I remember, some years ago, being at an utterly mobbed book launch event here in Toronto. It was for a writer friend who published a smallish book every few years. He was an older fellow, a professional as well as a writer, and a much-loved figure in several subsets of the community. When I say mobbed I mean it. Not only was the event thronged, it was almost a who’s-who gathering. Much media presence.

I joined a cluster around my friend before the event started, gave him my congratulations and murmured, ‘This is sensational, the place is packed!’ He looked at me and rasped (some people can get away with rasping), ‘Guy, you don’t get it! Tonight I am going to sell tho-thirds of my total book sales!’ He was exaggerating, but only to a degree. Essentially, by summoning everyone who knew and liked him, his publishers managed to get two or three copies per person bought by a lot of well-off people.

That’s one kind of book launch. Another is the straight ‘party time’ where the author and his or her friends just celebrate the arrival of an ideally non-bouncing baby book. ‘Friends’ can have a loose definition sometimes, of course. Jackie Mason, the great comedian, once joked about an event where his wife ‘kept it intimate, she just invited the immediate world’.

I get a little odd with launches. I’ve been upbraided (actually, harangued and aggressively shredded might be closer to the truth) by friends because I haven’t called to tell them a launch was happening. But my take has been, pretty much since I was lucky enough to start having actual readers, that launch events are for the people who have been waiting for the book. (I did alert some friends this time. Aggressive shredding with inventive profanity can have an impact.)

But tonight is about readers. I’ll do some thank you remarks off the top, because there are people to thank, and when I tell the audience I’m grateful to them, that’ll be very real. Enough people seem to want the fiction I deliver to allow me to research and work the books, and rework them, until they are ready – or as ready as I can get them. Should I make a bad joke about that old Paul Masson ad with Orson Welles and his gorgeous voice? ‘Will sell no wine before its time.’

(Actually – digression – that line always felt more an adman’s than a winemaker’s. There’s no upside to selling too soon. If the wine isn’t ready it tastes badly, you lose market share. And a good wine can be kept for a few years anyhow. Get me Don Draper, please.)

For the last few novels the first launch night for a book has been a hybrid evening. I do a short reading, but people seem to enjoy – and I know I prefer – a conversation with someone for at least part of the time. I get to be funny, or try.

There are people out there who are really good at helping on stage in this way. It is a skill, no question. And this format doesn’t always work. I attended an evening a few years back with David Cronenberg generously giving his time to interview Stephen King. It didn’t really take off. Maybe too much star-power up there, but more the discrepancy between David, who really is an intellectual, and King, who is very bright (obviously!) but just as obviously didn’t want to go that route.

Tonight I’m with Laurie Grassi, Books Editor of Chatelaine Magazine. Laurie has her own constituency and a real love of books in the widest sense. (Her all-time favourites list is online somewhere. It includes Bel Canto. Go read that.) She’s also funny. Through emails yesterday we made the shared executive decision not to tango on stage if the conversation flags. I doubt it will, just as I doubt a tango would have been especially edifying.

Event is at 7 tonight, cash bar beforehand at 6 PM. At least one bookworld acquaintance wrote me when he heard that and said, ‘No one told me! Now I’m there!’ No comment.

Free online tickets are a request from the library, which is hosting this at the main Reference Library at Yonge and Bloor, in their really gorgeous, very large atrium.

http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMEVT128087&R=EVT128087

No tangos, unlikely to be any tangling (except maybe plot threads?), but it really is special, the night you bring a book to the world, or that segment of it that has been waiting.

Double meaning (what, me, a pun?). The day before today was quite predictably crazy, in an entirely good way, though with that feeling you get after one or two cups of coffee too many. There was a huge amount going on backstage, too (digression: anyone ever see “Noises Off” – brilliant comedy on the chaos backstage while a play is running out front.).

I am, obviously, really pleased with the response of reviewers so far. (Am I being set up for the humongous hammer of cataclysmic criticism soon?) I’m especially rewarded when people write well, and catch things. One reviewer noted a rivers starting small before becoming a torrent image I use, and linked it (perfectly) to the way the book begins.

