Posted by Matt Kuhns on Jan 1, 2014
My book Brilliant Deduction has been around for about one year, at this point; there wasn’t really a single “release date” except for formal purposes. It’s been a gratifying year, as I’ve written already. One thing I haven’t noted, though, is the interesting geographic range that my little project has traveled.
Thanks to the marvelous worldcat.org site, one can find library copies of just about any title, sorted by proximity to wherever the site thinks you are. As of today, searching Brilliant Deduction turns up records in 16 libraries. This is not a lot, but it’s fascinating that my words have gone so many places, many of which I’ve never been personally. It can even be found, so the site claims at least, (approximately) 3,000 miles away from me in Wasilla, Alaska. How about that?
Presumably there are more library copies out there, too, as worldcat.org does not seem to list the Lakewood Public Library’s Brilliant Deduction holdings, and I know they have three.
Meanwhile, I have begun writing a second book. Completely different subject matter, but it will be good. Trust me. I completed Part One of Three the day before Christmas, and while it will certainly need a lot of work, I’m making real progress.
Have a great 2014.
Tags: libraries, meta, second book, status update
comment (Comments Off on Happy New Year)
Posted by Matt Kuhns on May 29, 2013
Let’s see, it has been a little more than six months since I launched this blog, a little less since I launched the book it promotes (depending on what action one arbitrarily identifies as the book’s “launch”).
Since then, I have published more than 80 blog posts; spoken at one author event; basked in the glow of a modest but uniformly positive series of reviews; received a variety of interesting communication from readers and other interested parties; handed out a large number of free bookmarks; and recently received my first formal royalty check from lulu.com…
I think that about covers it. I can add that my book is genuinely “out there” and being read; I am absolutely not above checking the new book area at Lakewood’s public library every time I drop by, and as of my last visit both of the main branch’s copies were checked out. Meanwhile, searching the web today led to the discovery that the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System not only has added my book to its collection, but that all four of its copies are out right now. This kind of thing is fun because I didn’t even know where Prince George’s County is. (Apparently Maryland; perhaps the good offices of one of the state’s own accomplished authors at work here…?)
I imagine that this project will have something of an ongoing life for many years… which will be very nice of course given that it will likely be that long before it earns enough to cover my expenses… still, some kind of “mission accomplished” moment does seem to approach. I’ve made my pitch for reviews, and met with gratifying success, but I think at this point I’ve gotten most of those I’m going to get. I will continue some active effort to post new content here until my Author Alley appearance five weeks from now; after that this blog will probably switch over to low-power broadcasting.
After that, I may do some further evaluation of this whole strange affair, though at the moment I feel like it’s turned out a “realistic success.” No TV deal, no Times bestseller list, no windfall income… not even a break-even income as of this writing… but, within the world where all of these things were always long shots and the argument for this project therefore of necessity rested on other, more modest satisfactions… one may admit to feeling a little pleased.
Tags: libraries, meta, status update
comment (Comments Off on State of the project 5/29/13)
comment (Comments Off on Happy New Year)
