Authors – I don’t care your age, your experience or your dignity – we all have one universal quirk: We will look for our book in every bookstore or library we ever enter. You could have been published 50 years ago, and been out of print for 49 of them, you will still look for your book on the book shelves. So, since Revealed came out just under a week ago, I have spent an inordinate amount of time skulking around bookstores this week, scouring for my book… and yes, if I thought it could be placed a little more prominently, well, it’s only right to assist the shopkeepers in their duties and moving it to a more featured spot. (I’m not ashamed. Everybody does it, whether they admit it or not.)
So, I was in a Borders this past week, and oddly, couldn’t find Revealed on the romance shelf. There was Compromised, but no Revealed. I check under the trade sized shelves, I checked under the Mass Market sized shelves. I went to the computer kiosk, typed in my name… and it said there were multiple copies in store. Huh.
So I do only what is next logical, I go up to the assistance desk. The 19 year old employee, who considering it was 10:30 in the morning and I was scouring for a romance novel, only gave me a half strange look as she dutifully looked up the book in her computer, and then says ‘Ah!’. We go to the romance section, and she points them right out to me – but not on the shelves – on the display wall. I had a display. Of my books. Multiple copies, just like the computer said. I hadn’t even thought to look there.
No need for me to turn the books out or display them more prominently… however, I did move one copy of Revealed back to the shelf by Compromised. Well, I couldn’t find it in the first place I looked, so who knows if anyone else could? Besides, Compromised and Revealed just seemed so happy to be next to each other…
Alright, that’s my little anecdote for the week… happy reading everybody!