Seeing Your (Literary) Baby for the First Time
“You’re not going to believe this,” one of my closest friends texted me to say a week ago. “There was a box from Amazon on my doorstep when I got home from work.”
He then sent me this photograph:
Oh my god.
It seemed that Amazon had made an error. Everyone who’d ordered the book in those first few hours it was up on the site had a copy shipped to them — almost a full month early!
I couldn’t believe it. I still can’t believe it. Look at that. That’s my book! That’s my title, my characters, my cover art, my name! It looks so… real! It’s a real book! I couldn’t wait until my own copies arrived and I could hold it in my hands.
Well, it seemed that someone else had made an error — me! I had just expected the books to be sent to me automatically, not knowing that I had to put in an order with my publisher to get them! So here I am, a two weeks before release, and I don’t have my book!
It’s a strange, strange feeling. More and more pictures of my book have been seen floating around on the internet, and every single one makes my toes tingle! But despite all of it, I still haven’t actually touched or even seen my book for myself!
This thing I created is out there, in the world, and I have no way to get to it. All those copies have been arriving at places too far for me to reach. Some days, I just want to scream with anticipation! But other days, honestly, I’m a little glad. Odd, maybe, but it’s the truth. It’s heightened my excitement and it’s coated the stress and nerves of the pre-release hustle with a sense of wonder and glee and eagerness. Will they come today? Tomorrow?
Until I hold a copy in my hand, it still doesn’t feel real. And so long as it doesn’t feel real, I’m able to keep my chin up and keep working on the hundreds of little things I have to do before The Deathsniffer’s Assistant hits shelves for real!
… but it sure would be nice to see and hold my baby!
Here’s a little gallery with some of the pictures I’ve been sent. If you have one of those sneaky copies, be sure to take some pictures and send them to me! I’d love to see them!
