Oh, how I miss Borders bookstores!

Oh, for the good old days.  Now that I’m starting to market the third in my series of thrillers, White Thaw: The Helheim Conspiracy, I miss Borders more than ever: back when there were numerous Borders stores, where you could browse for books at your heart’s content, have a cup of coffee, and literally spend the whole day there if you wanted.  But, with the recession and the transition to online purchases and e-books, Borders is a thing of the past.

Why am I lamenting its passing so?  For one major reason.  Because I sold a non-insignificant fraction of my first two thrillers, Category 5 and Prophecy, there.  Back in 2005, 2006, and 2007, I conducted numerous signings in Northern California, and one in Washington, DC.  Borders outposts like Oakridge, Milpitas, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Santana Row, and Sand City were part of my circuit.  I conducted literally dozens of signings at these establishments, selling anywhere from 20 to 50+ books at a time.  I thank the managers there, particularly the one at Oakridge, who would have me back again and again.  He always seemed appreciative of the sales I made for his store.

I learned an important lesson during my signings: don’t judge a book by its cover (pun intended).  What I mean is that I learned not to judge the potential buyer of my books.  I tried to be friendly to all but, after several signings, I learned that some people were less apt to buy a book than others: for example, I always sold more books to women than men; teenagers rarely bought a book, etc.  The particular lesson I learned occurred in December on a wet rainy evening.  A lady who appeared on the down side of her luck came into the store.  As I recall, she wasn’t wearing shoes and was poorly dressed.  I started a conversation.  Long story short, she purchased something like four books  for various of her relatives.  I’ve never sold as many books at one time to one person as I did to her.

So I miss those signings, not only because of the books I sold, but because of the interesting people I met and the lessons they taught me.

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This post was written by paulmarktag01