I just did a recount of the limited edition hardback oversells, and my count from Sunday was way off. I didn’t oversell by 24, I only oversold by 6!

While this still sucks for six people, it sucks considerably less for eighteen people, who lived in an eigenstate of suck for the last 36 hours or so. Of course, those eighteen people won’t know they were a cat in a box until they get their books, and see a number between 282 and 300.

Some of you will be getting shipping notices shortly, if PayPal can get its shit together. It’s been infuriatingly wonky this morning. International customers won’t get confirmations, because I have to process your orders manually, but your books are also shipping at the same time.

Speaking of The Happiest Days, it got a very nice review at Slashdot:

Where once it seemed as though Wil had something to prove in his
writing – that he was over showbiz, that he was over Star Trek –
Happiest Days is full of simple stories. The day he bought a Lando
Calrissian action figure essentially by mistake, a simple outing for
ice cream with his sons; they’re everyday events but artfully told. In
total he has about thirteen short tales in the chapbook-sized novel,
ranging from just two pages long to a few dozen.

Some of his most evocative stories (and the reason this review is here)
are all about Wil’s growth as a nerdling. The most evocative for me was
the chapter ‘a portrait of the artist as a young geek’, which details
Wil’s introduction to tabletop roleplaying. From his first brush with
the infamous ‘red box’ D&D set at Christmas 1983, to his experience
teaching his kids how to roll up characters under the 3.0 rulesset, the
story reminds me (and may remind you) of a D6-laden past.

And really, that’s what Wil makes this a book about. It’s about his own
past, his troubles, his triumphs, but in reality this is meant to be a
book that reaches out to you as a reader. If you see something of
yourself in the kid who agonized in the toy aisle, if you see something
of yourself in the dad who argues with his kids over the radio station
(and rocks out to 80s synth-pop), then the purpose of the Happiest Days
has been fulfilled. Or at least, as I see it.

I’ve vowed that I won’t play Rock Band until I get at least half the 300 processed, but now that Slashdot is sending people to Monolith Press, I have extra incentive to get them all processed, so we can start taking softcover orders again. PayPal is making that as difficult as possible, with the timeouts every goddamn two minutes, but if the server blots out the sun with arrows, I shall process orders in the shade!

Uh . . . yeah. if I may take a page from Lloyd Bridges in Airplane, I picked a bad day to sleep in.

Wow. I hoped it would happen, but I didn’t think it would happen so fast!

I took a break from the computer to go eat dinner with my family, and while I was up, we sold the last copies of the signed, numbered, limited edition of Happiest Days of Our Lives.

The really sad news is that we oversold by 24 books, and I’ll have to issue refunds to those people. Please accept my apologies in advance, but it looks like if you placed your order after 5:30 or 6pm PST, you’ll be getting a refund from me.

I wanted to reprint my final update from the liveblog and open mic thread:

5:18pm: So I’m adding things up, and here’s how it
looks right now: 177 orders from the US. 16 orders from the Canada. 11
orders from the the UK. 13 orders from the the Europe. 5 orders from
the Australia/New Zealand. That works out to 217. There are also about
twenty or so orders that I can’t easily search for in Thunderbird,
because they’re eChecks, or because PayPal didn’t include the item
number in the e-mail subject. I think it’s safe to assume that I’ve
sold about 240 signed, numbered, limited edition hardback copies of The
Happiest Days of Our Lives. If things continue the way they have, the
remaining copies will probably sell out with the next 24 hours, if they
don’t sell out over night.

This is a very big deal, and an important affirmation for me. The
paperbacks haven’t sold on the same pace as Barefoot or Geek, and I was
worried that for reasons I didn’t understand, a lot of people like to
read my blog, but didn’t want to — or weren’t able to — support my
writing efforts by buying my books. Today, however, tells me that a lot
of you were waiting for something special, and all of you who are part
of the 300, and that subset of you who participated in the open mic are
part of something that was and is very special to me.

Maybe it’s corny to feel good about this, but I love the sense of
community I feel here, and spending some time today with so many of you
turned a cool day into an awesome day.

Self-publishing is hard. Making it through the media filter is hard.
Just getting the damn hardbacks available for sale has been maddening.
But today made it all worthwhile.

I’ve felt discouraged and frustrated lately, and I’ve been doubting
whether or not I can make a living doing this. Today, you all showed me
that, while it’s not going to be lavish, and it’s certainly not going
to be easy, at least it’s possible.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me over the years, and to
everyone who supported me today. I sincerely believe you’re getting
something special and wonderful, and it’s very close to my heart. It’s
not a stretch to say that you’re all getting a big part of me when you
get one of my books, an even bigger part of me than the average
audience gets when they watch or listen to me act.

Thank you all, most sincerely, for being a part of this, one of the happiest days of my life.