A few things to note here, before they slip what remains of my mind.

The other meaning of ‘the day before’: the launch event in Toronto is tomorrow. It was a really good event three years ago, at the lovely Toronto Reference Library space, and I’m looking forward to this one, too. I always think of these as events for readers, not a party for friends, but I know a number of friends are planning to come. Cash bar works wonders.

The library wants tickets ordered (free) to help with figuring out how many chairs to set up. They have a lot of space, but come early if you want to be fairly close. Bar is from 6 PM, they tell me, we’ll start the gig at 7ish. Laurie Grassi, Books Editor of Chatelaine, is chatting on stage with me after a short reading (by me, not her, though she’d be great). Am picking the reading passage today. Laurie and I agreed not to plan or discuss anything. I know nothing (as Manuel says on “Fawlty Towers”).

http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMEVT128087&R=EVT128087

Next, an early heads-up (will repeat nearer the day). I am doing another AMA on reddit on the evening of April 9th, after a fun evening a year ago with them. I followed, by one evening, Woody Harrelson (or his manager, some think) who managed to mess up prodigiously, and had warnings all day from every friend who knows reddit, but it was great fun, with good questions. I’m happy to go back.

The overall link, for now, is this:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy

and my evening is on the right sidebar (may be some other authors you want to diarize there, too). On the 9th, that sidebar link will be opened in the morning. You can go early and post questions or do it real time in the evening. I get there at 7:00 EDT and start typing as fast as I can.

What else? Martin Springett’s lovely “River of Stars Suite” inspired (obviously?) by the book, is available now as a CD, he tells me. It is at his website at http://martinspringett.com and also under his name on iTunes and CD Baby for download. The CD, with signed artwork, too, is a bonus prize for the #riverofstars photo contest on Twitter.

And, the contest.Under fierce and unrelenting pressure (read: polite requests) we have extended the deadline for that from the 7th to the 10th. People have been worried their ordered copies might not arrive in time, which is a fair concern. Here’s the contest description from downscreen again, for those who missed it:

http://www.brightweavings.com/journal/2013/03/fifty-shades-of-kay-the-contest/

Go ahead, be creative, funny, adorable…

I do something today, every release day, call it a tradition.

It is so easy to get caught up in the ‘process’ as a book nears publication and then appears. An author lucky enough to be in-demand to some degree shifts from being a creator to being a marketing person. The book shifts from being a book towards being ‘the product’.

I get it, it is entirely necessary, but I like to take release day to step back a bit, if only for part of the morning. I bring a coffee and close the study door and after this post is done I’m going to sit and read through parts of River of Stars.

I want to remember the moments when – over three years ago – I was starting to think about a book inspired by the Song Dynasty. Wondering if I could, or should, venture back into Chinese history, a completely different era. Aware of just how much research would be involved, conscious of how hugely different the arc of the Song was, compared to the earlier Tang Dynasty that gave rise to Under Heaven. Beginning to glimpse and be daunted by the nature of that challenge.

I’ll remember (I’m remembering now) the earliest reading, correspondence, note-taking,notes to myself, names, character ideas, motifs I wanted to be sure to use … the long quiet of research. Then the recurring, necessary nagging voice, a year or so later, pointing out in my head that research was all very well but …

So, starting to write, feeling my way in to characters and settings and voices. I recall telling my older son that at that early stage I felt like someone entering a forest holding a light that only illuminated a little way ahead. (Is that why Daiyan goes into the forest so early? Probably not: I’ve felt that way with every book. Not enough light, not as smart as I needed to be.)

Then, in every novel, for me, there’s a period, usually about halfway through or a little more, when I am so appallingly tired of the book. Aware I’ve been working on it for what feels forever -brood, write, revise, repeat – and there is still so far to go and it is probably no good, anyhow. I can conjure that feeling up again right now.

But on the flip side, there comes the sensation that emerges towards the end when, despite all the anxiety associated with trying to make the ending work (I feel very good about the ending of River of Stars) I have become aware, even if I don’t want to jinx myself by admitting it, that this particular book will get done and … maybe it is strong, after all.

