I'm sitting here with a finished book. It's done. It's edited. And last night I was supposed to load the final file up to complete the pre-order process. Except that didn't happen. I screwed up, and now the pre-order for Power Down is off.
An explanation.
I'd been watching my deadline. I'd been editing toward that date. Or, I was editing to what I thought was that date. Turns out I was off by a couple of hours. Amazon asks that final manuscripts be loaded into its systems by 11:59 p.m. three days before the pre-order date. I was releasing Power Down in Nov. 1. So, I was operating under the assumption that I had until 11:59 last night to get the file loaded. I'd received emails reminding me of that. I'd checked my author dashboard. I kept seeing 11:59 p.m. What I didn't see, though, and where I screwed up, was that the time was actually 11:59 p.m. GMT. Greenwich Mean Time. London. Five hours ahead of Dallas. So, when I sat down last night at 9 p.m., I was already two hours late.
I called Amazon. I asked for grace, but none was extended. There was nothing the woman on the other end of the phone could do. The pre-order was going to be canceled.
So, if you were one of the people who'd already pre-ordered the book, I apologize. My mistake means you won't get your copy right away. I hope you will buy it again once the book officially goes live. That should be a day or two after the first of the month.
That's it. I'm frustrated that I didn't pay better attention. I'm slightly frustrated that there's little give in Amazon's rules, but I understand why there can't be. But mostly, I'm mad at myself that I've let readers down.
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