TSK:B opens at 28th on NYT extended list!

A number of people on my friends list have almost certainly already posted this, but just in case you haven't seen it yet...

Quoting Lois McMaster Bujold:

...Is that enough acronyms for everyone?

For the opening week of sales, _The Sharing Knife, vol. 1: Beguilement_ has appeared at #28 on the New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller extended list. This is the list that will appear, eventually, dated 10/29 and covering sales the week ending Oct. 14, so this is advance word. (The list currently up on the Times website is for the sales week ending Oct. 7, and datelined Oct. 22, which I presume is the date it will appear in their paper edition.)

This is the kind of news one's excited editor calls one up and tells the writer personally, rather than sending a mere e-mail. Because it's a feather in her cap, as well -- and as well it should be.

But mostly, I want to thank you all, because for all the hopeful efforts at promotion a publisher may attempt, the real results are up to the readers. *You guys* did this, and I am very grateful.

The NYT extended list is a peculiar institution. I'd never even heard of it, despite having a writing career for a decade and a half when _A Civil Campaign_ first cracked it. My then-excited editor had to explain it all to me when she called. The Big List, as it's commonly dubbed, and which appears in bookstores, libraries, and newspapers all over the country for the sort of free publicity no money can buy, is everyone's gold ring. It covers the books ranked from 1 to 15. The extended list goes to 33. Until the era of websites, the only folks who saw this extension were the booksellers. Now, it was and is important there, because it gives them a heads-up which books to watch, but it doesn't supply that extra turbo-boost on the readers' side that cracking the top 15 does. But these days, the extended list is getting around more, and isn't quite so obscure.

Keep that sample chapter URL circulating:

Sample Chapters

Ta, L. (Chuffed!)