Most of my early sales correlated with that early visibility. Major publisher marketing muscle helps overcome that inertia.

But after that first big wave of attention, there’s little distinction between self-published authors and people with book deals. We’re all author-preneurs, creating our own opportunities because we can’t afford to wait on invitations. In 2024 I dabbled in it. For 2025, it’s a strategy. I wish I had figured all this stuff out a year ago, but I’m learning these lessons in real time. As a non-famous author, it’s not enough to write your book, or even promote it. You have to advocate for it.

For me, this Oshawa event is an important first step.

I planted the seeds back in December, as I finished my Christmas shopping at Indigo. While at the register I asked the cashier how to secure better placement for My Fighting Family.

The book was available in the store, on a shelf in the General Biography section. That spot works for celebrities, because people are already generally curious about their lives. Plenty of people wander into the bookstore and ask themselves, “is there a book-length biography of Prince?” No sane person asks themselves that question about Morgan Campbell.

But, I explained to the cashier, people with a more specific interest in African-Canadian experiences, or the lives of people who straddle the border, might see my book and investigate. I suggested they move me to Black Voices or Local Authors. She suggested I run it by her manager.

When the manager showed up I gave her the same pitch. She listened, then asked if’d like to come in for a book signing.

A year ago I’d have let it pass. I felt too busy, but the truth is I was just too disorganized. Either way, I spent most of 2024 piling up a time debt I could never pay back. Every day presented a choice between half-assing a lot of tasks, or doing a few things right. A book signing seemed like one more chance to underperform.

The deeper truth: I was too proud.

It wasn’t just about that false distinction between authors with and without book deals. I was also terrified that I’d sit at that table and spend an entire afternoon without scoring a single conversation, much less a sale. Back then I still nurtured fantasies of landing on best-sellers lists, but also thought my book would sell itself. I might have needed a reality check, but it didn’t mean I was ready for one.

Now, after 11 months of tracking my sales data, I’ve adjusted my expectations and my ego. Even if my book signing bombs, it can’t be more humbling than logging on the Penguin Random House author portal and seeing that your book sold one copy the previous week.

Worldwide.

All formats.

Combined.

My first full year as a published author has taught me that sales rise and fall, but mostly within a predictable range. So when people ask how many units I’m moving I’ll talk percentage increases instead of raw numbers, because if I tell you sales are up 400 percent compared with last week you’ll think I’m on fire.

One sure way to heat up your sales figures — get out there with your book and hustle. Show me a bump in my sales graph, and I’ll show you an event I did, or an interview with a podcast whose audience overlaps with mine.

If this first book signing goes well, you’ll see more of them. And if it goes poorly, you’ll still see more of them. That’s how you find your audience. So if you own a book store in Toronto, or Chicago, or anywhere in between, and you want to talk business with the author of your next favourite book, click the email icon in the top right corner. If I don’t hear from you, you might hear from me. It’s 2025 and if readers can’t find, me I’ll find them.

The arc of the book sales universe bends toward success, but that doesn’t happen on its own.

You have to get out there and bend it yourself.

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