It’s surprising how many authors don’t know this handy bit of info, something I learned about a decade ago.  If you ever wonder how many of your books were stocked in your local Borders bookstore, just flip over a copy and look at the Borders barcode sticker on the back.  Here’s an example, which I’m copying from the back of THE KEEP by Jennifer Egan, which I recently bought from Borders:

BORDERS  $13.95

EGAN JENNI 8793900   7#

Fiction/Lit  2214

D5A 4196690    83007

There are some mysterious numbers there, but you only need to focus on two of them:

The 7# tells you how many copies came in that particular shipment.

The 83007 tells you the date the copies came in. 

These are really useful numbers to know.  Store clerks are reluctant to tell you how many copies of your book they’ve sold.  (In fact, I’ve heard that they’re forbidden to give out that information to authors.)  But they will happily tell you how many copies they have in their store at the moment.  By looking at the sticker, you’ll know how many copies the store brought in, so you’ll be able to calculate how many they’ve sold.

If your book has been selling well, the store will re-order more copies, so you may find different stickers on copies that came in later shipments.  Let’s say you find some books with 7# on 8/30/07 and others with  5# on 9/15/07.  This is really good news.  It means that two separate shipments came in, and the store got a total of 12.  If there are only four left in the store, you know they’ve sold at least 8 copies.

The store may have sold even more than that.  If all the books in a particular shipment sold out, you won’t find any of those stickered copies left in the store.

Important note: This tip is only good for the Borders chain.  Barnes and Noble doesn’t use this sticker system.

And another tip: check out Jennifer Weiner’s terrific blog.  She’s up-front and rightfully annoyed at the New York Times and the “literary” establishment.  I’m with her!

http://jenniferweiner.blogspot.com/