Monday, October 26, 2009

Book Signing Adventures Continue

Before Read Between the Lines gets shipped off to the various book stores across the country, I decided I had better make sure that it gets slotted into the right category. I'm thinking it's pretty important for "would be readers" to be able to find RBTL if they are looking for it, or if they're just browsing, I'd like the book to stand out in the crowd.

So, off I went to Borders to verify which category Read Between the Lines belongs to. And, while I was at my local Borders store, I figured I might as well go ahead and ask "The Question" again today which is "would you be interested in hosting a book signing?"

I must admit, I also kept hearing my mom's voice in the back of my mind saying "requesting a book signing isn't difficult Shawn, all you need to do is ask!"

As I walked into Borders this morning, along with the butterfly's in my stomach, I thought to myself... "is this what all newbie authors go through to get book signings on the schedule?" I don't even know why I asked this question, because the answer was clearly part of my reality.

In I walk, and I'm immediately offered assistance by the customer service expert. I hand her my galley, and she gets this great big smile on her face. She says she loves the cover, and then begins to flip through the book. I then let her know my mission for the morning, which was to find the right category for Read Between the Lines. She immediately tells me it belongs in "Humor".

Then she offers to ask her store manager her opinion, because she's the "resident expert".

Excellent! An expert who can solve today's question of the day.

The manager comes out, takes the galley, thumbs through the pages, and then we begin to walk around the store to look at each of the potential categories it could go in. As we did this, she explained why Read Between the Lines would or would not "get lost" in each category.

Get lost? THAT'S MY BIGGEST NIGHTMARE! Read Between the Lines needs to be found, not lost!

She was amazing and knowledgeable to say the least. It also helped that she really liked Read Between the Lines, and was excited as to it's potential.

Then, just as she finalized her decision on the "Humor" category for RBTL, she said "how would you like to do a fun event for your book here at the store? This is the perfect time for a book like this to get noticed during the Holiday season"

To say the least, her offer to host a book signing "fun event" was music to my ears! I LOVE fun, and I'm now officially a big fan of book signings.

Hmmm.....maybe, just maybe I need to start believing that requesting a book signing isn't as hard as it sounds. Or, could it be that book store managers are just awesomely wonderful lovers of books?

Maybe it's all true, and it's just the perfect combination of perfect.

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