Well, as you can see from the photos, my novel came. As did my “Hello, My Name is Novelist” t-shirt, but that’s not nearly as exciting.

This is the Cafepress version of Downtown Dandelions, the more expensive edition, and it looks pretty good. I could probably nitpick about all sorts of things (I wish it didn’t have a glossy cover, I wish I had made the margins larger, I wish they hadn’t printed an odd off-center number randomally on the back cover, partially obscurring my url.), but for what it is, it looks pretty sharp. It does look like a cheaply printed book, especially if you compare it to everything else on your shelf. I won’t try to fool anyone. But considering that it’s the only copy in existence, it’s pretty cool.

I’m going to wait until the Lulu version comes before making an official announcement and recommendation as to which one people should buy. I expect the Lulu version won’t be as good, but it’s also cheaper. Maybe we’ll leave it as a toss up.

Continue reading The Smarmy Author →

I finally finished the “once through” (more like five or six times through) editing job on my first ever novel, Downtown Dandelions. After spending an entire day wrestling with PDF format and cover design, I’ve finally finished and uploaded my novel for purchasing.

You can buy Downtown Dandelions here.

It’s printed like any regular paperback book (hopefully), is 212 pages, includes all sorts of professional sounding stuff like a preface, acknowledgments and dedication. It’s retailing for $15.99 from Cafepress.com, and if that’s all you buy shipping is something like $4.

Of course just because the novel is up and available doesn’t mean it’s right. I would strongly encourage anyone wanting to order the novel to wait until I receive my copy. While I trust Cafepress, there’s a million things that could have gone wrong (especially on my end) that would result in a terrible looking product. I’d hate for anyone to slap down their money for my book and get something crappy looking. So please wait until I get my copy and confirm that everything’s good. I ordered it tonight, so I imagine it will be here sometime next week. And don’t worry, I’ll let everyone know when my copy comes. If you’re rash and impulsive, go ahead and order it–but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Also, when I placed my order I was given the chance to send $5 off coupons to five friends. I don’t know if they do that every time, but I would encourage you to send those coupons. If you don’t have friends to send them to that you think would use them, send them to me. You can send them to anything [at] monkeyouttanowhere.com, so just put in coupon1 [at] monkeyouttanowhere.com, coupon2 [at] monkeyouttanowhere.com, etc. I may be able to pass those coupons along to people who could use them (like my Mom), so I’d rather not let them go to waste.

Okay, that’s all. I’ve spent all day on this project (it’s 9:52 p.m. and I’m still in my pajamas) and I’m pretty tired. I’m hoping to revamp my Downtown Dandelions site in the next few days and make it all novel-y. So watch for that.

And thanks to everyone for their support with the novel. You guys rock. I never expected anyone to buy or read my novel (and I still don’t). Printing this thing has been more about self-indulgence on my part, but the fact that a few people actually want a copy is so cool. It blows me away that anyone would want to read my book. So thanks.