Now I’m going to celebrate by playing some games with my family (looking like Ticket to Ride: Europe and maybe Settlers) before I have a Stone IPA, which I think I’ve earned.

This is a big day for me, and a moment of truth: was I foolish to think that at least 300 people would want signed, numbered, limited edition hardbacks of The Happiest Days of Our Lives? I’m about to find out.

I feel the same way I do before a big poker tournament or extremely important audition: my stomach is queasy with excitement and apprehension, my hands are a little shaky, and though I’m hoping for the best, I have to be prepared — at least a little bit — for something less than the best.

Because this is an event for me, (and because I have to watch the server to make sure nothing goes wonky)  I’m going to live blog it for a little bit. I’m also going to do this thing Warren Ellis calls an Open Mic, since I’m going to be here anyway: In comments, feel free to ask me anything, and we’ll have one of those time-shifted discussions we sometimes have on blogs and message boards.

Live Blog!

11:56pm: Whoops. We threw the switch a little early. Someone must have been F5ing, because about a dozen orders went through in the first minute.

12:00pm: Okay, we’re on sale for real now! Orders are coming in as fast as I can count them. I see some familiar names in there, and that makes me really happy.

12:06pm: The first count has 65 to the US, 7 to the Canada, 3 to the the UK, 2 to the the Europe (it’s the final countdownnn . . .) and one to the Australia.

12:10pm: 80 sold so far. Anne says, "I honestly don’t know why you were worried so much." You’d think she’d know me better after 12 years.

12:15pm: I can hear a train whistle from the train yards about 20 miles away. It’s one of my favorite sounds, because it conjures up romantic images of a time when people traveled by rail.

12:17pm: I’m looking through the Romper Room magic mirror: I see Angie, I see Starshine, I see Clay, I see Alice, I see Bill, I see Chuck . . .

12:26pm: 100!

12:30pm: Secret Agent from SomaFM is the perfect soundtrack for this moment. It’s okay to feel happy and relieved and excited now, right? That’s not tacky, is it? I feel like we’re all sharing in something that’s incredibly special to me. Is that corny?

12:33pm: OH HAI APRIL! YOU CAN HAS BOOK!

12:37pm: This is a good time to thank Roughy, who did all the design work on Monolith Press dot Com, makes sure the server doesn’t barf all over itself, and keeps me sane in my moments of panic and doubt.

12:42pm: Nothing to add. I just liked that it was "42" on the clock.

12:51pm: From gabrielwalker:

12:56pm: This is going better than I ever dreamed.

1:03pm: My count may be off a little bit, but just about half of the hardbacks have sold in the first hour. I’m trading nervousness and apprehension for pure, unadulterated excitement and joy.

1:13pm: We’re having an awful lot of fun in the open mic. Well, I am, anyway.

1:19pm: Updated scoreboard, not counting eChecks and the few times PayPal doesn’t include an item number in the e-mail header: US – 111, Canada – 11, UK – 5, EU – 9, Australia – 3, Asia – 0.

1:24pm: From Clay:

1:28pm: Nolan just made himself a Dennis The Menace style slingshot, from a "Y"-shaped stick and some surgical tubing. It’s pretty awesome.

1:48pm: Looks like orders are slowing down a little bit, so readers who were worried about it selling out real fast should still have a chance to get copies in the next few hours. That’s pretty cool.

1:57pm: This is probably as good a time as any to share this review of The Happiest Days of Our Lives from Firefox News:

The nostalgic photos on the cover and the title might lead someone to
think he’s calling his childhood the happiest days, but if anything,
his book serves to show that the happiest days of his life are right
now.  As I said earlier, he’s madly in love with his wife and adores
his kids.  He’s discovered a love of writing and an enjoyment of
poker.  He’s run to raise money for breast cancer, he’s put the spirit
of Wesley Crusher to rest, and he’s found a purpose in life.  (Okay, he
also listens to "Mr. Roboto" in his car.  Nobody’s perfect.)

This
is a great book for anyone who was a kid in the 80s.  Trek fans might
get a kick out of the backstage looks at the Next Gen cast.  Me, I like
it for the reminder that things really have gotten better since I was a
kid, and it’s just a matter of knowing where to find the sunshine.

2:06pm: Well, it looks like things are winding down for today. I didn’t intend for this to be an "event" when I planned it, but it’s kind of turned out that way, which is awesome. This has been an incredible rush for me, and I get the sense that it’s been an awful lot of fun for everyone who wanted to get a signed hardback.

I think there will be a few people who check in a few hours from now, who will be pleasantly surprised to find that there are still some copies left. It was always my hope that I could balance the business realities of this limited edition with my desire to make as many people as happy as possible; I’m thrilled that everything seems to be working out for all of us.

2:08pm: The Firefox News review was Propelled by Starshine. Go vote, so we can Front Page that sucker!

