Recently I was running an errand near the local mall. I had not gone out there recently. While I was waiting to meet a friend I decided to stop by the massive Borders store.
I had not been to that Borders for at least six months or so. Last year at Christmas time I had a book signing at that store for my book “Expiation.” It was the second book signing I had at that store. The first one had been in the fall of 2010.
I decided to stop by Borders to see if by chance they still had some of my books on their shelves. To my surprise, they didn’t have anybody’s books on their shelves. The gigantic Borders was gone. I then remembered that Borders had been in Chapter 11 and was closing a lot of stores. I really never connected the dots and thought about this Borders near my home. I guess we always think these things happen some where else.
It occurred to me that the reason I was surprised to see that Borders store closed is that I hadn’t thought about Borders at all for several months. I used to be a regular browser of that bookstore. I had made a lot of trips there to grovel and beg for the book signing.
At one point a couple of years ago, it was my goal to see my books in that Borders store. I was delighted that I got to have two book signings there. It was a real rush to walk into that store and see posters for my book. I remember looking at people standing in a long line just before Christmas and seeing that among their purchases was my book.
However, that Christmas I got a Kindle. So did lots of other people. I now have a Kindle and am firmly into the e book world as a reader. As a writer, I am concentrating on the social network marketing of my books. The focus of the marketing for my new book “The Illusion of Certainty is for Kindle, Nook, iPad and other e book readers.
I have discovered that it has been a long time since I even thought of the local Borders store. The same could be said for the two big Barnes and Noble stores near my home. The world is changing. There are a variety of reasons behind Borders’ demise. They were outflanked by Barnes and Noble for quality but more significantly Borders was left behind in the e book revolution. Additionally, the book business is very competitive and we are in a brutal economic climate.
I was surprised by the shuttered Borders store but I shouldn’t have been. Whether they closed or not, the reality is that I wasn’t planning to go there and I wasn’t planning to buy anything there. I have changed. So has the book world.
There is a small independent bookstore a few blocks from my house. They have always been passively supportive of my books. Right now there are two copies of “The Illusion of Certainty” sitting on their shelf in obscurity. I don’t know if anyone will ever discover them there.
Comparatively, I recently got a tweet from a woman in London who said she loved by book “Expiation” and just recently purchased “The Illusion of Certainty.”
Hmmm. There’s not much question about where my marketing focus should be.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR…Greg Messel has written three novels and three unpublished memoirs. He published his premiere novel “Sunbreaks” in 2009, followed by “Expiation” in 2010 and “The Illusion of Certainty” in 2011. Greg has had a newspaper career as a columnist, sportswriter and news editor. He won a Wyoming Press Association Award as a columnist. Greg also spent many years in the corporate world as a Financial Manager. He now devotes his energies to writing at his home in Edmonds, Washington on the Puget Sound just north of Seattle, where he lives with his wife, Carol.
In 1968, Dan and Katie are one of the hottest couples at Ballard High School in Seattle. He is the hero football player, and she is the beautiful cheerleader. These high school sweethearts believe theirs is a love that will never die.
Life changes when Dan leaves Washington to start college at the University of California Berkeley and pursue his dream of working for a big time newspaper in the glamorous city of San Francisco. The quest for his dream occurs against the turbulent background of Berkeley and San Francisco in the 1970s as Dan and Katie go their separate ways.
Now, thirty years later, Dan is back in his hometown of Seattle attending his mother’s funeral. He’s never stopped thinking about Katie, his long-lost love. But the two former high school sweethearts reconnect in a most unexpected way as the rest of the world grows more fearful of Y2K and the dawn of the twenty-first century. They are hoping that their love, once lost, can now be reclaimed.
- Paperback: 292 pages
- Publisher: Trafford Publishing (March 8, 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1426928556
- ISBN-13: 978-1426928550
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