If you keep telling yourself you’re not going mad is it already too late? The logical part of me knows how Amazon works, what the rough percentage is of books sold in comparison to other accounts like B&N, Borders, Chapters-Indigo, Waterstones etc. and what that ever changing ranking really means in actual books sold. And yet, like a moth to a flame, I find myself wanting to check in, you know, just out of curiosity, to see where it’s at. Oh, I could quit anytime I want, really, but this is research, I’m trying to be an informed author. It’s important that I know because…because…because not knowing is agony! And with my new Blackberry it’s like pouring coffee in an I.V. straight into my bloodstream. But unlike that first morning cuppa, each Amazon hit is rife with uncertainty – the ranking might have gone up, in which case your heart flutters like a bright, spring morning, or it might have gone down, taking with it your will to live. You never know, and each hour when those tumblers tick and a new ranking appears you live, and die, a little more each time. If you’re really hard core, however, you can take it a step further and have aweb application monitor it for you. Yeah, 24/7 Amazon, raw and uncut.

…help me…

The official onsale date for A Darkness Forged in Fire in both the US and Canada remains Tuesday, July 8, but the computers have other ideas (maybe this is how Skynet got started). Books are usually printed weeks in advance of their pub date then shipped to the publisher’s warehouse then on to the accounts. I say usually because most books are not embargoed, requiring heightened levels of security including a very late print date sometimes followed by shipping straight to the accounts from the printer, and all under threat of legal repercussions if the book is offered for sale earlier than the designated pub date. No, most books simply have the title and pub date printed on the side of the box which, combined with what the computer says, offers guidance on when to place the book on the shelves.

As it happens, some systems are already indicating my novel is in stock and available. So…hurray 🙂 My book is sort of on sale 🙂

As good as coffee is to get me going in the morning, listening to Peter Gabriel’s Biko is guaranteed to get me fired up. I was fortunate enough to see him in concert years ago when I was in university and he ended his show with this song. In fact, the band stopped playing one by one until only he was on stage, then he left too while the crowd continued to chant Biko over and over. I love the driving rhythm. I always feel like I can conquer the world after hearing it. So…let’s have a look at the big pile of mss.

I just got one last week and the bloody thing has managed to startle me about ten times already. The main problem, and it’s one of my own making, is the ring tone. I chose the sonar ping, and set the volume for loud. When you’re out walking on the street you can barely hear it, but when someone calls me when I’m at home I’d swear there was a destroyer twenty feet above me about to drop a depth charge! Still, despite the intermittent cardiac events I love it.

In another bit of happy news Tantor Media Audiobooks have bought the rights to A Darkness Forged in Fire and will be bringing out a 13 CD set this August. The narrator is a gentleman named Michael Kramer.

This is cool.