Day Two of the ASCI convention brought more – um – interesting book table browsers.
Conversation #1:
Male Teacher: Hey, I’ve been wanting this CD for a long time!
Me: Really? It was just released on Tuesday.
Male Teacher: No way! I’ve seen it around everywhere.
Me: Okay, but it was just released on Tuesday.
Male Teacher: Whatever. I’ll take it.
Me: Sure. We take cash, cheque, or VISA.
Male Teacher: (hands me his credit card) Okay, I’ll pay with plastic.
Me: This is MasterCard.
Male Teacher: Yep.
Me: We only take cash, cheques, or VISA.
Male Teacher: Huh? I’ve never heard of a place not taking MasterCard.
Me: Some places don’t.
Male Teacher: Weird. (pulls out his wallet) Well, I have fifteen bucks. Will you take that?
Me: The CD comes to $20.27 with tax.
Male Teacher: (chuckling) I’ll give ya fifteen bucks for it.
Me: Sorry.
Lost that sale. Oh well.
Conversation #2:
Male Teacher: Hey there, what’s your conference discount?
Me: Excuse me?
Male Teacher: How much is your conference discount?
Me: I’m not offering a conference discount.
Male Teacher: What? Everyone else is.
Me: I’m pretty sure they aren’t.
Male Teacher: Every conference I’ve ever been to has a conference discount.
Me: Really? You’ve been very fortunate.
Male Teacher: So I don’t get a discount?
Me: I have quite a few books on sale. You can check out the ones with the red stickers.
Male Teacher: Is there a discount on those?
Me: No – they are already discounted.
Male Teacher: But I wanted THIS book (he holds up a regular-priced item) and I don’t want to pay full price.
Me: Sorry, that’s a new release and I really can’t discount it.
Male Teacher: Come on. You guys mark stuff up so much that you can afford it.
Me: Sorry, not this time.
Male Teacher: Fine. (he walked away)
Obviously some people don’t get that you have to make a living too.
Inside the Writer 