And so this morning I’ll page through it, rereading some passages, remembering how many times I read and revised them, right through the proofreading stage (I wrote about that in this Journal, how much I rely on the tolerance of the production people!).

Basically, I try to turn it back into a book for part of a morning. Into, if you’ll forgive me, something I wanted to be a work of art, to the best of my own ability, to shape something that might have a chance to last. (I have written about this dream/wish/desire of all artists before, most directly in the Sarantine books.)

But the paradox enters, and it isn’t a bad thing, it is just … part of what is involved. In order to endure, to have a chance at that, a book needs to find readers. Only that way can enough people decide this is really good. And start talking about it, writing about it, thinking about it after closing the last page, giving it a chance at a longer life in a culture that gets rid of things fast.

So we come back to how much depends on the marketing and publicity people, their talent, commitment to the work (sometimes love for it), their ideas, and a writer needs to (or should, to my mind) support them, be part of that team.

After that, it is over to the readers. Which is where today comes in, as we begin.

River of Stars launches this morning. I hope you enjoy it. Actually, to confide, and be really honest, I hope for more than that. I hope it becomes important to you.

Well, someone in a comment to the last post on Reviews wondered if the Washington Post would do one and … clearly he has the power. (My people would like to talk to your people!)

The Washington Post review of River went up late this afternoon (it’ll be in the print paper tomorrow). It is wonderful. Really is. Hugely positive and smart.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/river-of-stars-by-guy-gavriel-kay/2013/04/01/4eaf9692-9186-11e2-bdea-e32ad90da239_story.html

Here’s an additional reason why it is so good (same point applies to the Globe & Mail on Saturday): when major papers review a book right around publication date, that means that if they applaud the book they are doing so while copies are hitting stores and easier to find – with luck, displayed as new arrivals.

A strong review that runs a couple of months late will still be helpful (not just terms of making writers feel good) as it can be used for future editions or helping agents sell into foreign language markets, but a good review that is also timely is … golden. 

It is even a signal of sorts these days. Review space is shrinking in all papers and magazines, but there are still a lot of books appearing, and editors, publicists, authors shrieking variously for coverage. So for the Washington Post, which is a major, major book review source to cover any novel right on its publication date is hugely rewarding.

I’m not going to keep linking to reviews. All of what Elena has called Team River of Stars are doing alerts on Twitter, and the Bright Weavings FB page will have links to some of them. But this one felt worth noting here and making these points about, in part because of the timing.

It set up a good evening-before-official-on-sale day here.

I didn’t have a drink (yet). I celebrated in an even more shockingly decadent authorial way. Something so sybaritic, so flamboyantly self-indulgent I need you all not to tell anyone.

My mother’s chocolate chip cookies. And milk. Of course, milk.

There is an old line, oft-spoken in the book world, about publicists or publishers pulling a fake quote from a bad review. It doesn’t happen much any more, that I know of, though it is still fairly common in the film industry.

I’m talking about where a reviewer wrote, “The awkwardness of the language here is remarkable.” and the book jacket shows: “Remarkable!”

As I say, not too common these days, best I can tell. But there is an art of sorts to pulling short quotes from long reviews and I enjoy watching what publicists do it, and playing the game with them, sometimes. The phrase an author likes most may not be what a publisher judges will appeal most to possible buyers.

Which is all a back door way in to saying that the last few days – and the week ahead – are very much about the earliest responses to River of Stars, pending ‘official’ release on Tuesday. I will confess to a personal awkwardness (‘Remarkable!’) in relaying reviews, here or elsewhere. If they are negative (gods forfend!) why would I post them? If they are positive, even though the nature of the process suggests I broadcast them widely, I feel self-conscious. I’m proud of the novel, and truly delighted (sometimes moved) by an intelligent response to it, but I’m happiest when the publishers do most of the heavy-lifting on getting word out as to reactions. And they do, and will.

