The Adidas Store, Mass Ave, Harvard Square.

I had a strange experience the other day. On my way to drop my books off at New England Comics in Harvard Square, I stopped in the Adidas store to look at sneakers. A clerk saw the stack of books in my hand and asked to see them. To my amazement, and with no provocation on my part, he asked if I wanted to leave a copy at the front counter.

“Uh… yeah. Sure,” was the best I manger to reply. Why was a sneaker store so eager to feature a comic book on their counter?

There are two answers. The first is “who cares?” If they want it, they should absolutely have it. This is the cheapest, easiest marketing opportunity I’ve ever been presented. Secondly, and more to the point, I’d overlooked an important fact. Customers for my book exist well outside of comic shops and book stores. The Adidas store is actually perfect, in a way. They present an ultra-cool image – cool shoes, cool clothes, even a live DJ on the weekends. And for the time being, comics are cool, too.

There were a few details that required some finessing. The Adidas store would not agree to actually sell the book, but I could add a little sign that pointed interested parties toward the Harvard Book Store immediately next door. So I scrawled a little note that said as much until I could get home to make a proper sign.

Well, of course, I got busy and put off making the sign for a few days. Nearly a week later when I returned, the manager had shoved my book on a drawer. The clerk explained in a friendly but honest way, “it looked a little ghetto.” It was true. That hand-written sign looked like crap. I replaced it with a much sleeker looking band that wrapped around the cover (printed on plain paper straight out of my printer after two minutes in Adobe Illustrator). Adidas was happy, I was happy, and maybe I’ll sell some books.

Lesson I learned: Opportunities abound, but sometimes you need to get off your ass to make sure they work out.