Books, books, and more books
I'm currently on a train heading from New York to DC, after a super fun and busy few days in New York for Book Expo. Tomorrow -- Saturday, June 2nd -- I'll be at Turn The Page bookstore in Boonsboro Maryland, doing a signing with so many amazing authors. The signing starts at noon, and there's a bunch of information about the signing in that link up above. Please come if you're in the area! And then on Sunday, I'm back in New York to be at The Book Con. I'll be at the Romance Candy Crushes event from 2:45 to 3:45, with a bunch of other authors and books and candy, and then at 4:15 I'll be on the Toxic Male Syndrome panel, along with Alisha Rai, Zoey Castille/Zoraida Cordova, Claire Legrand and Sarah Morgan, moderated by Eliza Thompson. I hope to see lots of you there!
This week at BEA and at related book events has been great so far. I got to see and hold a galley of my second book, THE PROPOSAL, for the first time (which is why I look so happy in that picture above)! I got to meet so many great people -- other authors, people who work in publishing, all sorts of people who keep this whole book world afloat. And I got to meet the wonderful Nicole Chung, whose memoir ALL YOU CAN EVER KNOW, comes out in October! Pre-order it!
Speaking of pre-ordering, one of you emailed me a few weeks ago to ask about pre-ordering and why it's so important. This is a great question! (Pre-order links to THE PROPOSAL are all here.) In short, one of the best ways to support authors you like who write books you like (and keep them able to write books) is to pre-order their books. Publishing houses really pay attention to the number of pre-orders a book has, and if there are a lot, or even if there are more than expected, it makes them in turn do a lot more to support that book and that author: more publicity; more marketing; stronger sales efforts; and more book deals. And bookstores also pay attention when they see a book with a lot of pre-orders; a lot of bookstores are very picky about what books they order, especially small independent bookstores that don't have a ton of shelf space and storage space, and pre-orders (and the knowledge that there is an audience for that book) are one of the things that helps them to decide whether to order a title for their store or not. You can pre-order books at your favorite book retailer, including independent bookstores -- you can either do this through Indiebound, or just call or drop in to your bookstore and ask them how to do it. And, if you want a signed copy, you can frequently do that through an indie bookstore too; a lot of authors will have a way for you to call and pre-order a signed book from either their local bookstore or one where they'll have a tour stop. Also, let's not neglect libraries in this; asking your library to order a copy of a book is incredibly valuable for authors, and libraries love it too (I asked some librarians about this just a few weeks ago, and they confirmed that they really appreciate these kinds of patron requests).
Now that I've already given you two books to pre-order in this email, I might as well give you a third. THE KISS QUOTIENT comes out in just a few days, and I think so many of you will love this book! It is about an autistic woman named Stella who hires a male prostitute to teach her how to be better at sex, and so much comes up in the book about how people interact, and race and class and family and shame, and it made me think a lot. But don't just listen to me, it was in the New York Times today! Pre-order it, it's out on Tuesday!
Have a great weekend, everyone! I hope you're reading something great.
Jasmine
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Buy my book, THE WEDDING DATE and pre-order THE PROPOSAL