At the same time, this Journal is supposed to be about the process of a book coming into the world, and – as the header here suggests – reviews are a big part. So I will say that the early assessments this week online, and this morning’s Globe and Mail (which remains Canada’s pre-eminent books page) have been wonderful.

I am not going to do full links here (forgive me!), I just don’t like it. But you can chase a few down at tor.com, Fantasy Book Critic, blogcritics.org, Fantasy Literature, a website called Beauty in Ruins, and the Globe and Mail website. The Globe review is by the novelist Robert Wiersema, someone whose careful reading through many reviews over the years I greatly admire – which makes a strong review even more rewarding, obviously.

What I will do, after hesitating for awhile (I admit), is show here what has been ‘pulled’ in anticipation from a few of these by the publicists. Quotes like these go out right away to other media, to the sales force (gives them ammunition and motivation to have strong reviews in hand). They also end up in ads, and on later editions of the book – or other books by the author.

How much do reviews matter? Really big, unresolved discussion topic in the industry. One study suggested that the main two elements affecting sales are word-of-mouth (friends recommendations, mainly, but that may be shifting to sites like GoodReads) and book covers. (Covers do matter, it seems.) Price has an impact (that’s why bestsellers stay bestsellers – they are often discounted.) And reviews do for some readers. My instinct (feel free to comment on all this, by the way!) is that a lot of good reviews, 2-3-4 pages of them inside a paperback have a cumulative impact on a possible buyer. A single quote saying ‘Terrific!’ (‘The pleasure I derived from throwing this across the room was terrific.’) may not mean much, unless, perhaps, if written by a superstar figure. The discussion continues, all the time, as publishers try to sort out how to get word of a book out to the world. (Hint: social media is it, these days.)

In any case, here are some quotes that have been circulating among the Team River of Stars (as Elena named them) this week. You can chase the original reviews down and see if you’d have chosen differently.

‘River of Stars is the sort of novel one disappears into, emerging shaken, if not outright changed. A novel of destiny, and the role of individuals within the march of history, it is touched with magic and graced with a keen humanity.’ (Globe and Mail)

‘I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Kay is the greatest fantasist of our generation… I’m still reveling in the post-read trance, but I think even with time this will prove to be among my favorites of his works…’ (Fantasy Book Critic)

‘…graceful, lyrical prose, beautifully drawn characters, moments that stab the heart, a masterful sense of structure and pace, and an overall elegance and skill that denotes a novelist in complete control of his creation.’ (Fantasy Literature)

‘Kay on a bad day remains many times more absorbing than the vast majority of other genre authors, and I dare say River of Stars chronicles him on a great day. This is stunning stuff from one of fantasy fiction’s finest. From one of fiction’s finest, frankly.’ (Tor.com)

‘Kay has the uncanny ability to depict the grand sweep of historical events through the eyes of those living through them…What’s even more amazing is how through his careful rendering of character and environments we are drawn into this history…River Of Stars is an exceptional piece of work.’ (Blogcritics.org)

Honestly, I look at these and feel immensely grateful. After a number of years, each time, I send a novel into the world, and it is deeply rewarding to see it responded to in this way. Too early for another drink, but …

I am willing to accept that I am the only one who laughs at the header. (I have made the joke before, I confess.)

But the feeling is there. You know those scenes in the Roadrunner cartoons where the legs are spinning like mad before the character gets moving? That’s my mental image sometimes these days. So far, no sense that I have run over the edge of the cliff, but then Wile never does know that till he looks down, does he?

Basically, have been running at the desk for days now, since New York trip (which was its own run-run). There are times in the writing process when it is intense and draining, and also when editing to a deadline, but this is different,

The pre-release phase for a novel, with marketing and promotion well underway, and the launch and then touring to come (and be planned) is a different kind of energy. Some love it, some loathe and avoid it. I ‘get’ why this is important, why it is part of a writer’s job, working with publishers who have invested in him or her. I try to make it as much fun as I can, for me, for readers. That may include bad puns. (Have you checked out the first few entries in the #riverofstars 50 Shades contest on Twitter? Have you entered?)

