The Old Crow Book Release (Part 2)
The morning drive to McMinnville on Highway 99W was hellish. How people tolerated this every morning and evening for a commute or just getting around was beyond me.
I listened to an old mix tape from the Nineties. Nirvana still had some kick left. I wondered who Cobain would be if he were alive today.
Everywhere along 99W for 40 miles were homeless people pushing grocery carts full of possessions, straggling around, living in tents or derelict RVs along roadways, driving duct-taped cars that were clearly domiciles.
I arrived in McMinnville and saw elderly homeless men and women shuffling through neighborhoods and the downtown commercial district. I saw more zombie RVs. Here I was about ready to pick up my book about homelessness and its subject matter was all around me and moving in dirty mono.
The 2000-print run was ready for pickup. I have a 20-year relationship with this family-owned Oregon company and they have always provided incredible service. It's always nice to spend my publishing money with an Oregon business and help employ Oregonians. I wish I could do it more.
I tore into one of the boxes and fished out a copy of The Old Crow Book Club. It looked fantastic! A couple of dudes helped me load 17 boxes of books into the Subaru. They barely fit. I thanked the crew and drove away.
Now the hard work really began. How do you get a book out to readers? There are dozens of ways, but with this particular book, I was distributing it almost exclusively through street libraries around Oregon. There is a phone app that shows you all the registered Little Free Libraries in the world and Oregon must boast more capita than any other state in the nation. There are almost 30 in my neighborhood alone!
I would do the bulk of this distribution, but I planned on hiring some members of the book club to distribute copies around the area on foot. I was also going to hire another homeless man with a vehicle to help me cover the tri-county area. (If anyone wants to support this unique distribution effort, please go to nestuccaspitpress and make a donation. It will pay to hire these homeless men to assist me.)
Mark was set to get the first copy, but now it would be the second one because a receptionist at the printer simply had to have it after she overheard me describing it.
So I gave it away right there. She wanted to pay, but I said read it, then stock it in your nearby street library.
I hit 99W and headed for home. I thought about consulting the library app for immediate distribution, but I wasn't in the mood to look at a phone and ruin the moment of celebrating the release of a book.
Traffic slowed a bit in Lafayette and I spotted a street library near a park of this tiny agriculture and wine community. I pulled over and stocked it with the Old Crow book and some of my other titles. Five feet away on a bench of a bus shelter, a homeless person was asleep or passed out inside a sleeping bag. A couple backpacks rested under the bench.
So yes, Lafayette has at least one homeless person.
I considered leaving a book near the person, but didn't want to spook whoever it was.
By the time I made it home, it was pushing noon and I was starving. I decided to treat myself at a pizza joint with a lunch special and pint of beer. As I ate, I wrote in my journal and outlined the distribution plan for the book. I also signed Mark's copy of the book and thanked him. I called him a friend.