Publishers Weekly

If anyone in Austin saw a six-foot black man dancing around Border’s Bookstore last night, it was me. Why was I doing my happy dance in the middle of a bookstore? I had just seen my novel previewed in Publishers Weekly.

For those of you that aren’t in the writing business, Publishers Weekly is one of the largest trade magazines covering the book industry. Twice a year, they publish a list of Spring and Fall titles for adult and children’s books. Red Polka Dot was lucky enough to make their “titles to watch” (their words, not mine) list this Fall. It was one of twenty-two novels listed in the Trade Paperback: First Novels list. Now, I don’t know how many first time authors in trade paperback there are, but something tells me that there are more than twenty-two. A lot more than twenty-two.

In the grand scheme of things, this probably isn’t a big deal. Authors get listed in PW every week. But to actually see my name in print…man, there’s no real way to describe it. It’s almost as good as seeing the galley of my novel for the first time.
There are hundreds of things I need to do tonight, but they’ll have to wait. Tonight, I’m hitting the town. There’s only one way to celebrate, and it involves downtown Austin, and lots of beer.