500 Books

I am a follower, fan and social media friend of Matt Oswalt. He’s an incredibly witty, creative fellow whose endeavors I make a point of following so I was intrigued when he announced that he would be publishing a coffee table book of hauntingly sad, lonely liquor stores and other melancholy places. 

He financed the book through crowd-funding, as one does nowadays and it was a sizable, deserved success. On Facebook he shared a photo of the boxes upon boxes of photography books he had published and would be sending out in the weeks and months ahead. 

My immediate response was, “Wow, that is a staggering amount of books. I am so glad that I do not need to send out 800 books by myself.” Then I realized that while that’s technically true, in the sense that I have not reached 800 pre-sales for The Weird Accordion to Al book I have sold over five hundred copies of the Weird Accordion to Al book through its fabulously, surprisingly successful Kickstarter launch and then through a secondary Backerkit campaign that’s still open and has awesome rewards above and beyond the book itself. 

As a 22 year veteran of pop culture media just barely holding on I am overjoyed that the crowd-funding campaign did well enough to finance the physical production of the book and its rewards and allow me to remain a full-time pop culture writer for at least one more year. 

Once upon a time I dreamed of best-sellers and speaking tours and building an empire. These days my overarching goal is to make enough money through the fruits of my labor that I can continue to live my dream of being a full-time writer. It’s not about having more, doing more. It’s about not losing what I have, and appreciating that incredible, never-ending gift that is being able to do what you love for an audience that understands and appreciates you.

As the President, CEO and owner of Declan-Haven publishing, I am psyched that the Weird Accordion to Al pre-sales campaign did so well. As the person in charge of paying for the publication of all those books, and the signing of all of those books, and then paying the postage on all of those books and all of those rewards, I can’t help but be struck by the enormous amount of labor involved in the Weird Accordion to Al book campaign above and beyond the extraordinary amount of work involved in making the book a glorious reality. 

At the risk of engaging in an epic humblebrag, it’s crazy to think that I might spend an entire goddamn day just autographing books. A whole day! Five hundred books is a fuck-ton of books just to sign. A motherfucker is going to have Carpal tunnel syndrome and shit! Can you even imagine how tired my arm is going to be after signing all those books? 

At the same time, holy shit is that a great problem to have. I cannot wait to have all of those books printed up and sent to my house so that they can be an overwhelming presence, and an epic challenge and, then, gloriously and eventually and inevitably sending them out will be something that I have done and can cross off my list. 

My therapist, who I suspect has read the same Eckhart Tolle books that I have, since she certainly uses the lingo, likes to talk about “energy of completion.” It’s the wonderful, deeply satisfying feeling of accomplishment you feel when you finally finish something that you’ve been doggedly plugging away at for ages, when you can officially move some epic task from the “to do” to “done” side of life’s big ledger. 

I experienced the energy of completion when, after nearly three years, I finally finished The Weird Accordion to Al book and have a draft final enough to send Al for fact-checking along with all 52 of Felipe Sobreiro’s amazing illustrations, a sampling of which you can find in this article. I will also experience that energy when the boxes upon boxes of The Weird Accordion to Al book reach my home, to be stored in my baby’s nursery, autographed and then sent out to readers over a period of days and weeks. It’s going to be a huge, exhausting physical challenge but one I not only look forward to but actively embrace. 

The Weird Accordion to Al book is a book, first and foremost but as a “Weird Al” Yankovic collector I also very overtly designed it to be a collector’s item, something you can have Al sign, or me sign, and display proudly in a place of distinction in your home. So it makes all the sense in the world for it to be a physical book and not just an e-book like my last two projects.

That said, I’m going to need to take some time off to handle the physical demands of the Weird Accordion to Al book release. It would be absolutely impossible to send out hundreds of books and other goodies, hopefully promote the book and keep up a vigorous publishing schedule on the site at the same time so I am regrettably going to have to take a little time off to do justice to the Weird Accordion to Al book and all the people who have pre-ordered it.

Holy shit is it exciting. And humbling. And flattering all at the same time. It’s a whole different, bigger deal than doing online-only book-type thingies like 7 Days in Ohio and Kanye & Trump. 

I could not be more thrilled or nervous to be starting the process of putting a book out all over again even if this promises to be markedly different, and roughly five thousand times more physically time-consuming and exhausting but that is a price I am more than willing to pay for the pleasure and the privilege and honor of putting out books, real books you can hold in your lap and keep in your bathroom and everything, about things that I love for an audience that I adore and look forward to hopefully making very happy in the weeks and months ahead.

Help ensure a future for the Happy Place by pledging over at https://www.patreon.com/nathanrabinshappyplace
And of course the Weird Accordion to Al book campaign is wide open, and has neat rewards beyond the book itself https://make-the-weird-accordion-to-al-book-a-ridiculous-r.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

AND y’all can get in on the ground motherfucking floor of the podcast revolution that is https://www.patreon.com/TravoltaCage