Book Update - There's Good News!

Well, that's a relief!  The Press has graciously agreed to lower the price of my book.  I'll give more details as things proceed, but just know that it's a hell of a lot better than $24.95.  I'm grateful to OSU Press for working with me on this.  If you want to know the truth, I was a relentless little shit about it, bugging them, asking for sales figures on their end, presenting them with math and some important realities about the power of social networking platforms.

The book will be available directly via OSU's online bookstore.  It should also be available via Amazon and BN.com and possibly a few other places.  I don't hold much hope for it to be in physical bookstores, but that's okay -- I don't hold much hope for many people to be in physical bookstores.  When I hear about a book, I research it online, then I buy it at Amazon -- or, more likely, Powell's (where EVERYONE should buy whenever they can).  I mean, there's no actual upside to having my book stuck into the regular fiction shelves in B&N -- anyone who finds it will be doing so purely by accident.  And while I'd love to have it in independent bookstores, I don't have the machinery to go store-to-store, hawking my wee book.  So I'm actually happy to at least have a few ways people can purchase online.

All you have to do is buy the book, then get some friends to do the same.  I think you'll like it, by the way.  I like to call my work "stories for people who think they don't like short stories."  I'm working on a novel right now, so I won't be able to use that tagline again -- no one doesn't like novels.

I'll keep you posted.  Also, thank you in advance for agreeing to buy 10 copies.  (Which you've formally agreed to do by clicking on this post.  Your credit card will be charged accordingly.)

Caissie St.Onge Speaks Out!*

Hey, my super-smart & funny wife has been interviewed over at Shannon Albert's blog.  See here, you!

P.S. Here's an editorial she wrote for Huffington Post, on behalf of the Writers' Guild.

P.P.S. The title of this posting is a reference to EVERY interview teaser on the Today Show: Tiger's Mistress Speaks Out! Mickey Rooney Speaks Out! A Haitian Earthquake Victim Speaks Out!

My Unsolicited Advice for Conan O'Brien

Dear Conan,

You're never going to read this.  That's okay.  We're both from Massachusetts, born just a few years apart, and I'm sure we grew up ingrained with a similar understanding that Massachusetts is half people who can't stop giving unsolicited advice and half people who refuse to hear such advice, and THEY ARE ALWAYS THE SAME PERSON.

Nonetheless, here's Part One of my advice to you: Don't encourage rallies that are held a) on Martin Luther King, Jr., Day; and b) in the wake of a truly awful natural disaster in Haiti.  Not just because this makes you look petty and out of touch, but because it's just not right.  They're taking your nightly television show away from you, yes, but you've probably never been passed up by a cab or followed around a clothing store, and you've certainly never been trapped beneath a granite wall.

Pushcart!!

So, I spent December getting emails and blog updates from several writer friends, saying they'd had stories or chapters from their novels nominated for a Pushcart Prize.  Yay! I told them.  Wah, I thought.  See, I really was happy for them -- I truly love to see my friends do well.  But if I'm honest, I'd always hoped to be nominated myself.  The Pushcarts are a big deal, especially for writers publishing in places that aren't The New Yorker.  But I assumed it was all over for me -- the publisher of your work needs to do the nominating, and with the collection coming out this year I can't submit any more of those particular stories.

Um, then I got an email yesterday from the editor at the Roanoke Review:

Hi, Matt, 

Just wanted to let you know that the Roanoke Review nominated you for a Pushcart Prize for “The Book of Right and Wrong.”

Turns out, they'd nominated me in December, but things had gotten busy at the end of the semester (as things do) and they hadn't had the chance to notify me.  Will I win a spot in the annual Pushcart Prize anthology?  Who knows.  I'm just delighted, as they say, to have been nominated.

Thank you, by the way, to the Roanoke Review.  They've been amazing to me this year -- publishing "The Book of Right and Wrong," interviewing me, putting the story up online, and now this.  If anyone out there is dying, or thinking of dying, and has a large amount of money they were planning on giving to their grubbing, ungrateful heirs?  Give it to the Roanoke Review instead.

"It's Real Good You Done That"

<-- My wife posted this on Twitter.  If you don't know the quote, it's from the Twilight Zone episode where Billy Mumy terrorizes everyone with his mind-powers.  That my ten-year-old knew this, and knew exactly when to use it, explains only 1/1,000,000th of why that boy delights me on a daily basis.  But it's a good start.

Suddenly The Glass Is Half-Full. Of Notions!

Following up on last night's book-panic post: My pal Slackmistress said this in the comment section:


The key to everything is Oprah. We need to get you on Oprah.

...barring that, clearly we need a social media push/thang beyond just Twittering HEY READ THIS! Obviously influential book blogs? Free cookie with purchase?

Are you doing a "book trailer"? (I see these with some YA books, I don't know if that's just a YA thing or all books do it?)

It's hard to promote yourself when you're busy creating stuff to promote.


I was going to reply in the comments, but she really got me thinking, so I'll post it here:

I Have Some Concerns, Yes

Okay, so the book.  My collection is slated to be released in June 2010.  I'm seeing the proofs, according to my production schedule, on Jan. 15th.  All well and good.

But I'm worried.