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How I found magic at Barnes and Noble

by Mary Margret Daughtridge




It was the last week in March and I hadn’t received my author’s copies yet, but I figured I would any day because SEALed With A Kiss was slated to be released around April 14.


I was in the local Barnes and Noble. I’m a great believer in the power of visualization so my intention was to go to the romance section and visualize my book there under the D’s. But first I swung by the new release shelf, because I like to see what’s just come in.


When I saw the new release shelf, I was overcome with the weirdest, most swimmy-headed, what’s wrong with this picture feeling I’ve ever had. Finally I realized what was odd was that one of the books on the shelf had a cover all in blue with a hunky guy--just like the cover of my book. Shocked, I read the author’s name. Mary Margret Daughtridge. Same as mine too. Finally the truth dawned. It wasn’t just like my book. It was my book.


But I didn’t think it had been released. Now, I wasn’t sure if I was really seeing it, or if I had finally succumbed to self-induced delusion.


After a while, I got up the courage to touch it, and run my finger over the embossing, and open it and inhale new-book-fresh-ink, and let the truth sink in: my hands were holding my published book. The magic was real.


In the Spring, another SEALed book, SEALed With A Promise, will appear. I will go to Barnes and Noble and there it will be.


I know more about what to visualize these days. Now I don’t only imagine SEALed With A Promise there, I imagine hands picking it up. I visualize a center aisle display. In my mind's eye, I see readers laughing and crying, and feeling so good as they read the last sentence.



But when I try to imagine how I'll feel when I see it on display for the first time...a big grin spreads across my face and once again the only thing I'm sure of is that I'm witnessing magic.

Comments

  1. Hey I'm all about magic! I got goosebumps for you while reading this post, Mary Margaret! Congrats!

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  2. Oh Mary! If I wasn't so happy for you I would be oozing with jealousy!! I am still at the stage of having a hard time imagining seeing my book on a shelf - and I have a vivid imagination!! I know that seeing my self-published novels on Amazon and holding them in my hands was amazing. But I still can't comprehend the joy of the fully perfected novel staring at me in a book store. *sigh* Thanks for sharing your experience and for putting a smile on our faces.

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  3. You gave me goosebumps, too, MM. I can honestly say that seeing my book for the first time on the shelves at B&N was right up there with my kids being born as one of the great thrills of my life. That those same kids were with me when I saw it, along with the DH who came from work for the occasion, made it that much better. I used to stand in that same store and say to myself, why can just ONE of them be mine? Now one is. Soon to be two. When people ask me if it's everything I thought it would be, I can only say it's more. Much, much more than I ever expected.

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  4. Yes, it is probably the most exciting thing after the call. I'm not sure if the thrill every wears off. I certainly hope not.
    Congrats.

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  5. Yep, I know the feeling, MM! When I went looking for Slave, I didn't expect it to be there. I found a couple of copies in the romance section--on the bottom shelf and the cover was NOT facing out! Then I looked further and found it at the top of the New in Paperback rack, facing the front of the store. Yeah, got a little weak in the knees. Haven't done that since the first time I kissed Eddy Raven. Wow!

    Michele,
    Speaking of nice covers, your book came today! Yay!!!

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  6. Cheryl, thanks for letting me know! A reader in California, Nancy, has been on tenterhooks waiting for hers to come in and wrote to say it had shipped.
    Hooray!

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  7. The first time you see your book on a bookstore shelves is the best, MM. A time you'll never forget either!

    Linda

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  8. Ooooo MM, what a great moment that must have been. And the way you described it put me right there with you! Everybody should get some of those magic moments in their lives.

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  9. Huge congrats, Mary Margaret! What a thrill!

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  10. I am so jealous...I haven't managed to get past page 80 in my book...I blame that on my kids, grad school, teaching, did I mention my kids..

    This looks like a great book, I am going to keep my eye out for it.

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