Taking Delivery of the First Edition 1000
Writing in the previous post about the Lexicon's first edition reminds me of the experience when my wife and I brought home the one thousand.
The shipment had arrived at a warehouse a few towns over. We drove over in the Chevy cargo van I had inherited. The warehouse man was a little skeptical. We were dumb, thinking in terms of volume; if he had pushed a bit more, mentioning "weight," we would have looked it up in the manual.
We loaded all the boxes into the van. "See, it fits!" When we got onto the freeway, it seemed like we should've taken surface streets, because we had no pep.
We got to the apartment building. We carried the first boxes up the stairs, living on the second floor. Then followed box after box. But after a few trips we started laughing, more and more, each box. It was such joy. We had worked for years, and now the manuscript was an artifact, an actual book.
We had nearly ruined the van; our one-bedroom apartment was now hosting the 1000. But it was a big milestone.
Even better, the advance sales! Following a big pre-pub push, nearly 80 people had bought the Lexicon sight unseen. That was almost 10% of the total 1000! We thought, "Once people have seen the Lexicon, it will sell like crazy! We will be having a second printing in a year or two."
Well, that part didn't happen. But still, the adventure and joy of bringing home the first edition!
The shipment had arrived at a warehouse a few towns over. We drove over in the Chevy cargo van I had inherited. The warehouse man was a little skeptical. We were dumb, thinking in terms of volume; if he had pushed a bit more, mentioning "weight," we would have looked it up in the manual.
We loaded all the boxes into the van. "See, it fits!" When we got onto the freeway, it seemed like we should've taken surface streets, because we had no pep.
We got to the apartment building. We carried the first boxes up the stairs, living on the second floor. Then followed box after box. But after a few trips we started laughing, more and more, each box. It was such joy. We had worked for years, and now the manuscript was an artifact, an actual book.
We had nearly ruined the van; our one-bedroom apartment was now hosting the 1000. But it was a big milestone.
Even better, the advance sales! Following a big pre-pub push, nearly 80 people had bought the Lexicon sight unseen. That was almost 10% of the total 1000! We thought, "Once people have seen the Lexicon, it will sell like crazy! We will be having a second printing in a year or two."
Well, that part didn't happen. But still, the adventure and joy of bringing home the first edition!
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