Last Monday, I did an errand for my son and realized I was next door to the bookstore where I would soon be holding my book signing for my new release. Even though my book wasn't supposed to be out yet, I thought I would slip in and see where it would be shelved. When I rounded the corner of the romance aisle, I saw three copies of the book already displayed!
At first, I wasn't sure if the books were really there. Over the years, I've done a lot of positive imaging, standing in front of bookshelves and envisioning my book next to some of my favorite authors. A tiny part of me wondered if my active imagination was once again helping me with this writing process.
This time, no imagination was involved. The books were really there!
FAMILY STORIES, for the new Harlequin Everlasting Love imprint, is my first mass market book. I've published others for a more select market -- the libraries and educational markets. Finding the books listed in the library was fun. But seeing the books on a shelf in a bookstore was a much different thrill. Now I can have friends go into a real store and buy the book, rather than selling author copies out of my car trunk. While that's satisfying in its own way, seeing the book on the shelf makes this whole process more valid to me.
I stood in front of that shelf for a few more minutes and then started to leave, planning to come back later with a camera. Then I remembered my sons had convinced me we needed phones with cameras this time. I stopped the nearest stockboy and asked if he would take a picture of me with my book.
He gave me an odd look. I quickly assured him this wasn't just a book that I was buying but one that I had written. I grinned at the look he then gave me. He looked at me and then my book and then snapped a picture of me standing in front of the Romance Series section, holding a copy of Family Stories.
I thought I could include the picture today but the computer-savvy son is off at University and I had to finally quit trying to make it happen. Instead, I'll direct you to the copy of Family Stories listed on the side of our blog. And if you'd like to stop in and pick up your own copy -- at a real bookstore -- well, my next picture is going to be me walking in and not finding any books on the shelves! Because that means somebody bought them!
4 comments:
Congratulations!! My first book came out early, too--well, all of them seem to. I so remember the feeling you describe, but I didn't have a phone with a camera then. (I do now, but I, too, wouldn't have a clue about how to get the picture to show up on the web.) Enjoy the excitement!
Terri, many, many congratulations! I know exactly what you mean about the thrill of seeing your book on the shelves in a real, live bookstore. There's nothing like it!
I had an odd experience with the picture-taking thing. I didn't have a camera phone myself so I went back to the first bookstore I found my novel in, armed with husband and camera. A salesperson saw the flash and actually came over and told me no one was allowed to take photos in the bookstore without the manager's permission! I'm still trying to figure out why. Book terrorists?
My advice is, visit lots of bookstores and sign lots of stock. It's a blast!
Thanks for the congrats and advice! I've spent today trying to get back to the blog -- after posting my entry (which was this morning and showed up with Thursday's date), I was told I couldn't get in -- my password was incorrect! Not sure what happened but now, I'm back -- the wonders of the computer cosmic universe! So, I'll wait for my son to come home before I put the photo on my website. And it does make you wonder about camera flashes in the bookstore!
I'm at a booth for a women's retreat Saturday and plan to hand out cards about my booksigning there. Just saw a writer friend at our local library and the librarian was very interested in our conversation. She said it isn't often she gets to meet TWO writers at one time. We were both beaming when we left.
I love this life!
Terry, huge congratulations! What fun for you! There's always something so special about a book being out.
I've mostly quit going to stores in the early days of a release (I can find a reason to fuss about any possible scenario of placement, shelving, sales, etc. lol), and never thought to have a picture taken of me holding a book, but my sweetie was out to lunch with a business partner years ago and took a picture of a dump he saw at the mall store, which was cool.
Here's wishing you bunches more sales and lots more happy book release experiences!
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