More conversations with the clueless

I got a copy of Love Remembered today-- the second printing. The first trade paperbacks weren't really well done, and NCP is now using a different printer. The new version is 130 pages shorter (same text, just set differently), and the cover looks so much better it hardly looks like the same book. And best of all, NCP restored the epilogue, which some of you may remember they had deleted from the first print run. That print run never got to stores, so I'm happy that the books that are going into stores are the full uncut version.

I went into my local Barnes and Noble today to see if they'd stocked Love Remembered and Never Love a Stranger yet. When I didn't find the books in the romance section, I checked "Fiction and literature," and sure enough, there they were. I picked them up and took them to customer service, and a weirdly surreal conversation followed:

Me: "Hi, you guys were nice enough to stock my books, but you have them in the wrong section. Would you mind putting them in the romance section?"

Employee: "No, we shelve according to our computer system. It has them listed as fiction and literature."

Me: "Yes, but they're really romance. If anyone is looking for these books, they'll probably look in the romance section."

Employee: "We can't shelve them there because our computer has them as fiction."

Me: "They're really fairly similar to the EC books, and you shelve them in romance..."

Employee: "Yes, but we have your books listed as fiction."

Me *gritting teeth*: "Would it be possible for you to correct your system so that it shows they're romance?"

Employee: "No, we have books from this publisher listed as fiction. You need to have your publisher contact us."

Me: "My publisher doesn't have an agreement with B&N yet, although they are carried in other stores. Your manager was just nice enough to stock them because I'm a local author. What if I just take them over to the romance section?"

Employee: "No, then we won't be able to find them if someone is looking for them, because the computer says they're in fiction."

Me: "It's just that you guys took the time to order them, and I'd hate for them to just get sent back as returns because they're in the wrong section."

Employee: "They're in the right section according to the computer."

Me: *words I am too nice to say ricocheting around in my head* "Thanks for your time."