Reviews have started to arrive, too. There are some authors who say they don’t read their reviews. I am never sure if I believe them. Part of why most of us do what we do is to share our creativity and our thoughts with others, and a sense of how and if that is taking place seems a part of that process. Otherwise, why publish? (Well, yes, to pay the rent or mortgage, but…)

I do understand the writers who have a spouse or friend read the reviews first and only pass on the good ones (I know people who do that) … the process of writing a book can be so difficult, so lengthy, so exposed, that to have someone be glib and uncomprehending in a throwaway paragraph can be a horrific feeling. It isn’t just the thin-skinned who can be afraid of that.

I am really, really pleased by the early responses to River of Stars, some comments leave me feeling profoundly rewarded. It can go the other way, of course. The great Richard Ford (and his wife) put bullets through a book by Alice Hoffman when that novelist gave him a bad review – then sent the book to her. Google the story. This is from Gawker: “Well my wife shot it first,” says Ford, rather proudly. “She took the book out into the back yard, and shot it. But people make such a big deal out of it – shooting a book – it’s not like I shot her.” Enough to make someone give up reviewing. And, with respect to a very fine writer, shooting a book is kind of a big deal.

A wise writer friend once commented that the very best reviews are ‘intelligent good ones’ and the worst are ‘intelligent bad ones’ because the unintelligent bad can be dismissed and the unintelligent good don’t nourish. There’s more to the process than nourishing creativity, of course. What remains uncertain is how much reviews matter these days. Or even what counts as a review? A short bit on Goodreads or Amazon? Those can actually be places for some really thoughtful writing. There are, for example, two long pieces on Goodreads I was sent to, about Tigana, that are as generous and perceptive as anything written anywhere. And major papers can run rushed, lazy commentary. The venue may make a difference as to impact, but doesn’t automatically imply quality.

It is all kind of interesting actually, another aspect of the cyber-age and how we are all adapting to it.

I gave an essay, “On Rereading” to io9.com and the discussion in various places was smart. A few interviews came online this week, too, including a fun/funny one on tor.com. There are more in the pipeline. One of the running in place things has been doing so many conversations with people (some of them really sharp) while just sitting here. As I said, running in place.

Books are getting into stores now. On-sale date is officially Tuesday, which is when online pre-orders will ship. Worldwide launch event in Toronto is Thursday.

I have no one to blame but myself, and I know it.

Some time ago I made a pretty obvious joke among friends and then online about Fifty Shades of Kay. People were amused, I suppose for pretty obvious reasons.

Months passed, as they do.

On Twitter very recently someone posted a photo of their copy The Fionavar Tapestry on the breakfast table beside the pancakes or eggs and a fruit smoothie. Made me smile, as I really like battered (no pun intended), well-loved copies of my books. Just after that, a couple of other people (reviewers, booksellers, authors) happened to post photos of their early copies of River of Stars.

An idea entered what I am pleased to call my mind.

What if we run a contest, I wrote my publicists, marketing people, editors. Do it in the first week after books start arriving in bookstores, give a prize to the cleverest or funniest or most creative photo of a copy of River of Stars in a bookstore.

Fabulous idea, word came hurtling back. (They flatter me when they aren’t harassing me.) But, asked Charidy Johnston, one of the senior marketing people, why limit it to bookstores? Let people have more room to be creative.

She was right. So we all agreed the photos could be taken anywhere. I made a joke or two (I do that) about maybe getting more creativity than we bargained for. After further emails back and forth Nicole Winstanley, President and Publisher of Penguin Canada, editor and friend, agreed to judge this with me.

Cut to New York last Thursday, a day of meetings. Over lunch with a trio of Wunderkind PR publicists, finalizing plans for the photo contest came up and I joked (see the ‘foolish author motif’ emerging?), ‘Given that these are photos, I guess it’ll be like Fifty Shades of Kay after all.’

Laughter, then a sudden, intense, extreme silence around the table. So profound that other diners looked over at us. I felt the first sadly belated premonitions of doom.

‘You realize we have to call the contest that!’ Tanya said. ‘It is too perfect.’

