I absolutely love bookstores. They're among my favourite places in the world. I could happily wander through a good bookstore for hours, looking at covers and breathing in the wonderful smell of new books. As a matter of course, I try to find something to buy every time I go into one. It just doesn't feel like a proper trip to a bookstore unless I come out with something new to read.
This is a busy time for me. Completely aside from seeing to Erica and Amy's needs, I've started edits on my second book and I'm writing the first draft of my third. I am also contacting bookstores to try and get Locked Within onto their shelves. So far I'm meeting with great success, and within a week or so, at least four more stores will have Locked Within in stock.
Getting my book into stores is an important goal for me. Not just because I get far more of a kick seeing it on a real shelf than an Amazon listing, but also for what bookstores represent. Online stores are where you go when you already know what it is you want to buy, or you have a very specific set of search criteria. Top 10 lists, bestsellers in a genre, books by a particular author, special sales. I'm still too new and not established enough to be on most such lists. Bookstores are different.
People go to bookstores just to browse and wander. They want to be surprised by what they see, and discover something they didn't expect to find. A bookstore shopper is on an adventure, they want to brave new authors or a new series they haven't heard of before.
From one point of view, the more copies of my books are on the shelves, and in more stores, the better odds I have of being that person's new discovery.
From another, I want bookstores to stick around, and I want to be a part of what they are. It's bad enough that so many have already closed. While they're still here, still a place to have a half-hour adventure through countless possible stories, I want to be there. I want my book to be part of that adventure.
And here's where you can help.
I want to find more bookstores. If any of you know of local bookstores, and they don't already stock Locked Within, let me know. I'd love to get in touch with as many stores as possible.
Feb 19, 2013
Bookstores
Paul Anthony Shortt believes in magic and monsters. In ghosts and fairies. The creatures that lurk under the bed and inside the closet. The things that live in the dark, and the heroes who stand against them. Above all, he believes that stories have the power to change the world, and the most important stories are the ones which show that monsters can be beaten.
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I can't even persuade my local indie bookstore to stock my books, Paul!
ReplyDeleteI admit I've had trouble with some stores. Some won't deal with any wholesalers but a select few, or even just one. Others simply ignore my attempts to contact them.
DeleteIt's actually been the chains, or the well-established stores, that have been easier to deal with.
As an avid reader and book buyer, not to mention a writer, this topic fascinates me. Which stores are welcoming, which ones are not, what kinds of reasons they give for not stocking a book, what agreements they'll make. It's all over the place.
ReplyDeleteI can usually put an unwelcoming store down to the personality of the staff. But stores that are unwilling to stock certain books really confuse me, especially since most wholesalers accept returns.
DeleteI'm so with you there, Paul.
ReplyDeleteWhere I live there are many indie bookstores, and a few have ordered mine (or accepted on consignment.) You know what's even headier? Having a complete stranger write that they picked your book up at a local independent and *loved it* (just got one of those Emails)
Makes you realize not only that print copies are still the meat of our business, but that small bookstores are also.