Forever Sheriff was published on May 18, 2022.

We knew it, my publisher, my readers (I hesitate to call you fans), and I. Amazon didn’t. Despite having “Publication May 18, 2022” on the book’s page for almost a year, and on that date also, it omitted to drop the pre-order and pre-order price guarantee language on May 18.

By 9:30 a.m., to use language of the latter half of Forever Sheriff, my switchboard lit up.  Ah, I admit to the sin of looking forward to the congratulatory calls.

“There’s no place to post a review.”  “It’s still on pre-order.” “When will it be published?”

To each I explained it was published and they must have accessed a wrong page. Then I went to Amazon.

OMG. True. All true. I found a way to get to a page that would accept a review, but even that small victory was still marred by pre-order calls on the book page. I wrote an anguished and hasty e-mail to my publisher.

Tiffany wrote back almost immediately. “I think your best strategy is to ask all your friends to place orders and swamp them with orders. We don’t know what they are doing.”

Creating a career of building readers for your books is a lot like selling insurance. Once you have worked through family and friends, you are given the opportunity to find out how professional you really are. So, here goes, calling all family and friends.

I was not consciously watching hour by hour, but it started to change. By Thursday morning, all the pre-order language was gone and customers/readers were informed of a ten-day backlog. Pretty good for turning a supply snafu into the appearance of a smashing sell-out. By Friday morning, the first review was up and posted with 5 stars.

So, let’s say “Publication Day” was “Days” and now it is here completing the trilogy of the three Sheriffs Simms. Founding Sheriff, delayed by COVID-19, marched into the emptiness of our times, and a high mountain desert, to bring justice and a system of justice where none had existed before. Fugitive Sheriff avenged his father and remained true to vows he had taken twenty years before. He had the best publication day. A fitting reward. Forever Sheriff proved true to his calling and his heritage, paying no attention to the publication day anxieties. He simply told me to take care of it.

Having a trilogy out is exciting, but that’s a future blog. Read them all. Tell me what you think.