Preparations

Tomorrow is the day. Tomorrow morning at 8 am we’ll re-open the Schlock store and begin selling the next Schlock Mercenary book. So much depends upon the book selling well enough. 600 books sold is critical. If we don’t sell that many, then we’ll have to borrow money to pay the printer. That would be a disaster. 1800 books sold is the happy dance number. That is the point at which we’ll have paid for the print run and gotten enough money to pay all our bills for the next six months.

It would be so wonderful if we sell enough books tomorrow that I can stop worrying about money.

I spent all day today doing preparatory tasks. I did accounting. I emailed all the people who contributed to the book to tell them that they’ll be getting free copies. I didn’t email people who contributed and are local because I plan to hand out those books in person. If your name appears in the book, you’re due a free copy and I need your mailing address. (Or a reminder the next time we see each other.)

Most important, I closed the online store and set it up with the new merchandise. At 8 am tomorrow it will re-open. Then Howard and I will start playing “click.” It is the game where we keep hitting refresh to see how many orders have come in during the last few minutes. I hope we click all the way up to our goal tomorrow. I hope. I hope. I hope.