Deborah Cooke: Author

Just a quick comment here, as I’m hearing the same thing from a number of you, both publically and privately. It seems that many of you are having trouble finding a copy of WHISPER KISS in your local bricks-and-mortar bookstore. Some of you are even visiting multiple bookstores, without any luck.

I really admire your persistence! For every one of you who keeps hunting, many other readers will give up the chase and buy something else. So, thank you all for chasing down a copy!

Distribution is a complicated business, and it’s one of those facets of publishing that is currently in flux. It’s always been difficult to have the right number of books in the right places for readers to buy them. For some reason, I think it’s getting more challenging. (As to why that might be, we could spend a week discussing the variables!)

But the upshot of this is that I’m going to recommend that you be proactive in your hunt for books – not just my books, but all books.

Think about it. If you go into a bookstore, searching for a specific book, don’t find what you’re looking for, and just leave, then no one knows that you were there. Nothing will change in future. The bookstore will believe that they had everything that their customers were looking for, because there is no information to suggest otherwise. I went to a panel discussion with booksellers at RWA National and one of the buyers for one of the big chains was surprised that people were – for example – unhappy that category romance wasn’t stocked at all of their stores. Seems no one had complained – but the authors in that room were complaining!

So, when I go to a bookstore, searching for a specific book, and don’t find it, I make sure to tell somebody. Ideally, I’ll tell the manager. Yes, I complain. I end up doing this a lot because romance sections tend to be small near where I live – it’s very hit and miss whether I can find a title that isn’t NYT. Sometimes I order the book through the store, then return to pick it up. That leaves a record in their system that they should have stocked that book or stocked more of it. If I get attitude or indifference, I tell the manager that I will just have to buy it online – or even that I will buy it from Amazon. This usually gets the attention of the manager of a bricks-and-mortar bookstore, particularly one that also has an online sales website.

When we as consumers are vocal, we show that there is demand for whatever we want to buy. And if enough of us speak up, then things can and will change. It’s the nature of any business to not want to lose a sale, if it can be easily avoided. So, speak up! Tell your bookstores what’s missing from their sections! As the consumer, you’re the one with the money to spend, and bookstores want you to spend it in their store.

Tell them how to make that happen.