‘Of course it is,’ said Elena. ‘That is what we are calling it!’

See? No one to blame but myself.

So, here we go. Here’s the deal:

The first copies of River of Stars shipped from warehouses this past Friday. Should be arriving in bookstores any day. So, from today to April 7th, the Sunday after the official on-sale date of April 2, readers are invited to post to Twitter their best photos of the books ‘in the wild’. And to be egalitarian, this includes e-book versions, if you can get a good photo of one – which means the UK can play too, as e-books should be out there on the 2nd. (Hardcovers not till July.)

Post your picture with the hashtag we’ve been using: #riverofstars. That’s so we can find them.

People are invited to comment (politely?) on each other’s photos, that’s part of the fun, I hope. After April 7th, Nicole and I will have a drink and look at what’s come in, and pick a winner.

Prize is an extra, signed hardcover of River of Stars, shipped to wherever the winner is and, as a bonus, a double-signed CD of my absurdly talented friend Martin Springett’s just released (this past weekend) “River of Stars Suite” – music inspired by the book.

The music can sampled at http://martinspringett.com/riverofstarscd.html

So there you have it. Start your cameras. Enjoy the book, enjoy the game. Behave.

Interviews are endlessly different. I am always asked, by publicists, family, editors, ‘How did it go?’ And I almost always answer, ‘We’ll know when we see it.’

The thing is, an interview is always in the editing. You can talk to someone for an hour, and their space allowed is 500 words. Or five minutes on air. (Or 90 seconds if it is television, sometimes.) That means you will sound either witty, thoughtful, or cretinous, depending on whether they kept the moment when you sneezed and mispronounced their name at the same time, or not.

So I’ve learned to wait before deciding how a given interview will appear. This is even true of e-interviews, since answers can be trimmed or cut there, too. The truth is, you really don’t know. What you can know, is if someone has done their preparation (starting point: reading the book), if they are genuinely interested in the conversation, and if there’s any kind of vibe between you. (Laughter is often a key, unless it is during that sneeze I mentioned.)

There is also a real range of skills in interviewing, and these are different for print, radio, television, email, or on stage (that last is entirely different). There are also different ways of being excellent. (Just as there are for writing, or acting, or pitching.) I have vivid memories from early in my career of being on air with Peter Gzowski, the late, great titan of Canadian radio. Gzowski was legendary; stories were told of people stopping their cars outside bookstores, running in and saying, ‘I want the book by the guy Gzowski’s talking to right now.’

He had many strengths – warm voice, laughter – but for me the key just about leaped out as we talked the first time. He listened to what his guest was saying. Simple as that, and as hard. Peter was superbly briefed by his producer and staff, but he also reacted to what he was hearing in the studio. He didn’t just move on the next question on his cheat sheet, he responded to what you told him. It became a conversation, not a pre-fabricated q&a. It was a pleasure, actually, and because he was live to air, for those interviews I was able to say, and know: that went well.

Nancy Pearl, the ‘Rockstar Librarian’, with whom I’m talking in Seattle late in April, is also fabulous. We’ve done three sessions together, and her secret is something else. Nancy’s passion for books, for the world of books, for talking about books, sometimes for your book, is irresistible. She pumps you up because her delight is infectious. It is easy to see, five minutes into a conversation with her, on stage or on camera, why she is such an ambassador, worldwide (she just came back from talking books in Bosnia), why people go charging off to buy the books she’s praising.

What’s fun, especially on a book tour when repetition becomes the usual name of the game, is when you get a question that stops you, makes you raise a figurative or even literal eyebrow and, like an ungrammatical Apple fanboy: think different.

Today, in New York, I had an interview with César Torres of Ars Technica, and it was a lot of fun. But what I’ll remember, and discuss with friends, is a question he asked about a scene late in River of Stars when one person ‘betrays’ someone dear to them by releasing something they wanted kept private. César got us going on privacy and the internet and oversharing, and I mentioned Kafka’s executor and dear friend who ‘betrayed’ him by releasing works Kafka asked him (ordered him) to burn. That had actually crossed my mind when I wrote the scene, but I never expected to be asked about that small moment, or have it connected to issues of the current cyberworld. It was, in other words, a terrific question from someone who had read the book, thought about it, and connected it to his own world and interests (César is the Social Editor for Ars Technica).

