Sponsor Letter April 21st, 2015

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to give you all an update on how the first Sponsor's Social went, give you the date for the next one (look at us, planning in advance and stuff), and tell you how the replies shook out on the shirt, bag, knife question.

First off, the next Sponsor Social will be on Saturday, June 27th at seven in the evening.  That is the Saturday of Gay Pride Weekend, which could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it.  Certainly parking will be just as much of a nightmare as it always is on Saturday night.  However, I'm hoping that the Mission district will be a bit calmer than usual since all the attention will be in the Castro and Downtown.  Just like last time, you're welcome to bring a guest and RSVPs are appreciated but not required.  I'll have more details next month about what we'll be doing in terms of special stuff but you can expect that there'll be another door-prize drawing, new releases from our publisher partners, and probably a wine-tasting from our friends at Pat Paulsen Vineyards <http://www.ppvwines.com>.  There might even be some live music.  Feel free to RSVP to sponsors@borderlands-books.com anytime but there isn't a rush.

Second, the Social last week was a huge success.  Everyone that I talked to had a great time and certainly the staff had fun.  In fact, Cary said that she thought it was the best party we're ever thrown.  The company was lovely, the conversation non-stop, and it was even more fun than we had hoped.  The backstage tours were very popular (I took over 50 people during the evening) and the drawing for door prizes garnered laughs and more than a few exclamations of, "Oh! That's cool".

Some of the publishers we work with were kind enough to send some advance reading copies of upcoming titles (The Girl With All the Gifts by M. R. Cary (Orbit Books) and The Dangerous Type by Loren Rhoads (Night Shade Books)).  The lovely folks at Orbit also sent along finished copies of Crown For Cold Silver by Alex Marshall and Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (with a signed bookplate, no less).  And, our friends at Tor Books were also wonderful by sending a full case of Harrison Squared by Daryl Gregory since they were all out of advance reading copies.  However, despite the generosity of publishers, all the books were gone by nine.  I guess that just means we'll have to get more for the next time.

The only complaint about the evening that I heard was that it was very crowded and quite loud.  We had, at peak, around 130 people in the shop and cafe, which is a large crowd by our standards (or, by any standard, really).  I fear that, if things keep going at this rate, we may not be able to continuing to let sponsors bring guests but that's a problem for the future.

Thank you to everyone who came and especially to the folks who brought food and drink.  We went through at least six bottles of whisky and plenty of beer and wine.  Likewise, the food was extensive and little of it lasted the night.  Especially thanks to Salem Evans, who kept track of the guest list, and to Nate Taylor, who was our bartender.

One last piece of business about the party -- outside the door of the cafe we found a pair of tinted, prescription glasses with black frames.  If they were lost by one of our guests, please let us know.

Finally, I was surprised by the feedback about what sort of special sponsor-only item you would like us to have for purchase.  Many people were interested in a T-shirt, and I think we're certainly going to do that.  But also about two-third of the people who responded were interested in a folding knife.  Since I can do that in a relatively small quantity, I think we're going to do that too.  More news about that as I have it.

Thanks all, you'll next be hearing from me around the first week of next month,
Alan