Today is GREYHOWLER's publication day
Happy birthday to GREYHOWLER, my debut novella.
If you're so inclined, you can buy a copy from any of the major US retailers, or directly from Underland Press.
Book release schedules are funny. GREYHOWLER has actually been out as an ebook for almost four months—the original slated release date was October of 2023, and by the time the publisher decided to move the date out to January 2024, an pre-order listing and ISBN already existed on Amazon. You can change dates on a publisher's website all you like, but Amazon gets very cranky if you move a book's planned publication date by more than 30 days. So the ebook link went live in October, on the original release date, and today the print version becomes available for the general public to order, so today's the "actual" release date.
Or is it? Books release on Tuesday (for vague publishing industry reasons that are somewhat sales-driven and probably somewhat superstition-driven), so Tuesday, January 16th is the official day. Except Amazon lists the publication date as yesterday, Monday, January 15th. The publisher's website says it released Sunday, January 14th.
I don't think most books get four possible publication dates to choose from, but rather than worrying about choosing or correcting a date across a bunch of different platforms, I'm going to call this assortment of dates an embarrassment of riches. We can say, broadly, that my book was published in the last couple days, which makes it a Capricorn, so I would wish for it all the best traits of a Capricorn: diligent, practical, able to go the distance, good with money. The book was born under a crescent moon, just like me, the phase of crossed thresholds, breached horizons, and journeys beginning. I approve of this; it is auspicious. (Any astrological configuration or lunation is auspicious if you tilt your head and squint a little bit, divination is versatile that way.)
I've heard other baby authors remark on the temporal weirdness of doing promotional work for a book they sold years ago, and now I count myself among them. I'm two big projects and a handful of short stories away from GREYHOWLER now, and prepping for the official publication date required me to get back into the GREYHOWLER headspace in a way I haven't since I did the final edits on it waaaaay back in the fall of 2022. So taking a moment to note the uniqueness of the day helps cement it in my mind, a series of mental clicks like the tumblers of a lock opening. It's a day like any other, but it's also my book's birthday.
Happy birthday, little book. I hope you get to see a lot of the world.