I am a person who occasionally receives free copies of books from publishers.  They send them to me hoping I will comment upon them somewhere online.  It has never occurred to me to attempt to sell any of these books.

When I wrote The End of Secularism, my publisher encouraged me to send them a list of influencers to whom they should send the book.  I made out a list of about 75 people.  I have been very pleased by the comments and reviews offered by many of these people.  For example, I continue to be gratified that the New York Times bestselling author Andrew Klavan took the time to write about my book despite not knowing me or my work in advance.  You can scroll down the page and see his review in the lower right corner.

I am less pleased with some of them.

Is this because they offered a negative review?  No.  What’s the problem, then?

As soon as the book became available, my Amazon page showed approximately 20 “new” copies available from third parties.  I have a suspicion that some of the recipients of advance copies simply sold them to third parties for cash who then turned around and offered them for sale on Amazon.  This is not exactly nice behavior.

If someone sends you an advance copy of their book and you don’t want to take the time to read it — which is understandable as many of us receive too many books to read — then don’t do the author the disservice of putting the free book up for sale and thus competing with their publisher.  Do the kind thing which would be to find another person who is interested in the book and does want to read it and who might end up reviewing it.

Just three very special advance copies of Your Animal’s Oracle have arrived!

These three decks of cards lead the way for the first shipment of oracle cards that are due to arrive in Australia in mid-June this year.

The official launch of Your Animal’s Oracle is to be held at Canine Cubby in Yatala (Brisbane) on Saturday 1st August 2009. Festivities will kick off at 2pm with animal readings and a mini workshop on animal communication. Food and drinks will be supplied. Come along and meet the author and pick up one of the first sets of Your Animal’s Oracle–the first of their kind!

If you are interested in buying or selling these cards then email herculespublishing@live.com.

So the official date for Mellowdrone’s “Angry Bear” LP is July 21st and will be available through all digital sites. We will have the pre-release blue vinyl w/DL and advance copies available by June 3rd (let’s keep our fingers crossed). So the earliest digital copies will be with the purchase of the vinyl copy. It will be online for sale and in local LA record stores.

The covers have been shipped and are on the way! Still waiting on the test press to approve the release. I real hope we have these by the 3rd.

[CH]

Twenty copies of Kill-Grief arrived today, after a somewhat nail-biting few weeks involving a printer going into administration and a lot of heroism on the part of Picnic Publishing and their freelance designer, John Schwartz, who went way beyond the call of duty in sorting everything out.

The books look absolutely gorgeous. Here’s a photo of one sitting on my appropriately smuggler-ish treasure chest. I took loads more but my camera kept making a strange bedspring-like noise when I pressed the button, and most of the pics looked fuzzy, so I’ll try again tomorrow in daylight:

Thanks everyone who participated in the blog scavenger hunt. Sorry it took me a bit with the move and all to get the results, but I’ve got ‘em and I wanna share ‘em.

The two automatic winners are Jay and GypsyScarlett. They completed the blog scavenger hunt with lightening speed and I can’t wait to send them their books!

Then, I did a drawing for the others who turned in correct answers by Saturday and….

Allie B, Laurie H.K., and Arch Declaring have won!

Again, this is a fabulous book! And I can’t wait for you to read it and then share your thoughts with me. You know I always love to talk books.

Enjoy The Gargoyle and get ready for some serious Topical Tuesday tomorrow!

Status: Powering through Breaking Dawn when I should be writing. Uh oh. Oh well. I figure I’m settling in and trying to get some leisure reading in before I start school Monday. Monday! wow.

Any tips for how to handle a job/school while writing would be welcome! Thanks.

To begin with, I’d like to answer a few questions that may arise.

What the heck is this?  A blog scavenger hunt.

Why do I have to do it?  To win advance copies of Andrew Davidson’s The Gargoyle. But also because it will make me happy.

When is it due?  Well, that makes it sound like homework. And blog scavenger hunting is fun! Still, it has to be done by Saturday, August 9th at 11:59 PM.

Fine, I’ll do it, but how?  Read the questions below, then click over to the linked blog. There you will answer the corresponding question. After you have finished, EMAIL me (chandler1986@gmail.com). Wait you’re not done. To cross the finish line, so to speak, you’ve got to come over to one of this week’s posts and declare to the world that you have finished. I’d appreciate some creative or at least enthusiastic declarations. K, thanks.

How do I win? I have 5 copies to give away. The first 2 people to finish with the correct answer automatically get copies. The remaining people that turn in correct answers are entered in a drawing to win the final three copies.

One thing I’d like to add: So far, this book is amazing. Seriously. And every review I’ve read has been equally impressed. You WANT this book. Trust me.

Ok, here are the questions. No pushing or shoving, please.

Blog Scavenger Hunt 2k8

1. What is GypsyScarlett’s good luck writing charm?

2. Is Creative A a self-proclaimed perfectionist, or procrastinator?

3. Polenth is going to take over the world by becoming a farmer… what sort of farmer?

4. What is Jay’s highest reviewed movie?

5. Name the titles and publishers of Allie’s 3 novels.

6. Chandler never goes anywhere without __________________________.

******Important note: Let’s go ahead and put a moratorium on all the suggestive emails I’ve been receiving lately. If you have a question/comment/suggestion related to this blog, email away. If you have a question/comment/suggestion about sex, you should probably look for a site more geared to that particular subject. I’ve never professed myself to be an expert. K, thanks.

Status: So, yeah, I just locked myself out of Nate’s house for about 2 hours. It was special. The yard guys let me borrow their phone to call him, but no answer. Finally his brother got home. Needless to say, I haven’t gotten as much done today as I would have liked. I’m getting ready to take Sterling to the vet–don’t worry, she’s fine. Then, back to work! I *should* be receiving lots of fun and exciting writing-related info this week. But, you know how these things go, so we’ll see.

If you had any doubts about how cool booksellers are, The NY Observer will set you straight. You may already know that one of our perks is getting advance copies of unpublished books, (a.k.a. ARCs or AREs) but did you know that we use them to get dates? No?! It’s true, we are devious this way. Unless, of course, we are too shy to flaunt our insider access. All according to this article, that is:

Advance galleys are even more thrilling, and possibly more effective: Sport one of those, and you signal to potential suitors not just a certain taste in literature but a specific—some might say desirable—station in life.

Few would admit to using their galleys to flirt—though one veteran publisher expressed delight that literature was still being used for this purpose—and perhaps more to the point, many of those who would be in a position to do so happen to be too introverted to ever engage with a stranger.

Ah yes, our “desirable station in life” — nothing is more attractive than someone who chooses to be poor because they LIKE THEIR LOW-PAYING JOBS (though I really shouldn’t mock since not only am I a bookseller, I married one too). Or maybe he’s referring to folks in publishing; wait, no, last time I heard they make (or don’t make) basically the same wages we booksellers do.

I think my favorite bits of this piece are all the little anecdotes; if you’ve got five minutes, give it a read.

Unexpectedly, today has become one of those milestones every first-time author looks forward to – perhaps it’s even more special than publication.

I am now looking at several advance copies of Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London . . . and it’s gorgeous. When I embarked on this story I could not, in my wildest imaginings, have asked for better. It’s a privilege to be able to hold the physical book in my hands and see my words stretched across every page.

Everything has become so much more real and now I can look forward to publication with a mixture of excitement and apprehension that will vary depending on my mood. But if you’re going to write books, you do have to want people to read them so it’s the excitement that should gain the upper hand.