Horsham’s most wanted …
Some time ago, a reader told me that The Well-Tempered Clavier was not just on sale in the Waterstone’s in Horsham - it was on their "Recommended" Shelves
To be on the "Recommended" list is gold dust! Even though your front cover may look like a total dog’s dinner, sales can go through the roof.
Naturally I was keen to ascertain if Horsham had indeed put The Clavier on its recommended pile. It was going to be a first. I was really excited. Maybe they could tell me how, precisely, they’d come across the book in the first place, and just what it was that had led them to put it on their "Most Wanted" list.
So yesterday I called them up. Got hold of a very charming woman.
"Hi!" I said. "This is going to sound a little bizarre, but I’m an author and I’ve just been told that my book is on your Recommended pile."
"Oh?" she said. "That’s jolly good."
"It is jolly good!" I said. "Well at least it would be jolly good if the book really was amongst your personal recommendations."
"What’s its name then?"
So I told her. And she clicked away on her computer for a minute or so.
"Hmmm," she said. "Well we’ve definitely got it here."
"Wonderful! That’s just what I want to hear. And … and is it on your recommended shelves?"
"Hmmm," she said. "No. No it’s not. But we do have seven copies in stock."
"Hmmm." I said. Dreams of going down to Horsham for a signing-session were beginning to fade. I mean if I’d been on their Most Wanted list, I’d have been feted! Sort of feted. At least slightly more feted than I was in Glasgow.
"But we do have seven copies here! That’s good isn’t it?"
"Indeed it is," I said. "Thank you so much."