So on the advice of the people who understand marketing and such things, I’m moving most of my online efforts to yeahiwroteabook.com.
Before I go, some news: physical copies are now available on amazon.com, as well as Spoonbill and Sugartown (in Brooklyn) and probably for a very limited time at St. Mark’s Bookshop (in Manhattan).
This site will be updated if have I have pressing news about this book (re: I get paid enough money so I can retire and spend more time updating all these websites).
And Christ were they heavy.
Shipping out to kickstarter supporters Monday and Tuesday, then searching through my email for all the drunken promises of books to people who wrote me about it.
After that, there will be a book release party hosted by Marcus Parks and Sara Benincasa (maybe, that’s what Marcus said anyway) at The Creek and Cave. Date TBD, but hopefully this month.
After THAT, I’ve been informed there is a standard list of critics and publications to whom I should be sending copies.
In summation: there will probably not be physical copies available on the website for a while yet, and possibly not at all. Aside from the copies already promised, I’m seeding local book stores that will sell on consignment, and I left a box of them at my bar because I was too lazy to carry them home, and they almost sold out that afternoon. If any are left after publicity attempts, I’ll put an order form here. The good news is that if I do manage to sell out, it should bring in just enough money to do another run of 400, at which point I’ll start order it and set up an order form on this site.
In the meantime, if you really want a copy, send an email to peter@andthenithoughtiwasafish.com, and you’ll be the first in line when copies become available.
Sorta.
The PDF versions have been sent to the kickstarter backers. I am, strictly speaking, making these versions available publicly to anyone who works their way through the internet puzzle.
The eBooks are waiting on a second round of formatting, but after seeing round one, I can say toten creative is a magnificent service. Affordable, fast, excellent work, and he’ll even compliment your book cover if it’s as awesome as mine.
The print versions will go to the printer early next week. Briefly, I have to finalize the size and margins and give them a page count. From that page count, they calculate exactly how large the spine on the cover will be, and then I tweak my cover design according to the measurements. As I’m sure you can imagine, it’s an exercise in stroke-inducing neurosis.
And if you’re curious, the puzzle starts with this:
The edit process is in round two. Briefly, the editor got back to me with the initial round, I’m applying all her edits and fighting for my neurotic linguistic hangups and occasional intentional abuse of the English language, and then we have a finished text.
After that, a formatting session for the PDF, at which point everybody who donated through kickstarter gets their PDF and can begin reading. That should happen by early next week at the latest, and it may even happen by this weekend. Next, it gets sent to an eBook preparer, which I’m hoping will be a quick process, but every time I say something will be a snap at work it turns into a three-week shitstorm, so I’ll just move along and mention that I’ll be sending a draft to ye olde paper publisher next week, and I’ll have an estimate for the Final Stage.
Slightly slower going on the neuroscience end of things than I anticipated (I kind of wish I was still in college for this particular bit of research), but still on track to make good on all kickstarter promises. Essentially done with all other editing on my end, and have a pro lined up to finish the job.
Barring a spate of cancelations, the kickstarter project has been a success! This is merely the beginning, of course. Or the beginning of the third act, I guess, since this book has been twelve years coming.
All that’s left for me is another pass on the structure of the book, some medical research, then it goes to the editor. Lacking a staff, once it comes back from the editor there will be a detailed formatting session, then it goes off to the printer. Backers will start getting their PDFs and eBooks prior to that, then the actual book will start shipping from Morris Printing in April or May, depending on the editing process and printing turnaround. Once it goes off to the editor, I’m printing the marketing materials, securing the ISBN, and making room in my apartment for 400 books.
So, this is the official (officiated by me I guess) site of the soon to be published book And Then I Thought I was a Fish. Briefly, if you’ve washed up here by means apart from the rest of my shameless self-promotion: this is the story of my drug, stress, and sleep-deprivation induced psychotic episode in the summer of 2000.
This is an information site for the moment, basically just to support the pre-marketing, but will eventually be the one-book shop to serve all your purchasing-nonfiction-from-me needs.
For the moment, the kickstarter project has more details (and a video).
More to come. In the meantime, here’s a modern-attention-span-appropriate blog I write on my lunch breaks: The City Commute.