My first novel was published back in October, and has currently been available only through Funcom's online store, which, I'm afraid, somewhat limits its sales potential. To say the least. Shipping costs are waaay too high, especially for customers outside North America or Europe, and the book is somewhat pricy to begin with (though not overly so for a hardcover novel). In addition, the novel has been serialised on the Anarchy Online story portal, it's being made available as a complete PDF file in the upcoming Anarchy Online Special Edition, and there's been little to no publicity. Emphasis on 'no'. Even then, it's disappointing to see that, in the past week, Prophet Without Honour has sold only four copies. Four! Eek! Granted, sales have slowed down dramatically since last autumn: the AO players who were interested in reading the novel have already bought (or downloaded) it, and non-AO players have never heard about it, nor have any particular interest in reading it. But still...four. That's...really, really pathetic. I'm not looking for New York Times bestseller list numbers, but...four! Ack!

Prophet Without Honour ain't the best novel ever published, though it's (by far) the best Anarchy Online tie-in novel ever written. Guaranteed. It's a fun read, and it's the first part of a longer story that I'd like to see completed. Thing is, unless sales pick up again, there's a good chance the next volume will never see the light of day. The storyline of the novel(s) is parallel to, but separate from, the in-game storyline(s), and so it's not a necessity in the grand scheme of things, but I'd still like to be able to continue - and perhaps, some day, complete - this story.

While thousands of people have read, and will read, the PDF versions of the novel, there's something to be said for a proper hardcover version, complete with a nice cover and lots and lots of pages, that you can read in the bathtub, on the toilet, or anywhere else in your bathroom (or even outside, in the sun, under a great, big willow tree. Or in your car. Or on a plane. Or in church, during an excessively long and boring sermon). If you've been thinking about getting it, stop thinking and starting getting. It might go out of print, you know, and then it'll be a collector's item worth hundreds of thousands of...money. Maybe. And you'll be really upset that you didn't heed my advice and buy the damn book when you could have. See? I'm doing you a favour here.

I guess it's kind of low to use this journal to pitch my book. But, see, four is a very, very low number (there are only three numbers that are lower, and a gazillion numbers (precisely) that are higher). I'd love to see sales reach double-digits next week. Ten, maybe eleven copies! Ah. A man can dream, can't he?

Sniff.  ¶ 13:57