Elegant People on the shelf at my local Barnes & Noble bookstore.

A friend recently told me that she ordered a copy of Elegant People from one of the local bookstores who had it in their inventory. That surprised me a bit, because I really didn’t think brick-and-mortar stores would stock a book about a 1970s jazz band. But one of the benefits of having your book published by a publisher, as opposed to self-publishing, is that you just might find a copy at your local Barnes & Noble. Here it is, sharing shelf space with Mariah Carey, Garth Brooks, and Jimi Hendrix. I have to admit, I was tempted to move it to the Oprah’s Book Club table. (Don’t ask me about the “meaning” of Mariah Carey—I haven’t read her book.)