Hey there. Just a quick reminder to everyone that I will be appearing at Brookline Booksmith in Brookline, MA on Thursday, March 26, reading from and signing my new novel, I Can See Clearly Now, which arrives in stores on March 24. Come support me and a great independent bookstore as well! My new book will be 20% off at the event! Bargain! Come one, come all! Bring your friends!
Those of you not in the greater Boston area can still support Fiction That Doesn't Suck (Trademark that, Karen Kingsbury!) by buying I Can See Clearly Now at the outlet of your choice! (for best results, we suggest your local independent bookstore. But Brendan, they cry, I don't know where my local independent bookstore is! Whatever shall I do? You shall go here, my friends, and find one. )
Anywhere you buy it is appreciated. This is most likely my adult fiction swan song. Unless I change my name to Zane. Seriously considering that move.
Now, the last time I whined about my lack of sales, I got bitch-slapped by a librarian (I deserved it, and it was kind but, I'm sorry to say, not at all as hot as it sounds), but I just got my (wow, you are really never going to earn a) royalty statement for Dear Castastrophe Waitress, and the news is not good. I moved nearly negative 800 copies in the last six months! Sweet!
So it seems like, realistically, there are a couple of thousand people out there who like my books for adults. And while I wish there were more, I really appreciate all of you. That sounds smarmy and insincere, but it is actually smarmy and sincere. When I was writing It Takes a Worried Man, my fondest wish was that maybe five people I didn't know personally might read and enjoy that book. And here it happens that a couple of thousand people I don't know like my books enough to buy them. So that's pretty good. Thanks, everybody!
I've had a good run on the adult side--all those advances I didn't earn out allowed me to write full-time for nearly five years, write a bunch of books that touched and/or enraged people, and I got to live my dream of being a writer.
Random House has printed relatively few copies of I Can See Clearly Now--despite the fact that this book is, in my opinion, my most accessible and commercial, they, based on the last two, don't really expect it to sell. So unless it flies off the shelves in unprecedented numbers, this is probably it.
I'd love it if it flies off the shelves, but if it just brings a few hours of pleasure to the couple of thousand of you who really like my work, well, that's cool too.
