Vancouver sign maker publishes Christmas tale, tapping customer base for sales
Now Dasher, now Dancer, now Prancer and Oscar?
That’s how the story goes.
Sandy Cereghino, owner of Vancouver-based Sandy’s Sign & Design, has written, illustrated and published "Oscar the Short-Legged Reindeer," a 48-page, full-color hardcover Christmas book dedicated to her father Rudy Turpeinen, who died in 2004 of colon cancer.
A self-taught sign maker of nearly 27 years, Cereghino took two years to bring life to the story of Oscar, the short-legged reindeer who wants desperately to make Santa’s back-up team – the fleet of reindeer who would fill in for one of the more famous bucks if he can’t make the fabled Christmas Eve flight.
"Oscar the Short-Legged Reindeer"
By Sandy Cereghino
$24.95, Inkwater Press
Available by calling 360-693-9229
There is only one problem: His legs are too short to leap through the air and land solidly on roof tops. Set deep in the desert of Central Oregon, the story follows Oscar as his dreams come true – made possible by prosthetic legs and a lot of determination. But in the end, he realizes he has to accept who he truly is to be happy.
Cereghino’s father dreamed up the tale and jotted it down on two pages, but after his death, she expanded it and created illustrations of Oscar and his friends. She had the story, but then what?
After not attending for about seven months, Cereghino popped in at a Women Entrepreneurs Organization meeting, where another member recommended Portland-based publisher Inkwater Press as a way to get the story out.
The publishers liked the story and she paid $12,000 for 1,000 copies to be printed, which were hers in six weeks.
Cereghino opted not to go the conventional route of pitching her manuscript to publishing companies for them to pick up and pay the printing costs, using her savings to have the first batch of copies made.
"I didn’t have time," she said. "I wanted to get it out there."
The publisher has agreed to get the book listed on Amazon.com, BooksInPrint.com, Barnes & Noble’s Web site as well as its own site, but the rest is up to her. She’s using much the same marketing strategy she uses with her shop. Rather than doing much advertising, she’s tapping what she already has: customers.
Her goal is to sell 800 copies this season. In the first week, she sold 65 copies.
After almost 27 years in the area, Cereghino has made connections, and when she drops off a bill or a customer stops in she mentions Oscar.
And nine times out of 10, it works, she said.
"Most of the time, they tear up," she said. "People relate to it. It’s not as much about Christmas as learning to accept who you are."
"I didn’t realize I got so deep until I finished writing it," Cereghino added, laughing.
She sent copies to First Lady Laura Bush, Oprah, Ellen DeGeneres, Jay Leno and has been pestering AM Northwest, KATU’s morning show, to take a look at it.
"If only one of them picks it up, I’d at least pay for the book, hopefully," she said. "Anything’s possible, and failure’s not an option."
The Fort Vancouver Regional Library District has expressed interest in placing a few copies on the shelf, and she’ll be pressing the Camas Library – one of her clients.
She’s trying to sell as many copies as possible on her own, rather than on the Web sites, which take a percentage of the sale. And part of the proceeds are going to colon cancer research.
But most importantly, Cereghino wants people to read it.
"I want it on library shelves, passed down from generation to generation," she said. "I want it to last."
