A week ago, I received a call from Sea Port Books in La Conner, Washington, letting me know that I needed to bring in more copies of A Wandering Mind because I had sold out. I was so excited and appreciative. Local bookstores have proven to be a great partner for me since publishing in October. I have found that people do, in fact, buy books by their covers, and when my book is facing out, people tend to buy it.

Yesterday, as I was dropping off four copies of A Wandering Mind, a woman in the store overheard me talking and said that she wanted to buy the book since I was there. I signed it for her and still left four behind for future shoppers to find. I had almost the same experience when dropping off books at Village Books in Fairhaven, Washington. I was dropping off a few more books after selling out, and a woman asked if I would sign a copy of my book if she bought it. I, of course, said yes.

Now, unless I was making a lot of sales an hour, this would be a tough way to make a living because I don’t make much per sale, but it is interesting how much impact meeting the writer can have. After the experience yesterday, my wife pointed out that I more often than not buy a book if I end up talking to the author. This made me think that in a world of social media, there is still no replacing simply meeting people where they are. If you are looking for someone who likes to read, then a bookstore is a pretty darn good place to find an audience.

Unfortunately, this epiphany doesn’t allow me to spend all my time in bookstores, but I may decide to linger a little longer, especially the one that’s carrying a copy of A Wandering Mind.