Saturday Missive
An exclusive conversation with Brian Zahnd, a new novel, and the low down on why authors are always asking you to preorder
Dear Friends,
For those of you who are new subscribers, I thought I’d give you a little run down of these Saturday Missives. I don’t actually remember when I started writing them— I think it was at some point in my PhD, back when I was on Patreon instead of Substack. The idea was to write a little missive comprised of things that I had found beautiful, interesting, or humorous throughout the week to share with my readers and listeners. It was a more informal collections of thoughts than my podcasts or more polished essays. It is also a place where, ordinarily, I share excerpts of the readings that I find compelling in whatever I’m researching at the moment. (This provides me with a periodic moment to remind you that, in fact, I am employed by a university! And write academically in addition to what I do here!). I haven’t been sharing as much of what I’ve been reading for research lately because my book You are a Tree comes out soon, so I am absorbed with sharing excerpts from that. But soon I shall return to research posting about my book on art and death… (related: Ash Wednesday is on Valentine’s Day this year!).
And soon I’ll also be restarting my podcast!
I haven’t really been posting on my podcast since I started my new job at Kings College London last year. This was not intentional exactly, but I just became very absorbed with the newness of that role and other changes in life. But I’m really excited to share a podcast series that I’ve been recording to (very loosely) support the launch of You are a Tree! The new podcast series is very loosely based around the theme of metaphors, and specifically I wanted to have at least one person to discuss each of the major metaphors in You are a Tree (see: table of contents):
To my delight, the series is over subscribed! So I’ll cover the seven metaphors and many more beyond that! I basically reached out to my blue sky guests: people I’d really wanted to have on the show for a while, but hadn’t dared to ask. And to my shock and delight, most of them said yes!! The series is going to have a real diversity— visual artists, scholars, authors, musicians, composers, priests. I have been busy recording them in the past weeks, and have quite a few more over the month of February and March, so I’ll release them slowly and they’ll mostly come out after the book releases. I already shared the interview I had with Macolm a few weeks ago, and today I’m excited to share an interview I conducted with Brian Zahnd. I’m sharing the unedited (and video!) version of this interview exclusively with upgraded subscribers and those who have preordered, but eventually I’ll share an edited down version on audio on my podcast.
So… all these ramblings to say:
Saturday missives are my once a week rambling about what I’ve found beautiful, interesting, or humorous. They’re usually “private” i.e. for upgraded subscribers only. They often include playlists, booklists, and sometimes exclusive interviews, etc. Then I use the public Substack for podcasts, show notes, and information about my various book writing and event escapades. As a reminder, if you preorder You are a Tree, I will gift you a complimentary month of Substack so you can access all the fun things.
If you haven’t preordered the book yet, you can do that now. Once you’ve preordered the book, just forward your receipt to my email thejoynessthebrave@gmail.com . I will then activate a month long subscription for you which will give you access to the intro.
Speaking of preorders, I’ve had some questions occasionally about why authors are always asking people to pre-order their book— why not just wait till it’s out? Why this push for preorders? There actually are some very clear reasons for this push that I thought I’d share! I made this little video on Instagram to explain:
If you can’t be bothered to watch here are the basic reasons…
Why authors ask you to preorder their book:
They’re doing it because their publishers asked them to! In the old days authors didn’t have to be quite as involved in promoting their own book, but now authors are expected to be active and enthusiastic. So if you see us asking for preorders it’s because we’re doing what we’re told and trying to be good sports.
Preorders count toward what is sometimes called “first week of sales.” Distributors and books stores take this number into account when they decide whether to stock your book, promote it, etc. So if you get a solid preorder number, it can snowball into your book getting in front of more potential readers.
We’re doing it because we want you to read our book! Its important to know that most authors *don’t make money off of preorders.* Whatever money they made probably came in the form of an advance from the publisher when they agreed to publish the book. It will be a long time before authors ever make money off of their book sales… if ever! So we’re not sharing to make money, we’re sharing because we want you to read the book we loved writing!
So, there you have it! That’s why I’ve been scheming, politely asking, and restrainedly begging you to preorder my book. I’m very thankful for everyone who has! And most of all… I can’t wait for you to read the book! Now to the missive!
Saturday Missive…
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