I Need Your Help

Hello, friends, fans, and well-wishers.  (Cue Moe Szyslak: "I'm more of a well-wisher, in that I don't wish you any specific harm.")
I need your help.  

I am hoping to draw on whatever good will I've generated with my work or my sparkling personality to get your assistance.  This is my George Bailey moment.

Kind of.  I didn't make it possible for you to buy your house or make sure my town didn't become a den of vice and iniquity.  And I'm not facing prison time because my stupid uncle got a wad of money stolen by old man Potter.

But my writing career is pretty precarious right now.  I need your help to rescue it.

The bottom line is that publishers are running out of patience with my lack of commercial success.

My name has been associated with low sales for quite a while now.  DONORBOY is pretty much the only one of my books to sell decently, and that came out in 2004.

With the new book, TESSA MASTERSON WILL GO TO PROM,
Barnes & Noble won't stock it because our previous collaboration didn't sell well.  Thus ensuring that this book is not getting into about 700 bookstores nationwide. Thus kind of reducing its chances of selling well.  The phrase "downward spiral" has been used. 

So, yeah. My career is kind of in a death spiral right now.  And I really need your help to pull out. Seriously.  If you've ever enjoyed one of my books and you hope to enjoy another one, I need your help with this one. The first print run of TESSA MASTERSON is 2000 copies.  My goal is to sell this out so they have to go back for another printing.

Here's how you, if you are so inclined, can help.

1. Buy the book.

Here are handy links to pre-order the book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powell's, and Indiebound. Pre-ordering will help a lot.  

If you or someone you know is a YA or school librarian, perhaps you could order the book for your collection! 

2.The Library Option

Of course, I know not everybody can buy the book.  That's why we have libraries!  Most libraries allow you to request a book online. Or, better yet, if you're friendly with your YA or school librarian, ask them if they're getting a copy! And when they get it, check it out.  If demand for the book exceeds supply, we can build some momentum with the libraries.

3.The GSA Option

If you are a high school student, teacher, or parent, tell your GSA advisor about the book.  It's our humble hope that this book might be a fun and hopeful read for gay teens and their friends.  I mean, we hope everyone will find it a fun and hopeful read, and early readers have thus far responded very positively.  But we think that GSAs might especially enjoy reading and/or talking about this book and/or visiting or skyping with the authors.  

4.The Celebrity Option

Do you know any celebrities who might enjoy this book and then tweet about it or mention it somewhere?  Let me know. I will send them a signed copy. And not stalk them otherwise.  

5. The Usual Social Network Suspects

If you're on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Goodreads, or any other social networks, a nice mention for our book will be really helpful.

I really appreciate all of your help and support over the years, and I do feel bad asking for stuff directly. I have one more book under contract: ESCAPE FROM ASSLAND, written with Trish Cook and coming next year. I have some other irons in the fire, and haven't exhausted all my options, but if TESSA doesn't sell, there is a real possiblility that ASSLAND will be the last book I get published.  

I don't feel like I've run out of stories to tell.  But I really need a hit, or even a non-miss.  

Please leave a comment if you've got any other great promotional ideas I haven't thought of, or if you just want to give some general encouragement.  I could really use it. 

Thank you!