Wednesday, December 4, 2013

I LOVE Barnes & Noble Bookstores

I was fortunate enough to be a part of the booksellers "Discovery Friday" event on November 22nd, 2013. I spent the day at the Barnes & Noble in Morrow, GA, where I grew up, and was able to promote and sign books most of the day.  Amy Allen, the CRM at that location, was extremely gracious, as was the entire staff, including the store manager.  I felt appreciated and respected as a writer, and the reader interaction was priceless.  This was a definite high point in my literary career and it helped remind me of why I do what I do.  It is the reason I drove five hours (traffic!) there and four hours back, van loaded with books, signs, cards, postcards, and anything else I could cram in, all for the chance to meet folks that might want to read my book.

I met several, as it turns out, and the experience reinvigorated me.  It also changed my thinking on at least one important thing.  I realized that if Barnes & Noble is supporting writers in that way, why am I not supporting them more?  Sooo... Goodbye Kindle, Hello Nook!  Amazon can't put me face-to-face with hundreds of potential readers, though I would like to state that Amazon does provide great services for writers and readers.  It's just that I can't imagine life without a great brick & mortar bookstore like Barnes & Noble.  If I accomplish nothing else with this blog, I hope I at least get you thinking about where you make your next book purchase.  I don't know about you, but I remember spending hours shopping for great fantasy books when I was a kid and then later into adulthood (until I was lulled into the great bastion of online shopping that is Amazon), perusing book covers, holding a physical book in my hand prior to purchase, stacking them up until it came to final decision time on my purchase.  I miss that; I want more of that.

With that said, the only gifts I'm giving this holiday season are Barnes & Noble gift cards!      

3 comments:

  1. I'm glad you had such a good experience at Discovery Friday! Awesome. I really regret not going to mine in Winston-Salem but I had plans I couldn't get out of. Next time they do it I'm in for sure. Which means I'll have to push past my fear of being totally ignored by the customers and sitting there all alone feeling like a loser... lol

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  2. Oh, Wade, you'll be the "Belle of the Bookseller" when the next opportunity arises, I've no doubt. You should go ahead and reach out the the Community Relations Manager, CRM, and start building a relationship. Take your book in and let them scan to see that it is in their system and you never know what may happen. That will be 5 cents, please.

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  3. $0.05 coming your way. Do you take PayPal? ;)
    Thanks for encouraging words, Kelly. Much obliged, ma'am. That's an excellent idea about preemptively attacking the CRM.

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