Borders is not Waldenbooks

Did you know that Borders and Waldenbooks are the same company, share the same headquarters? It's in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and I sent my book there in January to have it read and approved to be put in their system.

The turn-around time was really quick, and I got a letter in mid February telling me that My Lost Summer "has been reviewed by our Buyers and it will be listed so that they may make a purchase to be distributed at some level in the chain(s)."

Rather than waiting for the "Buyers" to make the move, I got on line and looked up the phone numbers for the Waldenbooks stores in Ohio and adjacent states so that I could call and request that those stores order copies. I found that managers of stores in Pennsylvania and Indiana were really receptive to ordering and considered me a local author. Michigan and Kentucky managers were less excited to hear directly from an author. Overall, my calls to Waldenbooks stores were successful, most stores ordering two or three copies to display on their shelves.

Since I had such success with Waldenbooks, I decided to try Borders. From the Internet I recorded the phone numbers of the Borders and Borders Express stores in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia--Ohio and its bordering states. However, the managers of the Borders stores were a bit tougher to sway. Some ordered readily, some collected my information and said they'd consider ordering, and some said that ordering is against the rules! The rules from the headquarters that approved my book. But I've only just started calling; I've made it through Indiana and parts of northern Ohio. Maybe I'll have better luck with Kentuckky and Michigan this go round.

Wish me luck.

A Successful Signing

This past Saturday I signed books at the first annual Mad Anthony Writers' Conference and Book Festival in Hamilton, Ohio. I consider the signing a success even though I only sold and signed eight books in the four hours I sat there.

Over 50 authors sat to sign so space was limited, but I did set out bookmarks and business cards for My Lost Summer. As people walked by, if they showed even the slightest interest, I would tell them, "This book's about my recovery from a coma when I was 13." Then I gauged people, measuring my next move depending on their interest meters. If the meter when up, I'd give more details of the book; if people showed me a tight lipped smile and shifted their eyes down the line to the next book, I'd shut up.

I consider eight books a success because I know of only one other book that outsold mine, and that book had the advantage of having its author present two sessions at the conference so that it got read to session attendees.

Besides the eight copies I sold on Saturday, I am pretty sure I sold two on Sunday morning as a result of the event. I checked my site on my printer's Website at 10 am, and two books had been ordered already that morning--I'm thinking by people who took bookmarks and business cards.

I know, 10 books isn't something one would normally get excited about, but 10 books is pretty good for a self-published author, who doesn't have the marketing funds of a traditional publishing house backing her.

I'm still enjoying the success of the weekend.

A Tax Day E-mail

Monday, April 17, 2006 an e-message from an unknown sender sat in my in-box. The subject was “A window into my world.” I considered deleting it because to me that read a little spam-ish, yet I considered what I had to lose. Not much by simply clicking open the message to see what it was about.

Fearlessly, I clicked the message open. It was from a woman who found my book (My Lost Summer, Jamaica Road Press) in the Cincinnati Airport. She said she “could not believe what [she] was holding in [her] hands.” She was in the airport on a layover from a trip to North Carolina to visit her brother, who is recovering from a coma he suffered on July 31, 2005. She wrote, “We have been through so much of what you document in your book - - the coma, the reawakening, and now the most difficult process of rehab.”

She told me she read the entire book on Sunday. Most people I’ve talked to who’ve read the book tell me that they read it straight through. It’s a pretty compelling story.

I wrote back to this woman, offering advice, trying to provide a window into what her brother is experiencing right now, telling her to challenge her brother, to give him my book so that he can read of someone who was in the same place he is and is now a fully functioning citizen. Maybe that will inspire him.

I told her I would pray for her family. God is already watching over them. How else would she have found my little self published book, that is only distributed locally, unless God led her to it? I’m glad the book is finding its way to the people who need it most.

A Visit with Grandpa

Last weekend I visited my Grandpa Mike, a main character in my book. In January I gave him his copy of my book (My Lost Summer about my recovery from a coma), and I’ve stopped to see him several times since, but I just this weekend asked him how he liked it.

He looked at me drop-jawed and wide-eyed and asked, “How’d you do it?”

I didn’t know what he meant by “it” so remained quiet, and he continued: “How’d you write it? A book’s a lot o' stuff. How’d you know how to write it? I didn’t think you could do it.”

I still didn’t know if he meant How could I have written with such detail, considering I, the protagonist, lay unconscious for about half the book, or How did I get the skills to write such an interesting, readable, engaging book.

Grandpa is not one to cut down another’s abilities, so when he said he didn’t think I could do it, I thought, “He didn’t think I could write the story so completely.” But my answer to that question would have been simply, “In interviewing you, Mom, Dad, and Mike (my brother) and using the journal Grandma kept, I was able to piece it all together.” Seemed like too easy of an answer. How else could I have done it? Grandpa was the first one I interviewed for the book. He knew that was the only way I could have done it. So I chose to answer the other possibility: Basically, How did I piece the story together into such an easily readable book.

“In grad school I learned different methods and ways to tell a story. Do you remember those travel articles I wrote for the school paper? They were great practice for story telling. I also read a lot and steal tricks from other authors. A good writer has to be a good reader too.”

And Grandpa said to me, “I hadn’t thought about that, but I guess you would need to be a good reader.
“Well, it was a real good book. I didn’t think you could do it, but it was real good.”

It pleased me that Grandpa liked the book. Sales are slow but steady. I hope others like it as well.