After much bullying on my part of the long-suffering and amazing Oak Tree Press sales site people, there is finally a button for pre-ordering NICE WORK!
http://www.oaktreebooks.com/Shop%20OTP.htm
Page down to the "N" section, about twenty-four PAGE DOWNs. You had no idea that Oak Tree Press carried so many fiction and nonfiction titles, did you? Well, there are lots. Mine is the newest!
NICE WORK by Denise Weeks--trade paper edition--366 pgs.
The book won't physically be available until the last day of July, a couple of weeks from now. So why would someone want to pre-order it?
1) You'll be among the first to see our beautiful new creation! I hear that the newest hottest blockbuster is FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY, which deals (eventually; you have to stick with it for a while, I am told) with BDSM. Well, MY book deals with a murder whose roots are in a BDSM community gone wrong! It's played for laughs, granted, as my naive young Snoop Sister sleuths have to go to clubs and get on mailing lists to try to figure out where to look for clues. But this mystery is edgy! You'll be the first to get this book, which is BIG and LONG. That means it's more than a couple of hours' reading. It has a BEACH BOOK potential.
2) For years now, people have been waiting for me to publish something other than fantasy. Here it is! It's the first in a mystery series. No explicit stuff and no awful cussin', either. Funny stuff. Sisterly banter. Think the Snoop Sisters, the Thin Man movies, and Anne George's late lamented Southern Sisters series. My family can FINALLY read something of mine without whining about "fairy tale stuff" and "I hate magic because it isn't real/is of the DEBBIL/is stooopid." Really!
3) YOU GET A BLAZING HOT DISCOUNT!!
My publisher has put the book up on the sale page with its normal suggested retail price listed in the description. This price would make anyone gag and faint. "You think you're David Foster Wallace's protege or something?" Because this trade paperback is 366 pages. Yes, sports fans, you read right. We managed to keep this one big. BUT WE ARE SELLING IT FOR LESS THAN LESSER BOOKS!
When you click the pre-order yellow button that reads in green "ADD TO CART," your system will go to the PayPal cart window--and you will see that the book is on pre-order sale for $12.00. YES!
TWELVE DOLLARS!
This is a thrill. Compared to my fantasy novel DULCINEA, which is not quite as long but still sells for around $19 on the publisher's site (and sometimes at Amazon for $22, which I think is awfully depressing and puts some readers off--although it's now available from used book stores), this is a BARGAIN. No, REALLY!! Go to Barnes and Noble and stroll through, picking up some of their trade softcovers at 350+ pages. You will see that they sell for $24, $18, and so forth.
THIS IS A GREAT DEAL!
4) FREE SHIPPING!
5) BONUS!!
If you buy the book and then review it on Amazon (and this is an impartial review; if you really dislike it and can construct a cogent review that isn't like the ones written by fourth-graders who don't understand what the teacher has told them to read and review for class, I will be happy to hear any and all of your thoughts), YOU SHOULD THEN E-MAIL ME. I WILL SEND YOU A CODE BY RETURN E-MAIL that will let you GET A FREE OAK TREE PRESS BOOK from the selfsame OTP page, ANY OTP BOOK AT ALL!
A FREE BOOK just for reviewing the book on Amazon! This is a special arrangement with my publisher because she is awe-inspiring and she likes me best (ha). If you want the code printed on a bookmark, say so, and we'll do the deal by snailmail.
NOTE: If you want an autographed copy, mention that, and I'll send you an autographed bookplate and my various bookmarks/decorative objects. If you are one of the first twenty-five responders on this, you will also get a free pen! A FREE PEN! YIPPEE! HOORAY!! WHAT A DEAL! Okay, it's kind of silly, but hey, it's free stuff. (Right now, I only have 25 pens left. If I sell any books, I'll re-order those. It's neat to "accidentally" leave them around on bank counters and grocery store checkout stands and think that people are picking them up and perhaps noticing my pretty little cartoon and name and website address.)
If you feel that an autographed copy has to be an AUTOGRAPHED COPY where I write on the page, come to one of my signings. I'll be signing in September, possibly in August, in Dallas/Ft Worth/Fairview/Allen and in Plano and in Austin and in Oklahoma City/Norman and various other locations to be announced. You could mail me the book and I could mail it back, but that gets expensive and my signature is not yet worth what Clark Gable's goes for.
I think it's worth giving the book a chance. After all, it won the Dark Oak contest. It has finaled in the St. Martin's contest two years in a row (several years ago). It can't be any WORSE than "Twilight." (Kidding!! Kidding!!)
ANYHOW . . . my only caveat is that I'm not exactly certain when you'll receive your books. If you order now, the book will be packed and shipped as quickly as possible that first week of August. Shipped from the Chicago area. So it could reach you as late as the second week of August. Still, this is probably the most stress-free way to do it. If you wait for Amazon, you might get it a bit earlier, but Amazon's listing won't go live until the 25th of this month, and even with two-day shipping, I'm not exactly convinced you'll see books that much sooner. And they will probably cost $14. Unless we can work a deal.
PLEASE consider pre-ordering now or buying the book when it hits Amazon.
For one thing, I'd like to see it climb out of the Amazon ranking pits of around 456,666 or whatever to some more reasonable number like 13,000 or 6,999.
For another, I am thrilled that Oak Tree Press has consented to take a chance on me. I have assured the publisher that I will make my Close Personal Friends and family members buy copies as soon as possible. To break even, she has to see me sell about 400 copies. I did not accept an advance in order that the book could remain at its organic length (I believe the story took this many pages to tell--it's like the early Diane Mott Davidson books, not like a shortened genre mystery that you see coming in around 85K words.) We both made sacrifices and compromises because I promised to sell that many copies as soon as possible!
In the past I have occasionally set goals that were impossible to meet. Let's hope this is not one of them. If "The Secret" worked at all, I would not even need to beg here; you'd just KNOW somehow to get the book. But since we live in a world of begging and pleading, I am asking you to consider buying the book. Hey, what the heck--it costs about the same as a fast-food meal or a dinner out (at least these days! I paid $18 for two dang cheeseburger meals at Whataburger the other day, and I didn't even GET one of them because I am still on that dadblasted super-restrictive "not even dirt" diet).
I don't know what else to say. I probably shouldn't all-out beg and plead for you to get a copy. But I am simply not the sort of person who can with a straight face tell you how much you will adore this excellent story written in cadenced prose and that you will LOVE it and all that, because not everyone adores every book, of course. I can only ask that you try it and hope that you do like it.
I pray that it becomes a "keeper" for at least a few of y'all. If not, you can always donate it to a used book store or to a nursing home and take it off your taxes as a charitable contribution. That's the beauty of a real paper book!
(There will also be a Kindle/e-book edition. Coming soon--the Kindle-izing person is backed up over at OTP.)
Comments or questions are welcome here or at any of my other blogs.
http://shalannacollins.blogspot.com/
http://shalanna.livejournal.com/
http://www.oaktreebooks.com/Shop%20OTP.htm
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