The Wistful and the Good is Published

Plus my plan for this newsletter going forward

As of today, the Wistful and the Good is available in eBook and paperback in many (though alas not all) of the places that fine books are sold. (That is, you won’t currently find it in bookstores.) But you can order it from most places people order ebooks from, or a paperback from Amazon. I also plan to do an audiobook version, but I haven’t quite started that yet.

A couple of weeks ago I asked you where I should go with this newsletter. I am deeply grateful to all those who responded, both in the comments and to me personally. It has really helped me to set a direction going forward.

Many of you expressed appreciation for my essays on literature, history, and publishing, so those will continue.

Many of you said that you were more interested in the essays than in the fiction. That’s totally fine, and it lines up with what Elle Griffin had observed about her newsletter. Obviously enough, someone can be interested in literature, history, and publishing generally without being interested in one particular book in a particular genre. Other people may just like reading fiction without reflecting on the generalities and outside issues that the essays deal with. The audiences, I suspect, overlap, but they are not the same.

While the majority of those of you who are interested in the fiction said they would prefer to have the book as a whole (hence the decision to publish now) a substantial minority said they preferred the serial format. For that reason, I will continue to serialize the novel here. Whether I also serialize the sequels in the same way is something yet to be determined.

Since I now know that my audience has different interests, I am going to start using the Substack “sections” feature, which will allow you to subscribe to just the type of content you are interested in. I’ll give you the details on that later once I figure it out myself. I may also move my travel posts, currently still running on my blog, over into a newsletter section.

So that’s the latest generation of the plan. Please buy the book, if you prefer to read the story in that form. Or continue to follow the serial if you prefer. Please share it with anyone you think might be interested.

I hate to shill for reviews. I really do. But Amazon reviews are a cruel necessity for an author today. Its much less about how the reviews influence potential buyers and much more about how they influence the Amazon algorithm. Books without reviews don’t get much daylight. So if you like the book, please give it a review. Be honest. I really don’t think false praise does anyone any good, and it would embarrass me anyway.

If anyone wants to do a full review for a different publication (this is what the words “book review” used to mean!) drop me a line and I will get a review copy to you. Thanks.