Miscellany

Losing my mind

I’m going to go ahead and conclude that I am not wired properly to handle a gradual book roll-out.

A week ago I was completely convinced Immortal wasn’t going to debut as scheduled, which is a terrifying thought for someone who’s already gone through that once.  Now I’m completely preoccupied with the idea that nobody’s buying the book.

I mean, I’m sure that people are buying it.  Or if they aren’t, they’re going to soon.  But since Amazon is deliberately opaque about how many orders have actually been made or how many people have just added it to their wish list or put it in their carts without hitting “buy”, and since they only order more copies every 7-10 days, I have plenty of things about which to ulcerate myself.

All of which is stupid

And it’s stupid, and I know it’s stupid, because right now what I’m really waiting on is for people to read the book, not buy it.  I concede that it has to be bought in order to be read (generally) but still.  Given the nature of things– a genre-bending first-time novel published by a new company with promotion consisting entirely of what I could drum up in a month or two– we’re going to need a great deal of word-of-mouth to truly succeed.  And word-of-mouth doesn’t really work until people read the book.

Which, again, means Amazon has to ship the books.

If they have any buyers.

And here we are again.

Then there’s the party

My backup “thing about which I shall freak” is the party, which will be a source of concern for me until at least 30 people accept the invite.  Mind you, it’s already halfway to that number, the event isn’t for another seventeen days, and 3/4 of the people who got the invitation on Facebook haven’t even responded yet.  Doesn’t matter; I’m still freaking out.

Unrelated amusing story

Dramatis personae: Me; son Tim; Tim’s college roommate Pat; Tim’s girlfriend Mariah.

Scene: My car, driving Tim back to campus after he has spent the day working a register at his part time job.  Mariah, having been off campus for the past two days, is expected to be back at the dorm waiting for Tim.

Tim: It’s so great knowing I’m going back home (i.e. the dorm) to a back rub tonight.

Me: What, Pat doesn’t give good back rubs?

Tim: No he doesn’t.  And the sex is terrible.

Curtain

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No Comments

  1. Matthew Delman on October 5, 2010 at 12:54 pm

    DUDE! I loved the unrelated amusing story. It would’ve been a total spit-take if I hadn’t already wisely finished taking a sip of my drink.

    Also: People will read Immortal. You’ve mentioned it enough that I think by now people are like “hmmm … this sounds interesting.”

    • genedoucette on October 5, 2010 at 1:03 pm

      Thanks Matt. I hope you’re right. And I think it’s fair to say sense of humor is hereditary.

  2. Kate on October 5, 2010 at 1:12 pm

    I ordered it from Amazon 10/1 and it’s listed as “we’ll tell you when we have it so SHUT UP,” more or less.

    :sigh:

  3. Donna on October 5, 2010 at 1:16 pm

    What? You think I would have made such a comment?? As I seem to recall, you would not even let us kiss each other in front of you! Then again, we did make inappropriate jokes about it when you wouldn’t.

    Still, I refuse to plead guilty here. Must have been way back in the 1700s and a recessive gene.

    Or your father’s side.

  4. MaryD on October 5, 2010 at 1:53 pm

    Haha…I immediately thought…the apple doesn’t fall far…or children are God’s way of exacting revenge…or showing you that he/she does have a sense of humor. Perverse humor perhaps, but definitely humor. Thanks for sharing.

  5. Trish Dozier on October 5, 2010 at 10:14 pm

    Your style & voice is addictive. CANNOT wait to read more of you!

    • genedoucette on October 5, 2010 at 10:20 pm

      Thanks Trish! I’ve had a long time to work on this voice; I like to think I have it down pretty well by now.

  6. Julia Demchenko on October 7, 2010 at 1:41 am

    Dear Gene,
    My name is Julia Demchenko, I’m a foreign rights manager in one of the biggest Russian publishing houses.
    I’m interested in buying translation rights for your book, because it’s really amazing.
    I couldn’t find your e-mail anywhere, so could you please write to me on demchenko@olmamedia.ru and tell your conditions?
    Regards,
    Julia.

  7. […] a nice launch party (for which I neglected to take any pictures, because I’m smart like that) and a press […]

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