The First Copy.

Here's the first physical copy of my book. Printed in Monee, IL, November 21, 2025. The 5 paperbacks that arrived today don't show the print date; they just say they were printed in Bolton, ON.

It's interesting that a hardcover copy I bought for myself arrived on Thursday, while the 5 author copies ordered on the same day are traveling all across the US. From Liberty, MO, to California, then, after spending 2 days bouncing between different Amazon facilities in Los Angeles, it finally went east, reaching Salt Lake City on November 29th. The last note states that the package has cleared customs in Burlington, ON. Anyone who has read the Adventures of the Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek may recall Švejk's famous anabasis, a long foot journey around Southern Bohemia in a vain attempt to reach České Budějovice. I'm glad I thought about buying one at full price instead of waiting for the author copies to arrive, or else this hardcover, too, would be stuck somewhere between Salt Lake City and Burlington.

Meanwhile, I made a few inquiries about the audiobook, and even heard back from a UK studio. Apparently, a full cast would be quite expensive, as the actors would charge an hourly rate even if their parts amounted to only a few lines. But they can do dual narration (so it won't be the same voice all the time) for £285 per finished hour. (97500 words, assuming 125 to 150 words per minute, that's 11 to 13 finished hours or £3135 to £3705.) That's a bit over my budget, so I'll have to shop around. I could probably handle this rate in US dollars, but not UK pounds.

Thanks again to all who have left revies. Apparently, it takes them about a week to review and approve them. And, for some mysterious reason, they don't synchronize reviews on amazon.com and amazon.ca. If you haven't yet left a review, please consider doing so. If we couldn't get 10 reviews by the end of November, let's aim for 20 by Christmas.

Have a great week.

Leonard.