A one-note tune
Just in case any of you can possibly have missed my facebook onslaught, my book is now available to pre-order at Amazon, although publication is still six months away. (Annoyingly, the jacket-blurb doesn't seem to have made it to the site, but my publisher is on the case.)
Pre-orders are extremely useful for both author and publisher, because (I understand) the distributor can use the figures to help persuade bookshop chains to stock the product.
Thanks to a huge and somewhat unexpected response from friends and colleagues -- I haven't even told any students about it yet! -- my Amazon rating shot sky high (at one stage I was 5,562 in all of Books, which is quite extraordinary. Not that I've been checking between lessons...) It's now settling down, but it's still ranked highly in the 'Hot New Releases' sections of the book's various genres (including the big ones of 'History' and 'Science & Nature'). It's all very affirming and exciting!
People at school have been very positive. My headmaster offered, unprompted, to host the launch party (good publicity for the school too), and if we can move publication forward a fortnight to tie it in with the school's Prize Day (hundreds of parents, free food and drink... a good plan). Similarly, one of the office staff is running a full-page article about it in the glossy magazine that gets sent to a couple of thousand former students.
So a huge Thank You to those who've clicked and bought! I promise I'll sign copies whenever possible!