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Posted on June 14, 2010
I had a VERY exciting conversation earlier with Adam Anderson, a customer relations manager with Barnes & Noble in the local area. I met him at the recent Summer Reading Kickoff, and when he introduced himself, I immediately gave him copies of Island of Fog and Labyrinth of Fire.
He's now finished reading Island of Fog and says he loved it. He said it "stands apart" from other similar fantasy books and he strongly believes customers will enjoy it if only they can get hold of it. So he's eager to get the books into his local store in Chattanooga, and plans to buy maybe ten copies to start with.
Sales of the book will directly affect whether the book will be restocked locally, and more importantly, whether the store will stock the books across the country. I have some more work to do on that front, by contacting their central Small Press Department and getting "signed up," but in the meantime Adam wants to get things started locally.
To that end, can I beg y'all to help me out here? If you haven't yet got a copy of Island of Fog or Labyrinth of Fire, and you're thinking about it, please do so through a local Barnes & Noble store. Don't go online to their website; that will count as an online sale. Instead, either drop in to your local store and order the book over the counter, or make a phone call and do the same thing. This will count as an in-store sale. Copies take only 2-3 days to arrive.
Just to double-check, I made a phone call to a random Barnes & Noble store and the friendly assistant said the books are indeed available to order. This applies to ALL stores across the U.S.
If there are enough in-store sales (locally or otherwise), the Big Boys at Barnes & Noble will recognize that there's perhaps enough demand to stock copies on their shelves – or at least enough demand to try it for a while. Once the books are on the shelves, they'll likely sell better, and the ball will start rolling.
If your local Barnes & Noble store is the one at Hamilton Place, Chattanooga, then please go in and ask about the books. Staff are currently waiting for Adam to finish reading them, but hopefully they'll become aware of the books over the next few days and weeks, and copies will appear on the shelves. If you see one, buy it! And if not, demand a copy.
There. I don't normally beg that you buy copies, but this could be a major turning point for a struggling author. :-)
You can ask for the books by author name and title, or quote the following ISBN numbers:
Island of Fog (ISBN 978-0984390601)
Labyrinth of Fire (ISBN 978-0984390618)
To make it easier, you can click here for printable information.
Mountain of Whispers should be available in early July; I'll post about that one separately.
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