Whether updating my ISBN log, or entering the metadata for the printer or the e-book vendors, there is a mandatory field to enter; the publication date. My printer requires it, but it has nothing to do with when the book is available for sale. It’s the same with some of the e-book markets. However, others do attempt to hold the book in limbo prior to the pub date.
Unfortunately, for me to be able to have books in my hand to sell on the publication date, I have to order them in advance, which means that the printer has to turn on the ordering a week or so earlier than the actual pub date. For me, it’s just a gamble. I don’t really care much about the official day, but as I said, it’s a mandatory field everywhere, so I try a little.
This time, Armadillocon was four or five days earlier than the publication date I’d established months ago in my pre-publication PR effort, but I at least made the effort to order the books. Unfortunately, this time printing went slower than I’d hoped and I had no copies of Follow That Mouse to sell at my table, just one lonely ARC that I propped up on a stand beside the notice that it was due out any second now.
And in fact, it was, sort of. The Kindle store and Mobipocket’s Ebookbase versions had flown through the acceptance process and were in fact, already out. Kobo and Apple’s iBookstore versions were not, but that may have been due to the fact that they actually paid attention to the official pub date information. I don’t know for sure.
So as I post this blog entry one day before the official pub date, real paper books are in a UPS truck heading my direction, you can buy a Kindle version instantly, or you can wait a couple of more days to get the book at Amazon or other e-book vendors. But, you should really make the effort soon. It’s a good book.