Two nerds in a bookstore

“I’m not asking,” I told Annie. “I’d feel stupid.”

We were in the business section of a local Barnes & Noble. Our extensive search didn’t turn up a single copy of WAIW? and according to their website they had it in stock.

“Okay,” she said, “I’ll ask.”

She approached the bookseller at the help desk. He looked it up on his computer and then headed for the business section.

“Wait, there it is.” Annie pointed to a pile of books on a trolley waiting to be shelved. The bookseller pulled it out, handed it to her, and then went about his business.

It wasn’t as cool as seeing it on the shelf. But holding my (our) book in a real-life bookstore was pretty cool. We scampered off behind the management section and geeked out a bit. Once we were done, a problem presented itself. What to do with the book?

The book had yet to be shelved, so we didn’t know where it went. If we put it back on the stack of books, the bookseller would have thought we considered purchasing it, but, after further review, we thought it didn’t look interesting enough to spend $17 on. That’s not a perception we wanted to spread.

“I guess we have to buy it now, huh?” Annie said.

“But we’ve got 50 copies at home,” I said. “I’ve got an idea.”

I grabbed the book and sought out the bookseller, “Excuse me, I’m not sure what to do with this. We we’re just being nerds. I’m the author; this is my first book, and we wanted to see it in the store.”

“Oh,” he said, “you should sign them.”

It’s the first time in my life my signature became an autograph.

–

WAIW? is currently available in the following stores: Barnes and Noble, Waldenbooks, Amazon.com, and also by a lot of small, independent bookstores across the country.

What’s Borders thinking?

Feel free to pretend to be me and sign them (joking). I don’t think they can return signed copies to the publisher.

Early reports are that sales are looking good. Amazon and Library Thing have some reader reviews up already.