My debut book is now available for preorder! Two Novembers: A Memoir of Love ’n’ Sex in Sonnets chronicles my love life for one year, in Shakespearean sonnets. Eager readers like you have many purchasing options. In this post, I’ll share where you can buy Two Novembers and the pros and cons of each option. (Though, if you’re buying my book, there’s truly no bad option, IMHO!) I’ll also share what “counts” as a book sale in the publishing industry. The answer has to do with whether or not the sale is logged in a computer system called BookScan.
A Comedic Exploration of Love, Sex, and Relationships
You will like Two Novembers if you like real-life love stories, humor and wit, pondering life, hopes and dreams, Shakespeare remade for the modern era, and confessional poetry with so much rhythm and rhyme that it’s like listening to music.
Preorder Two Novembers Today!
Two Novembers is currently available wherever books are sold. Books will be shipped on July 1, 2024, the publication date. You can reserve your copy now. Preorders are always helpful for authors, so don’t delay!
To find the book online, navigate to an online bookseller and search for “Liza Achilles” or “Two Novembers.” If the book doesn’t pop up, search for the International Standard Book Number (ISBN): 9781957372112. (Sometimes websites’ search functionality takes a couple months to kick in.)
The book won’t be available on shelves in any bookstores until July 1. However, you can walk in to any bookstore and ask a bookseller to preorder it for you. This will alert the bookseller that there is interest in the book, which could (possibly!) entice them to stock it on the shelf.
Sadly, the book may not be available at libraries. But you can always request it from your local library on their website, or walk in and ask your local librarian about it. This could (possibly!) entice them to order it.
What “Counts” as a Book Sale in the Publishing Industry?
An author’s most important goal *should* be getting their book into the hands of eager readers.
However, there’s a multibillion-dollar industry built around book publishing, which makes things more complicated. For giggles, I call this the “publishing-industrial complex.”
In the publishing-industrial complex, literary agencies and publishing houses spend thousands of dollars per year on a software product called BookScan. BookScan tracks sales for each ISBN. This is good for industry professionals, because when an author pitches a second book, they can look and see how many copies their first book sold. This helps professionals in the publishing-industrial complex make smart business decisions.
The catch? Not every sold book “counts” in BookScan, and therefore in the publishing-industrial complex. The rules for what “counts” and what doesn’t are both confusing and less than transparently available, but I will explain them below to the best of my ability.
Shop Indie Bookstores: Nearly All “Count” in BookScan!
I’m a huge fan of indie bookstores. They are vital hubs in our communities—and will remain so as long as we support them.
Some indie bookstores don’t use BookScan, but most do. If you buy a book from an indie bookstore, rest assured that you are most likely helping to boost the future publishing prospects of the author. This includes buying from a physical indie bookstore and also ordering from an indie bookstore’s website or Bookshop page. (At the time I’m writing this, my book is on sale at Bookshop for 7 percent off the regular purchase price!)
I’d like to shout out some amazing indie bookstores in the DC area that are supporting my book. I am so immensely grateful to these small businesses for their love! Please show them love back, if you can:
- Preorder from Busboys and Poets in DC because they are hosting me for an event at their Takoma location. The event will be on July 14. It will be a celebration of Disability Pride Month (my book’s love story began as a result of my computer overuse injury). I hope you can come! More details are on my Events page.
- Preorder from People’s Book in Takoma Park, Maryland, because they are hosting me for a book reading and signing event. The event will be on July 1. I hope you can come! More details are on my Events page.
- Preorder from Politics and Prose in DC because they are stocking my book in store.
- Preorder from Kramers in DC because they are stocking my book in store.
- Preorder from Old Town Books in Alexandria, Virginia, because they are stocking my book in store.
Shop at Barnes & Noble: It “Counts” in BookScan!
Barnes & Noble has a special place in my heart because it has physical bookstores in locations (like my own city) that have no indie new bookstore where readers can walk in to browse and purchase hot-off-the-press books. Book sales at Barnes & Noble “count” in all circumstances, whether you buy off a shelf in-store, walk into the store and order through a bookseller, or order through their website.
- Preorder from Barnes & Noble to support a brick-and-mortar new bookstore serving communities across the country that may not have indie options.
If You Must, Shop at Amazon: It “Counts” in BookScan!
Amazon holds a special place in my heart because it’s convenient and offers free shipping. That being said, other aspects of this business trouble me. I won’t go into all of the unsettling aspects here, but one thing I will mention is that every book purchased from Amazon is a book not supporting a brick-and-mortar bookstore. And brick-and-mortar bookstores are essential to the intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual health of our communities. I shop from Amazon myself on occasion, but I do not buy books there (unless the book is not sold elsewhere). However, I totally understand people’s wish to simplify their life and save money. No judgment there.
However, see below for an unresolved question about whether Amazon “counts” in the case of Two Novembers.
- Preorder from Amazon.
Book Buying Options That Don’t “Count” in BookScan
Lots of book buying options don’t “count” in the publishing-industrial complex. Sales to libraries don’t. E-books and audiobooks don’t. Sales from small, boutique shops that don’t specialize primarily in selling books don’t. Buying from me directly, in person, doesn’t. Buying directly from my publisher doesn’t.
However—if you purchase in a way that doesn’t “count,” it’s still a book in a reader’s hands, and that still makes me (and you!) happy. And, who knows? Maybe you will tell a friend about it, and maybe they will buy it in a way that “counts.”
Word on the street is that, for most traditionally published books, only about 75-85 percent of sales “count” in the publishing-industrial complex. It’s impossible to ensure that all sales pass through BookScan, so let’s not try to be perfect. Why would we want to do that, anyway? The *actual* goal is to get the book into the hands of eager readers: the more the better!
Something Annoying and Frustrating
I’m an editor for a living, and this is my baby of a book we’re talking about, so this may matter more to me than to you. But I can’t help but notice that many of the web pages where my book is being sold are riddled with typos. I have found typos in the title and description of my book. My publisher is aware of these issues and working to get them fixed.
An error on Amazon is particularly worrysome: they have the ISBN wrong for Two Novembers. I am not sure whether this will affect people’s ability to buy my book from Amazon or whether Amazon sales of my book will “count” in BookScan, since BookScan tracks books by ISBN. Since Amazon minimizes human interaction, they are hard to get in touch with. So far, they have been unresponsive to repeated digital inquiries over a period of weeks.
Rest assured that the book itself is well edited and proofread and is definitely not riddled with typos. I wish I could sneak my way into the world’s computer systems and fix the web page typos myself—but, alas, I’m not the hacker type.
TL;DR
If I have presented too many choices, sorry about that, and no worries at all. Just do this:
Preorder Two Novembers from Bookshop!
Thank you for your support.
Will you preorder my book today?
