I'm not sure what Dorothy would have to say about this, but it appears that the Yellow Brick Road has dumped us in Kansas after all, Toto. As Lions from all over the USA and Canada descend on Overland Park, I'm still trying to catch up on the news from home. So here's today's flash:  Be the first to get your copy of Left by the Side of the Road, 2nd edition. The official release date is October 15th, but pre-orders are now available from Barnes and Noble Nookbooks and from Kobo. A special pre-order price is also in effect. If you order your electronic copy before the release date, the price is only $1.99. On October 15, it goes up to $2.99. All pre-orders will be available for download to your electronic device shortly after midnight on October 15. So order your copy now and be among the first to read the 13 new short stories that appear for the first time in this collection. Does it matter to me if you pre-order? You bet it does. Each electronic book-seller does its own promotion, based on which books are getting the most pre-order attention. So if twenty people order the book today, B&N will be more likely to feature the book on its promotions page. That, in turn, will cause more people to pre-order. Then -- and this is even more important -- on launch day, those twenty or more pre-orders ship out at the same time, causing the sales figures for the book to spike, which in turn spurs further promotions, based on sales figures. (If those same twenty people wait until after October 15th to place their order, the sales will spread out over a longer period of time and will not cause the same high rankings.) For Apple iBook readers, I hope to be able to make this same offer to you in a day or so. Apple has accepted the book, but it is not yet listed in their online catalog. Stay tuned! And what about Kindle? Well, that's another story. Without starting a rant here, I'll just tell you that Kindle only allows pre-orders from established traditional publishers with whom they have special agreements. Katzenhaus Books is a publisher, but we're small and independent, and we have no agreements with anyone. So Kindle readers will just have to wait until October 15th. Sorry! And finally, those of you who prefer paper to pixels will also have access to the trade paper edition starting in mid-October. |
