Book Selling on the OBX

When we arrived in Corolla last Saturday, I was anxious to get started. Waiting for our vacation house to be cleaned, we headed in different directions. The kids made a bee-line for the beach. My wife and oldest daughter ventured to Food Lion to shop for groceries, and I organized and signed my books for delivery to a couple of local bookstores.

My first stop was Beach Bag Books and Music, a neat store located in the Corolla Light Resort Shops area. A huge Newfoundland named Finnegan greeted me. I learned later that the gentle giant spent most of the day welcoming customers. Sarah Keating, the owner, took ten books and told me she planned on adding Murder at Whalehead to her reading list; she wanted to be well informed when recommending it to customers.

Next I headed to the Island Bookstore near the historic village of Corolla. Bill Rickman, the owner, wanted 30 books for the Corolla store and her two sister stores in Duck and Kitty Hawk. Meaghan, a sharp gal who seemed to be the go-to person at the store, had scheduled me for a book signing on Thursday. I wondered what would happen between now and then--five days. Would the books sell out? Yeah, right. Would anybody show up at the signing? My thoughts teetered from positive to negative. I kept telling myself to be patient. Time will answer all questions.

I'd already sent a half dozen books to Gee Gee Rosell at Buxton Books on Hatteras Island. Gee Gee wrote a great review for Murder at Whalehead the week before. It will appear in a July issue of Island Breeze, a monthly Outer Banks publication. I still waited for Loretta Robinson, manager of the Whalehead Club Gift Shop to get back to me. She was excited about selling the novel, but first it had to meet the approval of the board of directors.

After the deliveries, there wasn't much for me to do but wait. My next important meeting was scheduled for Wednesday. The president of Outer Banks Press, Linda Lauby, wanted to meet me and talk about the possibilities of her company distributing the novel to bookstores and gift shops on the Outer Banks. I knew the outcome of this meeting could make a big difference in the success of my book. More on that meeting tomorrow.

Talk to you later,

Joe C. Ellis


Here are some links to my novel, Murder at Whalehead:
CLICK HERE to view video trailer
Link to front cover: CLICK HERE (Click on cover to enlarge)
Link to back cover: CLICK HERE (Click on cover to enlarge)
Link to first eleven chapters:
CLICK HEREVisit my website at http://www.joecellis.com/