One small thing. This is a good thing. IT'S A PRESENT FOR YOU. You know how I printed out these little bookmarks? Seriously, they are adorable. I want to shuffle them and smell them and build a little card house with them. They are mini, but they are super cute, guys. And I want to give them to you. So how about this. If you pre-order the book before May 11th, e-mail me, and give me your address. On the publication date, I will mail you a personal note and a mini bookmark. Tell me if you want a monkey one or a retro design one. They are both super cute, I can't decide. Include in your e-mail if you pre-ordered a print copy or an e-book copy. I don't care, I just am curious what the breakdown is. This is only for pre-orders, so if you're planning on buying the book but were waiting around for some reason until after it came out: don't. Pre-order it, then e-mail me, I will send you a bookmark and a note. Also, LOVE.
Why do I care about pre-ordering versus regular ordering? It's all the same, right? Someone's buying the book either way? Well, I'm told that pre-orders figure into first week sales, and sometimes it's not so much the total number of sales as much as the velocity of sales (PHYSICS) that gains attention, creates momentum, and is the measure of whether or not the book is a success. The first week is critically important. So please, please, please, if you're going to buy the book anyway, do pre-order it. Don't make me grovel, people, it's unseemly.
(Don't get me wrong, I will grovel, though.)
And now I will stop! Because it's at this point (and I've seen it on other blogs too when the bloggers have books or projects coming out) that people start to groan that the blog has just turned into a self-promotion platform. But seriously guys, think about it: could you really expect me not to talk about it? If I didn't talk about it, it would actually be super-weird. If I didn't want something I worked on so hard to do well, IT WOULD BE SUPER SUPER WEIRD. Thank you. Don't be mad.
Oh shit, I have to pack, my cab is picking me up in half an hour. See you tonight, Iowa City!