Fobbit has been ISBN'ed

Sound the trumpets!  Load the glitter cannons!  Release the doves!

Fobbit has been ISBN'ed (and yes, Mr. Grammarian, I'm verbing a noun).  Yesterday, in the midst of performing my regular ego-browse of the internet (what? you don't do a daily Google search for your name?), I learned that my novel about the Iraq War has now been assigned an International Standard Book Number,* which really makes this whole publishing dream feel like it just took one giant step into Realityville.

Getting an ISBN means the book is now popping up in places where you can pre-order the 384 pages which took me six years to write, edit and polish.  Places like:

Barnes and Noble

Amazon

There's still no Fobbit link at IndieBound, but hopefully it will be showing up there soon.

If ordering from a faceless online bookseller is not your kind of thing, I'd encourage you to visit your local bookstore and/or library and start Fobbitting them now (calm down, Mr. Grammarian).

Like the above-pictured doves, Fobbit will fly out into the world about six months from now, but if you'd like to pre-order it at one of the online merchants, you have my sincerest thanks.  Pre-orders are important to the life of a book (especially for a debut novelist like myself who has written a comedy about war--something I'm sure many Americans don't find funny).  Why the big fuss over pre-orders?  I'll let my friend Sophie Perinot explain in her most-informative blog post "Not All Sales Are Created Equal—What Your Writer Friends Wish You Knew But Are Too Polite to Tell You."  Bottom line: pre-orders influence print runs which impact the visible presence of a book upon its release which in turn translates to staying power.  So, with your pre-order click, you'll be doing your part to help Fobbit get a firm foothold on that uphill climb. (By the way, Sophie's debut novel--The Sister Queens--just launched yesterday.  If you like royal-court intrigue mixed with sibling rivalry, this has your name written all over it.)

Thanks again to everyone who has emailed me words of congratulations and encouragement in the past few months.  Your verbal cheerleading for Fobbit means more to me than I could ever express.  I'll fire off a few rounds from the glitter cannon today in your honor.

*10-digit version: 0802120326, 13-digit version: 978-0802120328.