So yesterday, as planned, I spent the afternoon driving around town (or at least around the areas of town I frequent) visiting bookstores to see which ones had my books out and which ones didn’t. I put almost 60 miles on the car, and couldn’t have chosen a better day for it, as it stayed in the low-80s with a good breeze blowing all afternoon.

So here’s where I went:
To begin with, I started this map off at the Kroger where I stopped to air up a tire that looked a little low—because with as much as I love my blog readers, I didn’t really want to put a map straight to my house on the web for everyone to see! So those are points A and K on the map.

B. Barnes & Noble, Opry Mills Mall. About two months ago, I stopped there and left my marketing materials with the Community Relations Manager. She seemed interested in my books . . . at least to my face. But, alas, no books on the shelf, and no hole between Kathryn Cushman and Ted Dekker where they might have been. But I did treat myself to a tall Caramel-Light Frappuccino so that it wasn’t a completely wasted trip!

C. LifeWay Christian Resources store, Downtown Nashville. This store, one block up from the newspaper offices where I worked for ten years, was the first place I saw my books—all three of them—on the shelves. Which included Menu on the secondary “LifeWay Recommends” shelf—right next to pal Mary Connealy‘s new release, too!

D. Borders Books, West End Ave., Nashville. This was the first time I’ve braved traffic on West End to visit this store. The Religion/Christian Fiction section is a the top of the stairs . . . and isn’t comprehensive. They had none of my books, which is odd, because I thought they were carrying at least SIG chainwide. But maybe they sold them and didn’t reorder. That seems to be the case with other Borders stores I’ve been in.

E. Borders Books, Franklin Rd., Brentwood. Last time I visited this location, they had two copies of SIG, and they let me sign both of them. As you can see, they still had one of the signed copies. So I pulled it off of the shelf which was above head-level for me (and I’m 5’9″!) and I moved it to the eye-level, face-out featured title shelf, as you can see. I then went over to the Romance section. They had two copies of the hard-cover edition of Mary Balogh’s Regency, Seducing an Angel, which caught my eye because the dress on the girl on the front cover is gorgeous (though the back of is late-Victorian, not Empire!) on one of the top shelves. So I stuck a postcard for RH in both copies. I then also stuck a postcard in every copy of every Georgette Heyer book they had on the shelves.

F. Barnes & Noble, Moore’s Lane/Mallory Lane, Cool Springs (Franklin, TN). I probably spend more time in this B&N than any other bookstore. It’s my “go-to” location when I need my fix of being in a bookstore, smelling that new-book smell, looking at covers, reading back-cover copy, and seeing what’s on the bargain tables I might never have heard of before. Again, last time I was in this store, about a month ago, I talked to the CRM and left my marketing materials. And apparently it worked! They had two copies of SIG! (But no copies of MFR or RH.) Since the shelf they were on is at knee-level, I moved one of them to the end-cap where there was an empty space amongst the Beverly Lewis, Wanda Brunstetter, and Karen Kingsbury titles. I also stuck an RH postcard and an MFR bookmark in each copy.

G. LifeWay, Galleria Blvd., Cool Springs (Franklin, TN). It looks like right now, LifeWay is the only store that has received Menu and RH chainwide. I know there have been a few scattered sightings of one or the other at some other chains across the country, but here in Nashville, this was the only chain that had all three of my titles (if any at all!). Once again, they had several copies of both of the new books (but only one of SIG, and I think the other LW only had one or two of SIG). A few weeks ago, last time I was in the area, I spent quite some time sticking RH postcards in most of the historical novels on the shelves, so I didn’t bother doing that again. I did, however, hand an RH postcard and an MFR bookmark to a lady who was browsing the fiction section.

H. Borders Books, Cool Springs Blvd., Cool Springs (Franklin, TN). This is the store in which the Religion/Christian fiction section is right next to the restrooms. They’ve had a freestanding small display case in front of the main shelves displaying about 50 copies of The Shack for at least six months, and they haven’t sold very many of them (I know, because I put SIG bookmarks in almost all of them six months ago, and the 40 or so still on the shelf still have bookmarks in them.) The most copies of SIG I’ve seen at this store was two, but this time there weren’t any. But a salesperson did stop me on my way out to see if there was anything he could help me find. I told him why I was there, and he explained that even when books come out on the first of the month, they don’t usually get their shipments until a Monday because they always put new books out on Tuesdays. Since I’ll be driving back from Atlanta on Tuesday, I’ll have to go back by the Borders stores next Wednesday to see if they’ve received them or not.

I. Wal-Mart Supercenter, Mallory Lane, Franklin, TN. Anyone who knows me knows I dislike going into a Wal-Mart for any reason, but if they’re going to not only carry, but feature my books, I’ll make the effort. I’d been told by the publicist at Barbour that Wal-Mart would be featuring Menu for Romance on a “Featured New Releases” shelf. However, not only did I not see a shelf like that at this WM, I didn’t see anything but one copy of SIG on the shelf. No MFR, no RH. However, while I was there, I did go ahead and pick up a new spiral notebook (with a purple cover, naturally), for the writing of Ransome’s Crossing, along with some purple two-pocket folders—because they’re purple and they were four for a dollar.

J. Sam’s Club, Mallory Lane, Franklin, TN. In addition to finding out that MFR is supposed to be “featured” at Wal-Mart, I’ve also been told that it’s supposed to be carried at Sam’s Clubs. Although this Sam’s had a well-ordered display of several Christian fiction titles, mine was not amongst them. Maybe it’s too soon? Maybe they, like Borders, won’t have them out until next week?

With Stand-In Groom‘s releasing a couple of weeks before its January 1 release date, and seeing it and hearing about sightings of it all over the country in the days leading up to and just after Christmas, it’s a bit disheartening that Menu and Ransome aren’t already out everywhere I know my books have been/are supposed to be carried. But I know I just have to be patient. Everyone who preordered them from Amazon should have them by now—or should receive them within a day or two. And LifeWay stores have lots of copies of the two new releases. Ruth saw Menu at the Hastings store in Murfreesboro, TN. So they’re slowly getting out there.

If you’ve seen either or both of the new books at a store near you, please let me know!