Down South Perspective

Hi folks,

I thought the last message — the cryptic “something big is coming” — would be my last DSP, but as usual things are not working out the way I planned.

Delays with the “big” thing that is coming. So I thought I’d get back in touch.

And anyway, the “big” modifier came off wrong, in retrospect. It may be “big” to me; what it is to you is another matter, which you’ll decide on. Since, presumably, you have a life, I doubt you’ll find it big big.

The “it.” What is it?

An online magazine: E-zine/ezine/emag/e-mag/E-mag/E-fag/E-whatever.

I’m not going to say anything more about it except:

It’ll be like no other you’ve ever seen.

It’s free and you’re already subscribed.

I’ve been working on it for more than four months.

I even have a staff.

Right: Holy shit.

I’ll also say this: It’s purpose is to launch my publishing company, Bandito Books, and its first release, Can’t You Get Along With Anyone, A Writer’s Memoir and a Tale of a Lost Surfer’s Paradise.

Right. That one. Others are in the offing. More on those to come. The pub date we’re aiming at is October 1st.

Those of you who have read CYGAWA pretty much know why I’ve taken this step.

The company’s home page, which is still being futzed with, is banditobooks.com. Give it a look when you have a moment. Sort of a mission statement. The homepage is all that’s available there right now… but the rest of the content will be coming soon. Very soon.

But the e-zine is going to knock you out, I think. I hope. I’ve never worked this hard on anything.

The key to the success of Bandito Books is actually the e-zine.

Enough about that.

One more thing. I recently discovered that CYGAWA is already listed on Amazon.com, the page saying that they will ship in 2 – 4 weeks; this was Amazon’s error. We are in the process of correcting it. (Barnes and Noble and the wholesalers got it right.)

If you ordered the book on Amazon and are expecting it in 2 - 4 weeks, it’s going to be a little late; the book will not even be physically in print until late September.

But if you haven’t, don’t order from Amazon now, expecting delivery before early October. (Anyway, we would prefer you order direct from us. We can’t beat Amazon’s price — they demand and get a sweetheart deal that pisses me off even as I understand and almost approve of it — but at least you’ll know you’re buck is going… where it belongs.)

The other thing is that I happened to glance (right!) at the Amazon sales ranking (readers of the UK CYGAWA will get the joke). It was about 11,000. Today it was 9,000. These are spectacular numbers for a book hardly anyone should know about – there has been no real promotion for this edition. You all are responsible. Word of mouth. Thanks again.

The new book itself it a beaut, by the way. Hardcover, tweaked cover image. Here it is (click to enlarge and see the back):

So much better with the color, isn’t it? Palm leaves. Perfect. Thanks, John.

Plus all those typos and other screw ups from the UK edition have been corrected: About 800 edits. Whoa. Long story why that edition went out in such sad shape.

In spite of the sad shape of the UK edition – which many of you bought, God bless you – I got a lot of emails saying how much the book meant to you. I’ve posted the first hundred and some-odd ones on my site.

I’ve already gotten blubbery and thanked you so I won’t repeat that. I have a favor, though, a big one, but it won’t take much time to do it.

To those of you who wrote me the nice emails – and even if you didn’t write, but did like the book, please consider posting an Amazon review. You scroll down the CYGAWA page to “Post Your Own Review.” Amazon makes it easy from there.

I could ask for no better reviews than the emails you sent, so if you still have that one in your system, you can use it; edit it, whatever. (Best you change it from a letter to me to one to potential readers, though.) If you don’t have your old email and want to use it, write me and I’ll forward it back to you. I’ve archived them all. (If you’re using a new email address, include the old one so I can do a Search for it.)

If you didn’t like the book: gimme a break and don’t post a review. Don’t say anything.

Which reminds me. One reason I’m asking for this favor is that I know I’m going to get some one-star insulting reviews written anonymously by people from the book; people who will fail to mention why they are writing the review. I know this because – you might remember – it already happened; a one-star, libelous review of Zero by that jerk Brian Neumann, who didn’t even know enough to hide his profile. (He used a Pavones buddy of mine’s name on his review. (I wonder if Lindsey has popped him one yet for that.) He, among others, will do this with the new one. (Maybe Brian’ll forget to hide his profile again and you can barrage him with more insults. Which I appreciated.)

So I’ll need your honest reviews to help balance out the dishonesty.

For better or worse, Amazon.com is the biggest book store in the world. A book’s doing well there can change its whole future. Sort of like Oprah, except it’s democratic – the readers decide.

Here’s the Amazon page.

Okay. Back to work.

I’ll write you one more DSP to alert you that the e-zine will show up the next day. Give me about three weeks.

Allan

By the way, Zero readers who remember The Fucking Boat episode might also recall my (unnamed) commercial fisherman/surfbuddy who helped us in the scuttling off Montauk. Here’s a New York Times article about what he and his wife are up to these days.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/08/dining/08fish.html?8dpc

I have a half dozen of their fish prints in my house. You can email Ann and Jim via eastendfishprints@gmail.com or call 631 668-5694 if you want to get one. The prints are truly amazing.

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