Making “cold calls” at bookstores and other stores that might sell my book is not my idea of fun because I was born without one single sales gene. It is difficult for me to enter a store and introduce myself and my book. Perhaps it will get easier with practice. I am much happier at the keyboard writing. That’s probably true of most writers, but promoting one’s book is part of the job.

I told my friend, Kay, that I was not cut out for life in the fast lane. She didn’t miss a beat and came back with, “Maybe you should of thought about that before you wrote a book!”

If you’ve been following my blog over the last week, I don’t want to leave you with the impression that my book was on all the bookstore shelves in the mountains. I visited several bookstores that had not heard of my book, The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. That was not a surprise.

Eastern National operates the gift/book shop at the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville. There were a couple of Arcadia Publishing books available there, but mine was not one of them. The cashier said they will “probably have it eventually.” He said it has to be approved for sale by the national office, the regional office, and then the local office. I’m hopeful my book will be for sale there by spring. Winter is a slow time for tourists on the Blue Ridge Parkway, so spring will be good.

The woman at Fountainhead Books in Hendersonville was not very encouraging, but gave me the owner’s business card and told me to have Arcadia contact the owner directly. I did that when I got home, and Arcadia is following up with Fountainhead.

Joy of Books is the other bookstore in Hendersonville. The woman there was upbeat. She has never ordered books from Arcadia, but she has ordered from History Press and she knew that the two companies recently merged. I’m hopeful that she will order my book.

All the contacts I make while promoting The Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina will serve me well if I get to write additional vintage postcard books for Arcadia Publishing and when I get my historical novel published. The title I’ve given that 98,000-word manuscript is The Spanish Coin. Someday….