Sold a Goshkin and a Cheesesteak and gave away a Cheesesteak.
The first sale was to an attorney from Sacramento who specializes in police brutality cases. (I wouldn’t’ve thought there was enough police brutality in Sacramento to keep an attorney busy and there I go underestimating America’s capacity for injustice again.) He has bought books from me before, and since he is in Berkeley for the summer, looking after his grandchildren who attend day camp here, I look forward to discussing this one with him. Like others, he is interested in my choice of subjects he has barely – sometimes never – heard of. Why, for instance, he asked, did you write about Andy Kaufman? I couldn’t remember.
The second sale was to a thirtyish woman I didn’t get to learn much about because she was in a rush. She and her husband will be house-sitting at 49th & Cedar, six-blocks from where I grew up, and she welcomed the chance to aquire grounding in West Philadelphia culture and history. She was in such a rush she couldn’t pay me because she had no cash and I couldn’t get Square to work, so I gave her a copy. The next morning, the barrista handed me two $5 bills, with a note of a napkin from her. (Honesty from both of them.)
The gift went to a woman who was a few years behind me at Brandx. I didn’t know her but she is a friend of a friend. He thought she was from Philadelphia too but, no, New Yawk.
In other news…
1.) The biggie has to be the debutof my name in the NYRB. Not as I might have preferred – but a thrill nonetheless: a portion of my review quoted in an ad for Trots and Bonnie. (See a previous blog.) For that matter, to my thinking, not the juiciest example of my prose but my taste and the market’s do not always track.
2.) Sent 120, 130 e-mail/USPO notices of my forthcoming Lollipop giveaway – in addition to my previous blog/FB announcements. About 15% of the notified responded – and only two people (and if your initials are not PR or WM, you are not one) have sent me the requested SASE. (I’ve learned I’ve asked for 2-cents too much, so maybe that’s the reason.)
Seven people have said they would be sending checks or otherwise getting on it. (One said she’d send a check for more than I asked to cover the cost of the mailer and allow me some profit.) Two said they’d pick it up at the café, One asked for my address. (I had left that out of one of my first batch of e-mails.) One asked if I could send it to Philadelphia, rather than Jamaica, where she lives, since it would take six months to get there. (Or was it six weeks?) One person said “Thanks” and two “Congratulations” and one that he was “looking forward to it.” One said he was “overwhelmed” with reading at the moment – but forwarded my email to a friend so she might ask for a free copy in his stead. And one said she “could perhaps consider” my offer but asked if I could weigh the book and the envelopes so, I guess, she could make sure she wasn’t being over-charged.
So many Bob Levins on the Internet; I'm the Bob Levin who writes.