BARNES AND NOBLE IN THE VILLAGES, FL
All the local authors I knew were excited because Barnes and Noble was putting a store in The Villages, Florida. I couldn't speak for anyone else but what an opportunity to have a book signing at Barnes and Noble. It was like a validation.
I met with the Barnes and Nobles' Community Relations Director. She was young, nice, and polite when she said, "You're a POD published author and usually we don't do business with those publishing companies and their authors."
Naïve, I had no idea what that meant. So, I asked, "Why?"
"If Barnes and Noble buys your book and they don't sell, we can't return the books to the POD. That means we're have inventory that is worthless to us. I'm sorry."
I thanked her and couldn't believe it. I wondered how many other authors were aware of this.
Weeks later, the Community Relations Director contacted me. Barnes and Noble was inviting ten local authors to participate in a Barnes and Noble Book Signing. I was one of the lucky authors.
The book signing was straight forward. All the authors were to bring their books to sell, share a table, do your own advertising, and stay for four hours.
Since Barnes and Noble did no advertising, I made flyers and passed them out. On the day of the book signing, I was nervous.
I arrived and up front was one long table that all the authors shared. It was different but I was in Barnes and Noble.
After about thirty minutes, I sold my first book--success. Within the hour, I had sold 20 books. I felt bad because the other authors weren't doing as well and wanted to know my secret. My answer, "I passed out flyers."
At the end of the book signing, I had sold 50 copies and Barnes and Noble was going to keep my books. I was excited and felt proud.
A week later, Sunday Golf was up front and another 50 books were sold. WOW! I couldn't believe the success I was having, but I didn't lose focus on how many more books I had to sell.
