Wow. I hoped it would happen, but I didn't think it would happen so fast!
I took a break from the computer to go eat dinner with my family, and while I was up, we sold the last copies of the signed, numbered, limited edition of Happiest Days of Our Lives.
The really sad news is that we oversold by 24 books, and I'll have to issue refunds to those people. Please accept my apologies in advance, but it looks like if you placed your order after 5:30 or 6pm PST, you'll be getting a refund from me.
I wanted to reprint my final update from the liveblog and open mic thread:
5:18pm: So I'm adding things up, and here's how it looks right now: 177 orders from the US. 16 orders from the Canada. 11 orders from the the UK. 13 orders from the the Europe. 5 orders from the Australia/New Zealand. That works out to 217. There are also about twenty or so orders that I can't easily search for in Thunderbird, because they're eChecks, or because PayPal didn't include the item number in the e-mail subject. I think it's safe to assume that I've sold about 240 signed, numbered, limited edition hardback copies of The Happiest Days of Our Lives. If things continue the way they have, the remaining copies will probably sell out with the next 24 hours, if they don't sell out over night.
This is a very big deal, and an important affirmation for me. The paperbacks haven't sold on the same pace as Barefoot or Geek, and I was worried that for reasons I didn't understand, a lot of people like to read my blog, but didn't want to -- or weren't able to -- support my writing efforts by buying my books. Today, however, tells me that a lot of you were waiting for something special, and all of you who are part of the 300, and that subset of you who participated in the open mic are part of something that was and is very special to me.
Maybe it's corny to feel good about this, but I love the sense of community I feel here, and spending some time today with so many of you turned a cool day into an awesome day.
Self-publishing is hard. Making it through the media filter is hard. Just getting the damn hardbacks available for sale has been maddening. But today made it all worthwhile.
I've felt discouraged and frustrated lately, and I've been doubting whether or not I can make a living doing this. Today, you all showed me that, while it's not going to be lavish, and it's certainly not going to be easy, at least it's possible.
Thank you to everyone who has supported me over the years, and to everyone who supported me today. I sincerely believe you're getting something special and wonderful, and it's very close to my heart. It's not a stretch to say that you're all getting a big part of me when you get one of my books, an even bigger part of me than the average audience gets when they watch or listen to me act.
Thank you all, most sincerely, for being a part of this, one of the happiest days of my life.
Now I'm going to celebrate by playing some games with my family (looking like Ticket to Ride: Europe and maybe Settlers) before I have a Stone IPA, which I think I've earned.
