Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Acoustic Kitty - now at Borders!

So I have a little bit of exciting news to share - ACOUSTIC KITTY is now available at three local Borders stores. You can get it at the Sunset Hills, Ballwin and Creve Coeur stores. Even better, the Sunset Hills location is going to have me come by for a book signing on Sunday, September 14. I don't know the exact time yet, but it'll be around 1:00 or 2:00 p.m. I'll let you know for certain once I find out more.

How I got to this point is actually kind of a cool story. I signed up for Facebook a few weeks ago and a woman named Susan added me as a friend because she is a fan of the Fringe. As it turns out, Susan's also the general manager of the Sunset Hills Borders store, and I remembered her because she had said hello to me when I was in the store about a week before that. (It was maybe the tenth time in the seven years of writing "Suburban Fringe" that I've been recognized in public - I'm still not used to it.)

We struck up an online conversation, Susan expressed interest in carrying KITTY in her store and a few of the other local Borders locations, and voila, I am now officially in Borders. Still not quite the same as being in bookstores coast to coast, but all things considered, I'm excited. Baby steps, people, baby steps. If KITTY does well, that might help me land an agent, which in turn would help me get a publishing deal, which in turn would get my book into stores all over the country.

As a "St. Louis-is-a-big-small-town" aside, my wife's cousin used to work at the Sunset Hills Borders and is friends with Susan. So we were only one or two degrees of separation apart to begin with. Facebook just closed the loop. Weird.

Well, okay, maybe that story was more interesting for me than it was for you. But still - at least now you don't have to wait for a copy in the mail if you don't want to. W00t!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Can we bring 'already purchased and read' copies in for signing into Sunset Hills? Also, consider a MySpace page to supplement the Facebook - I only have seven friends on MySpace and could use a few more ;-)

Bob said...

I'm looking into your question and will let everyone know.

As for MySpace, I'm sure I will at some point. I actually do have a page, but it's just an empty shell at this point. (myspace.com/bobwritesstuff is the address.) It's hard enough to find time to really do Facebook well, so I don't have high hopes for the MySpace page - but I'd like to.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I can't believe I have been by here in this long!

This is incredible, Bob! It must be very exciting. I can't even imagine the effort that goes into writing a book. I have enough trouble with keeping my blog going every day.

Of course, I'm handicapped by being an engineer by day and we aren't exactly known for our writing prowess.

I've just started using a blog reader, so I'm adding you to my list so I don't miss important stuff like this.

Congrats, again!

Bob said...

Thanks, Gregg. I'm pretty stoked about it. Hope to see you there on the 14th.

And Victoria - yes, you can bring by previously purchased copies.