I Survived New Book Week

I think the lesson of this past week is that I’m not 21 anymore. Working a normal schedule at the day job and then doing four nights of booksignings throughout Michigan was, perhaps, not the smartest plan. Unless the goal was to transform me into a zombie by Saturday, in which case it was a flawless plan.

That said, I had a great time! Huge thanks to everyone who came out to the events, and to Schuler Books in Lansing & Grand Rapids, Kazoo Books, and Nicola’s Books for hosting.

Autographed Books: If you couldn’t make it and wanted an autographed copy of Libriomancer, you can order one through the Schuler Books’ website while their supplies last. Make sure you specify that you want an autographed copy. (I signed a lot of stock, so they should have enough for a while.)

Amazon Freakout: Amazon rankings really aren’t that great for figuring out how your book is doing … but in that first week, they’re all you’ve got. So I spent a lot of time on the refresh button. The Kindle version hit #291 at Amazon, and the hardcover reached #622. These are the best numbers I’ve seen for any of my books, which blows me away. Thank you to everyone who picked up the book in its first week, or who spread some word-of-mouth. I’m a bit dumbfounded to see my first DAW hardcover doing so well.

Photos: Tuesday’s signing at Schulers saw a nice turnout, as you can see in my badly-spliced pic here. Whitney had prepped the audience with party supplies, which was fun.

She also brought balloons. But not just any balloons. We celebrated New Book Day with Justin Bieber!

My cover pose blog posts came up during the Q&A at most of the signings, which means I ended up explaining and demonstrating to those who hadn’t seen the pics. My friend Gabriel Cuellar was kind enough to capture this moment in Grand Rapids.

Dr. Phil posted some pics of the Grand Rapids event as well, including shots of local convention-master Dave Klecha and Hugo-nominated author Mary Robinette Kowal.

By the time I made it to Kazoo Books on Friday, I was pretty wiped. Fortunately, they had prepared … the Comfy Chair!

Thank you for indulging my new-book neuroses this past week. I’m rather proud of myself for making it through a whole week without telling everyone to RUN OUT AND REVIEW THE BOOK ON AMAZON AND GOODREADS AND FACEBOOK AND YOUR BLOGS RIGHT NOW! Because that could get pretty obnoxious. (But, you know, if you wanted to run out and post a review, I certainly wouldn’t object. I’m just saying…)

I’ll be doing a discussion post for the book soon, but otherwise, I’m done with the online promotion, and will be returning to normal blogging of cool LEGO stuff, the first season of Avatar, sexist dumbassery in the genre and out of it, and so on.

In all seriousness, thank you. As I was driving home from Kalamazoo on Friday, I kept thinking about how incredibly fortunate I’ve been. I love being a writer, being able to tell and share these stories. It’s the best job in the world, and it couldn’t happen without you all.