As I sit down to write this, the new book has been out for a full day and some change.
Launch day went pretty well. It felt… odd. For my last two books, I did signing tours. And while I don’t miss the thought of spending my time in airports and hotel rooms… I do miss the thought of getting to meet a lot of you. Tours are exhausting. But the one part I never got tired of was meeting you guys…
But various things made a tour impractical for me this time around. So when my book came out and it felt a little… different. Not unpleasant, just not as eventful as if I met up with 500-600 of you in Seattle…
That isn’t to say it was a bad day. I fit it what promotion I could while helping the boys with their homework and otherwise dadding it up. I even took a brief field trip with my kiddos to the local bookstore.
(I *really* should have straightened out those books before taking this picture. It’s bothering me…)
Oh! Speaking of which, let’s take a moment to enjoy some good news in a world that’s… well… let’s just say not as good as I think it should be.
After years of being bookstore-less, Stevens Point (the town where I live) has not just one, but TWO local bookstores.
Point’s last bookstore closed *years* ago. It was deeply depressing, as I knew deep in my heart that this town would never have another unless I personally intervened in some way to make it happen….
…Fast forward to my delight at being proven wrong. A couple years back, some amazing local folk opened Bound to Happen books. A local bookstore right on main street. The fact that they survived their first couple years AND covid warms my bitter old heart.
I stopped by to enjoy the book birthday with my boys. Not only did the store have a Draccus pushie on the front counter and the promotional postcards to give away, they had this:
Unknown to me, they’d collaborated with Worldbuilders Market to have some a whole shelf of Kingkiller-related stuff for people who might be showing up for the new book. I had no idea that was happening, and it made me look *very* cool in front of my kids.
Unfortunately, the boys and I were a little rushed, so I didn’t have time to take pictures of the other, even newer, bookstore: Sojourn Booksellers. But picture or no, I’d feel bad not giving them a mention too. They have some of my books as well…
Aaand since I’m splashing around local bookstore love, I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a shout to A Room of One’s Own down in Madison. They sent me a picture of displaying not just the new book, but the sexy Bast calendar, too…
Which brings me to my next piece of good news.
- Calendars are back from the printer.
In fact, I’m guessing a few of you have already gotten yours in the mail if you pre-ordered them from Worldbuilders, or got them in one of the bundles.
The boys think it’s the funniest thing ever, and wanted to show off their favorite Bast pictures:
(Oot had trouble deciding, so he picked two.)
Launch day wrapped up with a lovely stream with Nate where we got to show off the art and celebrate the book finally being out. If you missed it, you can see the archived video over on my twitch channel.
For those of you who aren’t into streaming, there’s one thing Nate and I announced that I want to let you know about here…
- Surprise! Extra Signed Books (Feat Nate Taylor)
As I’ve already mentioned in a bunch of places, the publisher and I worked hard so those of you who pre-ordered books could get signed copies. I signed a *lot* of books. A very lot. Enough so that you could get them from your local bookstore, or B&N, or Books-A-Million… pretty much anywhere.
You could also pre-order it over at Worldbuilders Market, the online store for my charity. If you did, you could get the same promotional postcard and signed book.
We really appreciate y’all who support the charity, and we know you can buy the book online for a discount, so we wanted to do something a little extra for you who were willing to pay a little more to help make the world a better place.
So… a month or so ago, Amazing Illustrator (and even better friend) Nate Taylor flew out here to Stevens Point. Partly to visit, but also to sign some books.
What this means is that if you pre-ordered a copy of Narrow Road from Worldbuilders Market, you got a book that was signed by me AND Nate.
And not to put to fine a point on it, but there were a *lot* of you:
It’s hard to show you how many packages they got ready in the weeks leading up to the book’s launch…
Because there were too many to get a picture of all at once…
All told, they shipped over 2200 packages on the Monday before publication so y’all could get your books as quickly as possible.
(Child shown for scale. I swear our employees are of legal age.)
What’s more, on publication day, y’all came storming into the store again. And then yesterday too.
At times like this, I’ve asked them to focus on getting people’s packages shipped out as quickly as possible. And they’ve been doing a bang-up job. But since they’re focusing on that, we haven’t had time to switch our two big pre-order items over into the NON pre-order versions yet.
So… congratulations! All y’all who ordered books, calendars, or bundles over the last couple days still managed to get the lower prices and the double-signed books too!
The team says they’ll be getting items switched over as soon as they’re caught up with shipping tomorrow. If you manage to order a Signed Copy of Narrow Road, or any of the bundles containing Narrow Road before they change it, you’ll still get:
- The lower pre-order price.
- A copy of the book signed by me AND Nate.
- One of the promo postcards.
(So long as we don’t run out, of course.)
So if that sounds like something you’re interested in, or if you’re just looking to do some holiday shopping, jump in quick. Because they tell me the pre-order items and prices will definitely be going away by the end of tomorrow.
Oof. There’s more news to share, but this blog is already crazy long.
I’ll post the rest up in a day or so, folks. For now? I rest…
Thanks again for being amazing…
pat