The other day, I decided to start calling independent bookstores to see if they'd carry my book. I started in Olympia, Washington, the hometown of the protagonist of Secrets of a Summer Village. There are three indy bookstores there. The first one, Last Word Books, said they'd love to take some copies on commission. It was totally easy and they were incredibly friendly. I love Olympia, and thank you Last Word Books. The second one, which I often frequented while in Olympia, Fireside Books, said they would have loved to, but they're closing in a month :( Sad. The third one, Orca Books, shocked me when I introduced myself.
"We already have a copy of your book - Secrets of a Summer Village, right?"
I was floored. Long story short, I found out that a friend and former colleague of mine asked them about my book, and I guess suggested that they carry it. So they did. As easy as that. So if any of you have local independent bookstores you frequent, please ask them if they'd be interested in carrying my book! It works, apparently. Have they sold my book? No. But they needed a little promotional data - some quotes from reviews recommending it. I sent those along, and hope that they are able to sell the book.
In further news, a guest blog I wrote was featured today. Please check it out: http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/guest-post-what-kind-of-writer-do-i-want-to-be-by-saskia-akyil/
Finally, book 2 is coming along. I have about 2,000 words written. Next to nothing, I know, but it's flowing easily, and I'm very happy with it. If you need some perspective, I'm aiming for around 60,000 words for this one. Secrets of a Summer Village is around 90,000 words. So, 2000 down, 58,000 to go. It sounds daunting, but it's not that bad at this rate - it's taken me two days to get the 2,000 words, and I haven't been working that diligently on it. Now, let's see how much I can write in the next half hour..... MY personal key to writing is writing in very short spurts... because sometimes that's all I have :)
Yay for starting a new book! Good luck with it. 60,000 is a nice, doable length, and I hope your plan for short spurts works well. Sounds like you've figured out a great way to manage your writing by doing that :)
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