LITMIR.BIZ

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a dog spilling a casket onto the ground. It was a cozy mystery that I was pretty sure we had in our mystery section in the store. I looked up at Jamal. “Do I have this book in stock?” I asked.

      A smile spread across his face, his eyes twinkled, and he winked. “Of course you do. Why else would you be able to choose that book?”

      “But how did you know that?”

      “Remember when you had the inventory system set up and you asked me to log on and check it out for you?”

      “You kept my access info,” I accused. “You’ve been hacking into our system for months!”

      Jamal’s eyes held a devilish glint. “It’s not hacking if someone gives you permission to access the information.”

      A wide, pink bookshelf capped with two angled wood planks forming a roofline on top, appeared on my phone. The shelves were empty, but the shape was immediately identifiable as a pink barn. I was suddenly liking his app a lot. Jamal had even included a short blurb about the book if the user was interested. All I had to do was tap the book on my shelf. It was brilliant. Jamal was brilliant. I’d known he was smart, but this was marketing at its best and it could increase the Barn’s business tremendously. But I didn’t want to get too excited because if this was the end, it wasn’t quite enough.

      “What do I do now?” I asked.

      “You file it on your bookshelf, tap the arrow, and you’ll get another clue.”

      “Just like that? I don’t have to purchase it or do anything else?”

      “Not if you collect the book and put it on your bookshelf. If you’re unable to find the book, though, you must buy another clue before you can advance.”

      “Okay, so the reward is another clue, but what’s the end game? What makes a player want to continue?”

      “That’s up to you.”

      “What do you mean?”

      “You can have your customers earn a prize at the end—for example, you have a book signing coming up. What if you gave away a special meet and greet with Lucy Barton?”

      I almost jumped with excitement. Despite my attempts to hide my enthusiasm, it was beginning to bubble over. In fact, I was buying Jamal’s sales pitch hook, line, and sinker. Yet I still had questions. “How many books will they have to collect to win the meet and greet? And how many people would win it?”

      “That’s entirely up to you. I can set it to meet your needs.”

      “If I only wanted to have one winner, I could say… make them collect fifteen books?”

      Jamal turned serious, knowing he had me on the line. He didn’t want to leave any slack that would enable me to escape. “I would have them collect more than that. Probably thirty to fifty books.”

      “Thirty to fifty books! That could be expensive.”

      “That’s how I make money, and that’s how you’re guarantee that a real fan meets your author.”

      I was starting to see the downside that might drive customers away from the Barn. “But who’s going to put all that information into the program? How would the app control the data, and what about the other people who don’t win?”

      “If you wanted to have them win something, you could have bonus prizes when they collected ten books on their shelf, then twenty books, and thirty books and so on.”

      My skepticism was rising. Jamal’s app could get expensive for the Barn if we were giving away that much product. “What kind of bonus prize?”

      It was my aunt’s turn to brainstorm. “What if you gave them a piece a book art, or a coupon for 10 or 20 percent off their next book purchase?”

      I thought about it for a moment. “We could do that pretty easily.”

      My aunt linked her arm in Jamal’s, pleased as southern punch with how well this was going.

      “But then we only have three winners. Do we start all over again?” I asked. “I mean, it’s not like we’re going to have a best-selling author signing at the store every week.”

      “No, but that’s the beauty of it. It becomes an advertising platform for special events. The rest of the time, you could offer a free book or just the coupons. Readers will eat that up, especially if you’re offering a new release. Gamers will play just to play, no real prize necessary as long as they can post their library size and compete against other users.”

      As much as I wanted to jump on board, I was still a little bit skeptical. “The app looks like a lot of fun…”

      “But…” Jamal drew the word out like he knew there was a “no” coming.

      “But it looks like it would be very labor-intensive.”

      “It’s not. The game updates itself. Not every book will be in it—you choose whether you want to have a contest or not. And if a bookseller has a signing—”

      I saw where he was going. “They contact you, and you make money.” Another obstacle crossed my mind. “What if they want to purchase an e-book? It won’t do me any good if all the people playing the app purchase the book from another seller.”

      “Scroll down on the blurb.”

      I did as I was told and saw a buy link at the very end and smiled. “This goes to the Barn’s website!”

      “You’re getting the hang of it, cuz.” Jamal’s face lit up like he was proud of his baby.

      And I couldn’t help but be proud of him. I smiled, letting him know he’d finally won me over. “You got yourself a deal.”

      I collected my book and put it on my bookshelf. A new screen appeared on my phone with the clue:

      Best place for breakfast in Hazel Rock.

      “Looks like we’re eating at the diner.” I grabbed my cousin and my aunt and headed back toward the store. Once we got Dad to close the Barn for lunch, we could head over to the diner.

      “How are we going to get the media to launch the app?” I asked.

      Jamal hesitated and my aunt chimed in as we reentered the Barn. “We thought your connections to the local government would help.”

      “Excuse me?” I knew there was a catch.

      “The mayor?” she prodded. “What’s his name?”

      Dad walked over to us. He looked at me with sympathy in his eyes. This was the hitch I’d been waiting for. The one drawback that would make this deal unsuccessful.

      “Cade won’t do me any favors. He’s picky about what he’ll back and what he won’t as the mayor of Hazel Rock.” Not to mention he was avoiding me like the plague.

      “What about Penelope? She’d do it in a heartbeat,” my dad suggested.

      I may have choked on his words. “You’re kidding me, right?”

      “It couldn’t hurt to have the ex-first lady of Hazel Rock in your corner.” My aunt moved closer, anxious to hear the word yes pass through my lips.

      “But she’s Cade’s mom,” I whined. “How can I possibly ask her to promote something for our business?”

      Daddy increased the pressure. “Well, since she’s coming in this afternoon to get her ticket to see Lucy Barton, I think she’s the perfect front person for the promotion.”

      “How does she know Lucy is going to be here? We just found out.”

      “Word travels fast in Hazel Rock, it always has,” my aunt added.

      “But…” I looked to Daddy for support. He had to understand how hard this request was for me. Except he had one of those devilish grins on his face that he

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