Referral Friday is an ongoing series inspired by John Jantsch's Make-a-Referral Week. For more about that, and loads more referrals for everything from cobblers to coaches to gee-tar teachers, start here. Pass it on, baby!
My friend, the brilliant, talented and all-around-awesome Gretchen Rubin, has a new book called The Happiness Project coming out. In December. That's over four months from now.
But I want you to buy it now, anyway. Why?
I'll tell you:
1. Pre-sales sell more books. Well, that's what they tell me, and who am I to argue. Plus, it makes sense. Sell out the first edition lickety split, your publisher is gonna be all, "Day-um! We need to print more of these here things!"
2. Sales keep readers in good books. This is kind of a no-brainer, but as an aspiring author of books people actually pay for, I feel it bears repeating.
3. This is one good f*cking book. I'm just over five chapters into it and it rocks. Seriously. A great mix of humor, insight, wisdom and (hallelujah) actionable info sans preachy-fussy sidebar lists of prescriptives. You can just read the hell out of this book, or you can read the hell out of it and pluck out a bunch of good ideas to try yourself. Inspiration, entertainment and utility, ding ding ding ding! We have a winner!
4. I pre-ordered it. Before I even asked if I could get a galley. Because I knew it would be one good f*cking book and I want to support that. (I also pre-ordered Chris Brogan & Julien Smith's Trust Agents for the same reason. I should have done for Hugh MacLeod's Ignore Everybody but I dropped the ball on that. I'm an ass; Hugh, you're the tits, and I still cherish my deconstructed business card. Plus all your creativity posts that inspired me to start blogging way back when.
5. If enough people buy it, maybe they'll send Gretchen on a junket. If you've ever met Gretchen, you'll understand. If you haven't, you should order it so maybe you'll get a chance to.
6. Because you might write a book someday and you're going to want people supporting you by pre-ordering your book. Karma, baby.
7. Because I'm definitely writing a book someday, and soon, and I need all the good juju I can get.
8. She didn't ask me to. Well, she didn't ask me specifically. Nor did she ask me to write this post asking all of you. As one who is regularly pummeled by often boorish requests, I think grace and restraint should be rewarded.
9. The subtitle is awesome: "Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun." This, too, happens far too infrequently, so its awesomeness should be rewarded.
10. I can buy more books to review. That's right, baby! Every book link in here takes you straight to Amazon and nets me a few cents. Believe it or don't, they add up enough to buy me a book or two every quarter. The more books I read, the better the chance I can tell you about more good books. Plus, they make me either smarter or angrier, either (or both) of which make me a much better blogger.
And while you're there, feel free to continue shopping, so any money you're throwing Amazon's way has them throwing a little bit towards me. And if every little bit helping doesn't do it for you, look at it this way: my birthday is right around the corner...
xxx
c