Quick: Can you spot the scifi and fantasy magazines?
Where the heck is my F&SF?
As usual, the spec fic magazines are almost impossible to spot. They are hidden in the shadows on the bottom shelf of the Literary section, which is completely out of view if you are actually standing close enough to the shelf to browse the top row.
Whenever I see this, I go ahead and arrange things as they should be:
Ahhh, that's better.
I noticed a similar problem with John Pitts’ latest novel, “Honeyed Words”. Can you spot it?
Where's Pitts?
Now, books present a slightly different problem since they are alphabetized, and to simply rearrange them might actually hurt sales for those searching by name. So I simply made it more visible by propping his book up using another book. Don’t worry, I didn’t use one of the Tim Powers books or any of his other neighboring authors’. I used a copy of Twilight.*
Much Better. No actual novels were harmed in the making of this point.
So, when you are in a bookstore (for however many more months they are still around), don’t be afraid to make sure folks can find the good stuff. You can’t rate products or give comments in a physical bookstore like you can a virtual one, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still express your support and appreciation. Just don’t be a jerk and completely hide or “lose” anyone else’s stuff.
* There were plenty of other copies of Twilight, so I don’t think struggling artist Ms. Meyer will be suffering terribly from my choice.
