If you’ll slide the pupils of your lovely peepers over to the right, you’ll see an example of what we in the business call “freaking awesome!” or more accurately, ARCs.
ARCs are Advance Reading Copies, sent to blurbers, early reviewers, awards with early deadlines (that Governor General’s Award isn’t going to declare me the winner without some effort on our part), and others who might appreciate an advance glance at what is sure to be the next big thing (we all believe this to be true, regardless of the odds, don’t dispute me!). ARCs have usually not yet gone through complete proofreading, so there is the very great likelihood of spelling errors, grammatical missteps, and so forth. Don’t judge us on those, we’ll catch them before the book hits the shelves, but if you wish to play Grammatical Error Bingo, I can’t stop you. It’s challenging and fun!*
There will still be alterations to the back cover copy (making room for blurbs and so forth [and I have some excellent blurbs on the way, believe you me]), but the basic format will be the same.
For me, this is one more step along the path of proving to me that this is not all a big joke. If it is a joke on me, kudos to you, anonymous jokemeister, you have gone well above the standard whoopie cushion.
*challenge and fun not guaranteed.
Having just picked up Shelf Monkey just because it sounded like you wrote about my time at Smithbooks, and then plowing through it with the enthusiasm of a young adult on Twilight, I decided to look up the dude. And I see another novel on the horizon. This is a very good thing. A public reading of this would be very cool.
Glad you liked it, Sean. Hope you like the new one, although I must stress, it is markedly different, in subject if not in tone and style. I’m pretty sure I have only one tone and style, let’s hope it fits the zombie genre.