How did you find out about Brandon Sanderson?

[Shekotka]

I saw the announcement on dragonmount.com and was extremely curious to check out Brandon's work. I'd been looking for a really good new author to follow for a long time, but whenever I went to the store, everything I picked up just sounded like the same recycled story to me. When I saw that Harriet, RJ's widow, had personally selected Brandon to write AMOL, I was both excited and apprehensive. Then I went to his website and read the first couple of chapter's of Mistborn, since that was the book Harriet based her decision on. I was instantly hooked.

I've since raced to the store, raced through Mistborn, and its annotations, and am working on MB2 at the moment. I have to say the amount of online content available from Brandon, and the interaction this affords is really amazing and wonderful. I love the fact that you can get a "behind-the-scenes" view of his writing process. I think he and AMOL will be a perfect fit, and I'm really thrilled that more people will be exposed to his current and future projects because of it. I've completely fallen in love with Mistborn, I'll be reading Elantris and Warbreaker in the near future, and I will be looking forward to everything he comes out with from now on.

[Spider01]

You could always ask them to order them in. Takes a couple days, but they love doing that.

I couldn't find Elantris, Mistborn 1 or 2 on the Sci-fi/fantasy shelf.  I went to the B&N self help compter and looked up Mistborn.  It said "Click to order".  So I took it that they were out of stock in the store and I'd have to order it.  I didn't want to wait at the time so I decided to look in the computer to see if they had Elantris. 
The computer locked!  ARGH!!!
I went and located another computer discovered that they did have Elantris (Yippy!!!) in "General Fiction".
I found where it was supposed to be on the shelf and it was missing.
Since I was on my lunch break and already had the cookbook my wife wanted for X-Mas I decided to try another time at another book store (Borders is just down the street from the B&N) or possibly just order from Amazon from home.

[Spriggan]

You could always ask them to order them in. Takes a couple days, but they love doing that.

I'm not going to quote your second thread since it's long but really what's the point in asking them to order it?  The reason I go to a brick & mortar store is so I don't have to wait even though it costs a little more, if I have to special order something in I might as well get it off the internet for less and wait the same amount of time.

If a store can't serve it's purpose in this internet age, which is to provide me with what I want now, there's no reason to keep going to that store.

[stacer]

That's the problem, though--B&N and Borders don't think that way. And it can only take enough customers demanding something for them to see the business they're missing out on. For example, we had a recent bestseller. B&N refused to stock it in the children's section, even though it was a children's book. They missed out on the sales that Borders and all the independents, not to mention Wal-Mart and Target, were getting from that book.

I was just suggesting that if you can wait for the order to come in, it might show the chain that perhaps they should think about actually stocking it. But a better solution would be to ask the same of your local independent, who is more likely to listen.

ETA: But I do agree overall--I generally avoid stores that consistently don't stock the books I want. But coming from the publisher perspective, sometimes I wish consumers were a little more demanding.

[Bookstore Guy]

Its true, most book chains only think about what they get in their weekly shipments.  And if they regularly dont carry the titles that people are looking for, then you are absolutly right - they'll stop going there.  That is the problem many of the mall-type chains (Walden and B Dalton) had, and it is the jusification their parent companies have been using to close them down.  This is where it's really up to the manager and book sellers in that store to anticipate the needs of their clients.  Unfortunatly hardly any chain stores do that. 

[stacer]

And what few B&N booksellers understand, from what I can tell from personal experience both as a bookseller and as a customer, is that they have the power to order one or two copies of something in that they know they'll handsell. It wouldn't go on reorder--when it sold it would have to be re-ordered--but I had the power to do that as a children's bookseller at B&N. I was constantly recommending Howl's Moving Castle and the Dalemark Quartet, neither of which were ever in stock where I worked, so I was able to order one so I could recommend it.

Not the best system ever, but there are workarounds for the motivated ones. Hence, the reason that Brandon's books are so popular at one particular store...

[Bookstore Guy]

yup, of course i ignored all those supposed "order limits".  I was that guy that would order 50 copies of one book that I thought everyone should be reading.  It was like Oprah's Book Club...only different...and less hypocritical...

[Spriggan]

This is why I think, for the most part, book stores are outdated.

I know I can get what I want from Amazon and it will be cheaper, I don't know if B&N or Borders will have what I want and not only will the book be more but I'll have to spend gas and time getting there and looking around so unless it's a "I need it today" situation or someone looking for a gift that may not know the genre they're shopping for I see bookstores not being around for much longer.

Sure there will be those smaller local ones that market themselfs to a book sub-culture but most people don't care and will go where the best prices and selection are and neither of those are in B&M stores.

[kasper11]

This is why I think, for the most part, book stores are outdated.

I know I can get what I want from Amazon and it will be cheaper, I don't know if B&N or Borders will have what I want and not only will the book be more but I'll have to spend gas and time getting there and looking around so unless it's a "I need it today" situation or someone looking for a gift that may not know the genre they're shopping for I see bookstores not being around for much longer.

Sure there will be those smaller local ones that market themselfs to a book sub-culture but most people don't care and will go where the best prices and selection are and neither of those are in B&M stores.

There is still something you are missing from Amazon though....the ability to flip through the book and see if it interests you.  Not that important when you already know what you want, but when you aren't looking for a specific title it is very important.

[kasper11]

As to the thread title....
I used to be a big fantasy reader, not so much anymore. The one series that I still follow religously is WOT. After seeing Brandon got the job, I checked out his work and read Warbreaker, and thought that for an unfinished novel it was a great read and re-sparked my interest in fantasy. I plan to pick up Elantris after the holidays assuming I don't get it from someone.  I will probably wait until Mistborn until the 3rd book comes out....I hate reading the first couple of parts and then having to wait.

[Tink]

This is why I think, for the most part, book stores are outdated.

I agree with Spriggan for the most part. If I know what I want, I usually just order it off of Amazon or the like. The only time I go to a bookstore is if I'm excited about a book and don't want to wait to read it; for example, when I got into the Dresden Files, I went out and bought the next one immediately because I couldn't wait to read. If I want to flip through books, I go to the library because I'm much more inclined to borrow books from the library rather than buy them anyway. I only buy books I can see reading over and over.

[Guido]

I knew Brandon from church when Elantris was published.  Always being on the lookout for new books, and wanting to support someone I knew, I picked it up and gained a new favorite author.  Now if only the books came out faster...   

[KindaChang]

I was recommended to read Elantris on the vnboards book board.

[Taleana]

I'm a very visual person and if the cover of a book interests me, I'll read it. I was walking through Borders one day and saw Elantris, picked it up, read it, and promptly went on the prowl for more of his books.

[dawncawley]

I discovered Brandon when the reading club on another author's board I post on decided to read Elantris for our book discussion group. Needless to say, I was hooked from there and followed the trail of breadcrumbs to here and his official site I haven't been able to make it to any of his signings, but I am hoping to be able to the next time he is in, or around, Washington.