2:21pm: Hey, you know what would be fun? A celebratory SNG at PokerStars:

Tourney number:67601545
Time: 18:35 EST
Game: NLHE
Buy-in: $20
Password: monkey
Bonus: $5 bounty on Wil.

2:31pm: This whole experience has reminded me how important the WWdN community is to me. I don’t quite know how to put it into words, so I’m not going to try.

2:49pm: We’re closing in on 200. This is probably a good time for me to get really sentimental and mushy, and thank you all for your support. I sincerely hope you enjoy this book, and you should all know that without people like the 300 (heh. I love that) there wouldn’t even be a Happiest Days of Our Lives, or anything else in the future, for that matter.

2:56pm: Dr. Pauly, Change100, Penner42 . . . holy shit, this poker tourney is a shark tank!

3:23pm: Book review only needs five more votes to Propel it to the front page.

3:30pm: I walk away for a few minutes to give Ferris a Kong in the backyard, and when I come back, I see that five more people have bought books. Awesome!

4:06pm: Yes! The book review hit the front page at Propeller! Thanks, everyone!

4:36pm: Somehow, I forgot to share this from Starshine, featuring 300 copies of The Happiest Days.

5:07pm: The poker tourney was a lot of fun. 11 players, and I made it to heads up with Dr. Pauly. I would have won, too, if it wasn’t for his damn runner/runner flush powers.

5:18pm: So I’m adding things up, and here’s how it looks right now: 177 orders from the US. 16 orders from the Canada. 11 orders from the the UK. 13 orders from the the Europe. 5 orders from the Australia/New Zealand. That works out to 217. There are also about twenty or so orders that I can’t easily search for in Thunderbird, because they’re eChecks, or because PayPal didn’t include the item number in the e-mail subject. I think it’s safe to assume that I’ve sold about 240 signed, numbered, limited edition hardback copies of The Happiest Days of Our Lives. If things continue the way they have, the remaining copies will probably sell out with the next 24 hours, if they don’t sell out over night.

This is a very big deal, and an important affirmation for me. The paperbacks haven’t sold on the same pace as Barefoot or Geek, and I was worried that for reasons I didn’t understand, a lot of people like to read my blog, but didn’t want to — or weren’t able to — support my writing efforts by buying my books. Today, however, tells me that a lot of you were waiting for something special, and all of you who are part of the 300, and that subset of you who participated in the open mic are part of something that was and is very special to me.

Maybe it’s corny to feel good about this, but I love the sense of community I feel here, and spending some time today with so many of you turned a cool day into an awesome day.

Self-publishing is hard. Making it through the media filter is hard. Just getting the damn hardbacks available for sale has been maddening. But today made it all worthwhile.

I’ve felt discouraged and frustrated lately, and I’ve been doubting whether or not I can make a living doing this. Today, you all showed me that, while it’s not going to be lavish, and it’s certainly not going to be easy, at least it’s possible.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me over the years, and to everyone who supported me today. I sincerely believe you’re getting something special and wonderful, and it’s very close to my heart. It’s not a stretch to say that you’re all getting a big part of me when you get one of my books, an even bigger part of me than the average audience gets when they watch or listen to me act.

Thank you all, most sincerely, for being a part of this, one of the happiest days of my life.

In 24 hours, the signed, numbered, limited edition hardbacks of The Happiest Days of Our Lives will finally go on sale, and I’ve been signing and numbering books so we can process and ship orders as quickly and efficiently as possible.

There are only 300 in this limited edition, (which sounds like a lot to me until I look at my traffic stats and see over 30,000 RSS subscribers and an average of about 6000 different people actually hitting my site every day) and I’ve been signing them 50 books at a time, to ensure that my signature looks good — it turns out that a standard Sharpie pen is good for about 20 signatures from me before the tip breaks down, for those of you scoring at home.

The last few weeks have been frustrating and discouraging, but the last few days have been a hell of a lot more fun while we get ready to sell these books tomorrow. Signing them has been fun, too, mostly because I’ve been keeping myself entertained by singing little songs when I sign different numbers:

"17/300 – She’s only seventeen . . ." (Kip Winger, why hast thou forsaken me?)
"19/300 – Ninteen! Ninteen! Nuh-nuh-nuhnuh-ninteen!" (Paul Hardcastle FTW!)
"25/300 – Twenty-five, twenty-five, does whatever a twenty-five does." (I didn’t pick up the book and make it walk on the ceiling . . . or did I?)
"42/300 – Don’t ask me, for number 42, don’t have to tell you, I signed your precious book." (To the tune of INXS’s ‘Never Tear Us Apart.’)
"87/300 – Star Trek: The Next Generation . . . started in niii-eye-yiii-teen eighty-seven" (Sung to the tune of our theme song, of course.)

I think I need to move to a more well-ventilated area.