So it’s starting to become real. Committed: A Memoir of the Artist’s Road is now available for pre-order. Even better, my publisher is offering a 10% discount to Artist’s Road readers; they just need to enter the promo code PREORDER2014 at checkout.
You’ll be shipped the book on the day of the “soft-launch” publication, October 16th. Committed will be widely available in bookstores, online, and in ebook format in November.
I tweeted the news of the pre-order discount yesterday afternoon and was delighted to see this tweet from the author of Creative You, David B. Goldstein:
ordered! RT @PatrickRwrites Save 10% on a pre-order of Committed: A #Memoir of the Artist’s Road w/ code PREORDER2014 http://t.co/FQLWs8mkvy
— David Goldstein (@Davidbgoldstein) September 18, 2014
I can’t be sure, but I think that makes David the first buyer of my book. What I am sure of is that I’ve sold at least one! David then requested I sign the book; I am happy to do so and it will be easy, as he lives about a half-mile from me. Amazingly enough, we came to know each other online through our shared passion for creativity, with no knowledge of our geographic proximity!
Should you be brave enough to pre-order Committed, be sure to let me know so I can thank you. Now I need to figure out how to sign books for readers like you who don’t live down the street.
UPDATE: I’ve just learned that pre-orders are only possible for U.S. and Canadian customers. Of course some of you reside elsewhere; the publisher has told me that you can wait until November when it’s available online at your country’s version of Amazon, etc.–no discount that route–or contact the publisher directly at this address for an invoice.
The Artist's Road 
I’m honored Patrick and I’m surely one of many who can’t wait to read your book Committed!
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Thank you, David!
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Ordered! Congrats, Patrick.
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Thanks, PJ! You had vowed to preorder once available and you’ve done so. Very glad Canada is part of that process.
I just heard from a friend in Paris that this feature may not be available in Europe. Looking into that now.
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Pre-ordered! Really looking forward to it.
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Thank you, Michelle! Your support has meant a lot to me.
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Ordered! Congratulations! Look forward to hearing about the launch.
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Thanks, Corey! My launch at first will be virtual, but I do hope in perhaps November to have a local event. I haven’t really been able to focus on that yet, but I’ve been pleased to see that many authors don’t actually do their event launch right after publication, so that’s a relief!
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ORDERED and RETWEETED! 😀 😀 😀 YAY! Congratulations, Patrick!!! SO happy for you! 😀
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Thank you so much, Donna Marie! Your enthusiasm has been fantastic.
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Money is squeeeeeeeeeky tight right now (should shift mid October to give me breathing room) but I’ll of course order a copy ASAP! 🙂
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Amy, email me a mailing address and I’ll mail you one when it comes out. No worries.
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Well, as a UK-er I can’t pre-order it, but that has made me feel less guilty about preferring to order it in ebook format if I can*, so every cloud…
(*I confess, the portabilitiy of being able to carry around a ton of books in one thingy has made me an ebook convert. But the guilt comes from reading that Some Bloke Somewhere has apparently ‘discovered’ that people who read books on a screen instead of an actual tree-sandwich somehow don’t absorb as much of the subtleties of the text… paraphrase paraphrase ‘dumb people who didn’t read much more before are only reading lots on ereaders now because ereaders somehow magically suck the intelligence out of the text when it’s in an ebook, and that’s how dumb people like their books – nyah, take that, Facebook Generation!’ Or something.)
Big congrats, Patrick! I’m sure you’ll be selling many, many more in the months and etceteras to come. 🙂
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I know a lot of folks who are waiting for the ebook that are in the States and Canada, so no worries. Early November, date not yet set, I’ll let folks know once that happens.
I know an author named Nick Carr who wrote The Shallows that I suspect the person who talked to you is referring to, although he/she may not have read it. It’s not reading a book on a screen vs. in your hand that’s the problem. It’s that we have a hard time reading books at all any more because we spend so much time reading short things on screens (like my blog posts and the comments below it). Our attention span for long prose isn’t what it used to be. Well, my book is longer than a blog post but a lot shorter than it was in previous drafts!
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Oh thank goodness – the whole ‘book versus website’ thing I totally get, but the way the excerpt I read was sampled made it seem like the writer was comparing actual eBOOKs to treebooks. And then when I questioned it with the person who directed the article to me in the first place, saying “but I don’t get how there could possibly be any difference if it’s the same book, but just in different formats” he did this mini-‘science’ lesson thing where he said something along the lines of “the page of an ebook is made of light photons which probably react differently with your eyeballs than a printed page, and so it causes chemical changes in the way your brain processes the text…” And I was like, “Whaaaattt??!”
From my experiences of being an endangered gender working in a software engineering environment, I would say that’s what happens when 1950’s Man tries to Explain Something Technical to a woman. 😉 And that very same experience taught me the best response was to just nod and smile politely and then change the subject.
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Patrick, I just bought it. I’m really looking forward to reading this! I know how hard you’ve worked to finish this and get it out. Congratulations! I hope I can get my copy signed someday.
I’m keeping my comment short because I tried to post a few seconds ago and I don’t know what happened. I hope you don’t have a million comments from me here!
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Hi Mari! I’m so honored you’ve ordered a copy!
Yes, you’ve been on this journey a long time now. Well, as to a signed copy, let me know the next time you’re in DC and I’ll try to do the same the next time I’m in CA. A number of folks have recommended I sign and send bookplates that folks can stick in their books; Jessica McCann (a historical novelist in Phoenix) mailed me a nice one that she sends folks. So many things to consider!
Sorry you had issues with commenting. As a web guru you’re the last person I’d expect to have that problem, but I just got the one comment, and it was a very nice one! 🙂
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