Marketing Time! Part III
- Chess Friends Books
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Howdy! It’s the Chess Friends!
Fellow published authors out there often say marketing a book is as important as writing it. That’s why today we welcome everyone to Part III of Marketing Time! You may remember Marketing Time! From April 24th and Marketing Time! Part II from October 17th! So much has happened in the last six weeks!
Let us first describe our most mega event EVER! On Monday, December 1st, we had our first book talk at Third Place Books, an independent bookstore in Lake Forest Park in Seattle area!
Not gonna lie: at first, we were pretty nervous about the whole thing. Talking in front of the crowd? Into a microphone!?! What if we drop it, and someone trips over it? What if we trip over our own tongues?!?
But we calmed down and decided to follow Peshka’s wise advice:
So, we wrote a script, like who talks when, and after editing it, we got together and practiced our speech. Oh, and we also added some jokes, because a good knee-slapper during a presentation goes a long way! We practiced more together, and by ourselves, in front of the mirror, to make sure we look and sound nice and sharp. When the big moment arrived, we were ready!
It was the first time for The Man Benji to talk into a microphone, but he found a trick to tell if the microphone is working. Just turn it on and whisper six-seven into it and see if the audience reacts!
We still had some jitters, but we knew everything was going to be fine because of three things.
1) Nicole and Sydney, the Third Place Book event coordinators, were great! They made us feel welcomed and gave us a sigma introduction!
2) Our audience was amazing! Thanks so much to the 40+ of you who came to support us!
3) Anything is possible (even talking in front of the crowd!) with the power of friendship.
When we finished our talk, where we read a part of the book and discussed our writing process, it was time for questions from the audience!
There were a few expected questions, and a few unexpected ones, like:
Who taught you to ask such hair-raising questions?
The answer was easy:
Our parents!
Another question was:
What was your favorite chess tournament that you played in?
We all agreed:
US Open in Madison, WI.
Remember, we even blogged about it!
Another question that came up, we’ve been asking ourselves too:
Are you planning to write more books in the future?
We had to answer:
Yes, we will! Stay tuned!
After all the questions were answered, we met with our audience and signed the books! Even though it was already after 7 pm when we were done, we left energized! It’s always a joy to inspire others and grow the chess community!
If you didn’t make it to the event, no worries: we hope to have more in the future! And if you want to get a signed copy of Q&A Chess, there are still a few copies available at Third Place Books Lake Forest Park!!!
Another cool development is that the Seattle Public Libraries has our book out, in the Northeast Branch! How cool is that? Check it out!
Meanwhile, our blog is going strong! We are well over a thousand unique individuals viewing our blog, from 35 countries (see all the flags)! Special shoutout to the 8 new countries since Marketing Time! Part II, namely Romania, Spain, Iraq, British Virgin Islands, Cambodia, Ukraine, Austria, and United Arab Emirates!
We are also very fortunate to continue a regular monthly column in our favorite Northwest Chess magazine! Right now we are busy working on an article for the January 2026 issue about…. Well, it’s a secret! Stay tuned and subscribe for the Northwest Chess magazine to get first access!
We better get going to finish that article! Come back next week for new awesome content!
Three Cheers, Fellow Future Master Chess Friends!
The Man Benji, The Myth Sarang, The Legend Vivi
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