In other words, a novelist’s dream question.

That one went well. I’ll go out on a limb and say it.

Starting tomorrow, the 19th, Penguin Canada are starting a 3 week ebook promotion on their entire backlist of my work. $6.99 for all titles.

I think targeted promotions of this sort are a smart idea. It has always been seen as intelligent to make sure that backlist books are in print and available in stores as a new title appears. The idea is to let the ‘coattails’ of the new book generate sales of older titles, as new readers discover a writer and the new one generates (one hopes) some media.

Something like this is a fine tuning of the same idea for ebooks. The backlist ebooks will be on sale for the week or so prior to the release of River of Stars and for the week following.

If any of the other markets do something similar, I’ll get the word out. Note that in UK, the actual books for River aren’t till July (I should see their cover ‘roughs’ tomorrow, apparently) but ebooks will be on sale on April 2, same as the US and Canada.

Have brainstormed a fun idea with marketing and PR teams, as to getting readers involved in something, and will announce it at end of week. (Yes, that’s a tease. And your point is?)

Oh. And got my boxes of author copies from New York Friday. None of them were A History of World Whaling. In joke.

So there is a Publication Date, and publishers talk about a Release Date and an On-Sale Date and a Shipping Date. It gets blurred, and I admit to being amused when people in the business a long time look harried when you ask them when a book will actually be available.

Publication day for River of Stars is April 2 in Canada and the States and for the e-book in the UK. (Physical books in UK are July, but they’ll be in Australia well before that, which is unusual … this is all about Australia’s laws requiring physical books to be in their territory within 6 weeks of appearance anywhere else. The UK is designing its own cover for later, but I gather they’ll use the blue North American one for Australia, New Zealand…)

But ‘publication date’ has always been a bit of a fiction. With exceptions like the later Harry Potter titles, books are usually on sale in stores some days before that date, depending on proximity to the warehouses. The underlying idea is that a pub date (not to be confused with authors celebrating over many, many beers) is the day when books may be safely expected to be fully distributed across a territory (Canada, the U.S.).

That, traditionally, is the first day that reviews were supposed to appear. The rule is mostly on a courtesy basis, but almost all newspapers and other media respected it. (Again, Harry Potter level ‘events’ are more formal, with embargoes of sales and reviews enforced by large men and threats of kneecapping.)

The idea is that someone reading (or listening) to a review of a book should be able to go, well, buy the book. The fear is distraction and forgetfulness. If it can’t be found for another week or two, the impulse to get it might disappear.

In the internet society some different rules have evolved, as I’ve discussed here before. And pre-orders online, often at major discounts, have become a big part of the bookselling process for major books, too. For example, Canada has already reprinted River before release (always good news) based partly on pre-orders.

I had lunch today with my publisher/editor. I gather from Nicole that books will ship late next week, which means they should start appearing in bookstores a few days after. I suspect the same timing will apply in the States. We know they are in the warehouses.

I have a copy of each country’s edition. (Identical, except for the logos, the quote on the front and the shading of the map on the endpapers. Oh, and the Americans used an embossed effect for the title and my name, and the Canadians have them flat. I didn’t even notice at first.)

I’ve spoken to younger writers often (everyone seems to be a younger writer these days) about how many stages there are for a book, but there’s no question that one of the biggest is actually seeing them on sale somewhere, and then spotting someone reading a copy.

When I started out, for years I never saw anyone reading one of my books in public. Friends would report sightings of Readers in the Wild: on subways, streetcars, in waiting rooms, a maternity ward (!) … but I never saw one. Took the wrong streetcars? I was convinced, I said, that my kind friends and family and publishers were sheltering me from the grim, dark truth that no one, ever, anywhere actually read me.

I am a little more confident now. Saw someone on a plane, once…