Trying something new! Listen to an audio version of this post here.

When we were staring down the barrel of release day for the last however many months, there were really two goalposts I had in mind. October 28th, the day the book actually released, and November 4th, which would mark its first week out in the world. 

There’s such a hubbub made about the first week in publishing that - while I can’t really relax relax, even now - it felt like I wouldn’t be fully above water until we passed that first milestone. If leading up to release day felt a bit like drowning (to be incredibly dramatic about it), then this first week was like treading water just enough to keep your head up and tomorrow, post-first week, will (hopefully) finally feel like being back on land. So what’s up with the First Week for a book?

Well, the big one is the lists. The first week that a book is out is generally the best (and often only) chance it has to hit a best-seller list of any kind, so there’s a lot of attention on that first week to see if, come Wednesday, it’s going to receive that kind of validation. I’m not too concerned with this in theory - Bindery is an independent press and our books tend to have smaller, but steady sales rather than big blockbuster sales - but there’s still something to waiting to see those Wednesday lists and get that first week over with. 

I think it’s also because it’ll be the first indication I get of how sales are doing at all, though it’s not particularly smart of me to think of it like that and I know that. Bindery titles tend to grow steadily over time as they find their audiences rather than landing with a big splash right away, so the first week of sales really isn’t indicative of how the book is expected to do over its lifetime the way some lead titles at Big 5 pubs with gazillions of marketing dollars behind them are. If this sounds like I’m explaining it to myself as much as I am you guys, that’s because I am. I can say over and over again that the first week isn’t really indicative of much in the long run, but it’s also the first milestone for the first book from my imprint being out, so…yeah I might be eyeing it with a lot of curiosity while also telling myself to calm the hell down. 

Either way, the point I’m making to my own brain is…for the love of god, once Wednesday comes and goes, can we PLEASE just chill out. 

But hey, if you’d like to get in on the first week of sales and be part of that milestone, today is the last day to do so! Whether it’s for yourself or if you think you might be gifting it to someone for the holidays this year, you can head into your local bookstore if they have it or pick it up online from places like:
Bookshop.org
Barnes and Noble, or your preferred chain
Amazon
or from your audiobook provider of choice. 

We’re by no means moving on from Bargain at this point though. Subscribers just got a really cool (if I do say so myself) look at the 4-month-long cover design process and I have a couple more fun retrospectives coming up. And subscribers also already know this, but here’s a little treat for anyone who has made it this far…I currently have the manuscript for what I am affectionately referring to as 2 Bargain 2 Mortals sitting in front of me, so you’ll be hearing more on that soon, I’m sure.

I have a couple other pieces of news in the pipeline that I’m not allowed to talk about yet so I will continue to be cryptically vague about it for the time being, but…Soon™. 

Happy One Week to my firstborn.

(AND A REMINDER TO ALL MY FELLOW CALIFORNIANS! YOU BETTER GET OUT AND VOTE IN TODAY'S SPECIAL ELECTION IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY!!!)