My Book Is In the Largest Bookstore in Texas

Where Love Once Lived is now on the shelves of BookPeople, the largest bookstore in Texas.

BookPeople opened in Austin in 1970, and was named Best Bookstore in the United States in 2005 by Publishers Weekly. Many famous authors include BookPeople in their book-signing tours. Laura Bush was there recently and Jimmy Carter will be signing his latest book at BookPeople on October 29, 2010. They’re selling tickets to the Carter event for crowd control.

Even with their national fame, BookPeople has a special place on its shelves for local authors. Just inside the front door, on the way to the coffee shop, there is a shelf on the left with a sign that says Texas Authors. There are some famous names there, including one of my favorites, Susan Wittig Albert. Five of my books are in the same shelf. Well, hopefully, there are fewer now. My friend Rollo Newsom has written a community comment card for this shelf.

You’ll find five more copies of Where Love Once Lived on the second floor in the inspiration section right along with Jan Karon’s books. I picked that shelf because of Karon, and added a community comment card with quotes from Sandy Althaus’ review.

So what, you’re thinking. Bookstores sell books. They stock books. That’s what they do.

Well, most don’t stock print-on-demand (POD) books like mine. The big chain bookstores won’t stock Where Love Once Lived. They’ll sell it to you and get one for you, but only if you pay in advance and wait a week.

BookPeople in Austin and Hill Country Bookstore in Georgetown both stock my book because on their consignment programs. I furnish the books and they sell them. I end up making a little less than books sold on Amazon.com, but not by much. Also, I’m responsible for costs due to theft or damage.

Is this a reason to avoid publishing POD books? I don’t know yet. With a new book almost ready to pitch, I wish I knew. I’ll be looking at the pros and cons of self publishing and traditional publishing and reporting my findings to you in a future post. If you have knowledge about it, please comment here.

Another Book Review!!!

I was just talking about how much fun it is to start getting feedback from readers, and soon after that I discovered another review on Amazon.com. Read this...

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great first novel!, September 4, 2010

By Sandy Althaus - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Where Love Once Lived (Paperback)

I am proud to say I bought Sid's very first book and loved reading it. Rollo has covered the overview so well, but I want to comment on the theme and characters. I thought it was so very creative to use the bookmobile as a center of so much action and activity, and much to my surprise it kept popping up throughout the book. It was so well described I could picture myself being there. I "got into" the characters quite early in my reading, and my interest kept growing. I especially appreciated the comfortable but truthful way the Christian message was presented. I know lives will be touched when reading this book. A Great first novel! Excited to read your next one.

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I must admit that swelled my head a little. I said something about Rollo's review perhaps being written from a galley proof and could have been an exaggeration to help sales. What I didn't mention was that privately he did say it was well written. So, I'm celebrating both reviews.

Now, it's your turn. More reviews will help bring attention to the book. If you don't want to write something, then check the Yes button on the two reviews there to let people know you agree with what's been said.

Here's the link to the Amazon.com page: http://www.amazon.com/Where-Love-Lived-Sidney-Frost/dp/1451511817/

Thanks, Sandy and to all you who have commented on the book.

Reader Comments are Fun

I've started getting feedback from readers of Where Love Once Lived and I'm anxious to get more.

Rollo Newsom, who wrote the Amazon.com review, read the book from the galley proof, and besides, you can't trust him not to boast about the book just to help sell it. But, now several people have finished reading the book after it was officially released. Here are some of the comments I've received so far.

Peg Case (she is an author herself and had read an early draft of my book) sent this:

I finished Where Love Once Lived last night. It flowed really well and was most enjoyable. You have a great grasp of characters and clever ways of illustrating them with a few words, and your plot hung together better than I recall the first time I read it. I felt that there were some unresolved plot lines that made me wonder if you plan to use them if you write a book featuring Liz. (Like who is going to run the business now he owns it again and what happens to Laura....) I confess that I got annoyed with Brian - and to a certain extent, Karen - for obsessing so much over "should I or shouldn't I " and "will she ever forgive me? And "am I worthy of her?" Maybe it's a middle-aged guy thing. There were places where I wondered if they might be autobiographical - like Tony's history with singing, for example. All in all, it was a fine book, Sid. I look forward to your next which sounds like it is more my style.

Sandy Althaus (who bought the first book) writes:

I am enjoying your book so much. Wonder how Karen and Brian will finally get together again!"

Then, later:

Finished your book and thought you did a great job. Loved the way you incorporated the bookmobile and the comfortable way the message of Christ was presented. I will write a review as soon as I am off the iPhone and have a "real" computer at my finger tips!

Jimmy Clark (who bought the second book) wrote:

I will start reading the book soon. The cover art is beautiful. It really works well for your book.

Cathy Harris (who bought the first Kindle) sent this:

Sid, I just found and purchased your book on my Kindle! I am excited.

I started it last night and saw a few areas, but I read through them with no trouble. I didn't last long because it was late and we go to early church. I am enjoying it very much.

Website Design Suggestions

I hope you missed me. My computer has been down for three days and I haven't posted a blog since August 31. I don't usually post anything on weekends, but thought I better to keep up my monthly average.

I'm pretty sure the computer is fixed. It's a long story, but I think the problems were due to overheating. Pretty embarrassing for a computer person, but after moving it out five inches from the wall and three inches from the cabinet I had it up against from the time the problems started, it is miraculously working.

Even without a computer, I was able to keep up with the world with my iPhone. I could have done the blog on it, too, the tiny keyboard is difficult to use.

My friend Sandy Althaus finished reading the book last week and when I asked her about doing a review she said she would when she got back home to her real computer. She'd been communicating via iPhone all summer and I hadn't even noticed.

Since my computer was down, I haven't updated the website I showed you last time. However, I did get some great comments about it.

Rollo Newsom (who knows books) said this:

I wonder if it would be wise to make the links a little more prominent and include links to locally owned bookstores that you know have the book available? I'm sure B&N/Borders could care less, but BookPeople and the store you are signing in in Georgetown might like it and a link to them might even sell a copy or two. When I want a book right now, I occasionally go to a bookstore and pay full price rather than wait for Amazon to deliver it.

Also, maybe a link to your next book - just a brief preview and a "Coming Soon" note?

Roger Lawrence (who knows art and design) sent this:

You have your book cover shown twice on your new website. This is Boring. I suggest that you enlarge the book cover with the Sales details and drop the big cover photo. Add a photo of yourself. Add a click below your photo to make it easy to read your bio. Everyone likes to see what the author looks like. You look very distinguished and very much like an author in your photo.

Peg Case (who is an author) wrote:

I never attempted to build a website, but for any kind of advertising the simpler the better. This tells all anyone needs to know, but it's plain, isn't it? As I say, I don't know what's good. When I want to find an author or a book I have heard about, I use a website called fantasticfiction.co.uk/ So far I have found everyone I've tried - and it lists the author's books in series, genres and chronological publishing dates. (So you know which is first in a series using the same character.) Don't know how one gets on their site...... but something like this would give you more exposure, hey?

Note to Peg: I checked fantasticfiction.co.uk/ and found Where Love Once Lived listed there. They have the cover image and a list of places where you can purchase the book. Unfortunately, you must know the ISBN to find it. The author search and the title search failed to find the book.

Thanks, everyone. I'll make the website changes suggested and I'll let you all know when to check it again.