Anyway, getting into the grocery/drug stores is terrific because this is a huge segment of the buying public. Probably 25-30% of my books are sold in the groceries/drug stores over a six month period (some of the bigger stores will keep stock longer than little stores.)

So . . . the bestseller list at stores. It’s not really a bestseller list. I wasn’t going to say it, but I figure that knowledge is important. This is actually really good for you, because you publisher should have known–all those numbered slots at the groceries and walmart, etc. are paid co-op. Each distributor does it differently, but essentially, they look at the lead titles the publishers are offering (these are the titles where they’ll be paying co-op.) Then the distributors (Anderson, Levy, NewsGroup, Hudson, etc) will determine which books go in which slots. They decide this based on past sales, publisher support, co-op, orders, etc. One of the NewsGroup guys explained to me that they get the list and everyone (of the sales force) ranks the titles and that’s how the numbered slots are picked. These slots don’t actually reflect sales, but they ARE indicative of PAST sales.

So my guess is that your books have sold well in Publix in the past, and so they gave you a number slot. Maybe your editor knew nothing about it, but I can’t imagine that the publisher didn’t know because these are all paid co-op. Or maybe they paid the co-op and Anderson picked the titles and didn’t tell Dorch which titles.

Whatever happened, this is a good thing! Congrats!

G

But no matter how it happened, congratulations! It’s a sign of many, many people loving your books. And buying them!

Must say that Water Witch has got a very prime location at Chapters Stores in Canada too! Wishing you many, many sales!