What Bloody Mess

The first print run is defective. The problems? The covers do not lie flat and there's a small rip in the spine. Other than that, the print quality is excellent. But because of the problems with the covers, we'll have to another run. The printer has apologized and hopefully they'll do some quality control this time.

Stories of Strength

Just got words that my essay, "The Truths About Rains And Floods," will be included in the Stories of Strength Anthology -- a project benefiting the Katrina relief efforts. All proceeds from the sales of the anthology would go directly to the Red Cross.

The book is set to be released in October, 2005.

It's a worthy cause. The Anthology will feature known and unknown authors, including Orson Scott Card (author of Ender's Game) and Wil Wheaton.

For more information, please click here.

Bookmarks and Postcards

I just got 2500 bookmarks made, to be given away.

I'm in the process of designing and making some postcards for promotional purposes. I'll also be making up posters.

My publisher says the ARCs will be sent to reviewers either this week or next.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has agreed to do a review on the book in January.

Insanity

I just discovered the insanity of Amazon.com book rankings. What addictive and utterly unproductive piece of information. I found myself checking it at least once a day last week, and saw the ranking of my book rise, then fall, then rise again, then fall again... the madness never stopped.

First, it was at about 230K, and I thought that was pretty good, considering my book's not out yet and there's been no advertising or publicity. So probably a few dear friends have pre-ordered. Then the next day, it went up to 77K. I was surprised. Then came the madness of obsessive checking. Cripes. This is habit-forming! It went up to 52K, then back down to 90K, then up to 31K... 31,000 for a book that is five months away from release. That's pretty interesting. Then slowly, as sales dwindled, the ranking went down to the 100s, then the 200s, and now the 300s...

I think it's back to normal now, because I really don't expect any sales during these few months (at least until some publicity goes out). I figure it must have pre-sold about 10 books last week. Still, it's been very interesting, especially that it broke the 100s barrier in a matter of hours. The spike this past week also pushed my book to become #1 on the Behler's list (Amazon.com only). That was kind of neat, to see my book at the #1, even if it was going to be brief.

Even though I take the Amazon.com ranking with a grain of salt, still, the figures tell me a few things:

• it could be a trap if an author becomes too obsessed with sales figures, rankings, and competition
• this is really happening. Let's say 10 people have ordered my book. That means, people -- people I don't know -- are going to read it, for real
• if you build it, they will come. Slowly. But it's true