When you set up a book for publication, one of the mandatory fields you enter is the release date of the book. This is an important date, for all your PR efforts and for the pre-release reviewers like Publisher’s Weekly. You have to get a copy of the book to them months before that magic date.
However, from printing side, it’s not magic at all. It goes into their database. It shows up on the indexes. But as soon as the book as ready and you approve that final proof, it’s out. I just noticed that Amazon already has Extreme Makeover listed in their system. You can order it now, even though the release date is July 1. And, indeed, I’ve ordered a few boxes already for my PR efforts. I suppose I could have held off approving that last proof until midnight June 30th, but that would mean I wouldn’t have any books on hand once it was released, which doesn’t make any sense for me.
So, today, I’m hurriedly making changes to my websites and adding links and pretending I had all this planned out in advance.