Help Me Fill The Map and Get Some Fun Mail in Return/What Boys Learn Pre-Order Campaign

I've got books and swag to share; find out why I'm focusing on local bookstores

My first event is tomorrow, online. If you have some free time in the morning (Pacific time) or just after lunch (on the East coast), click the button to register!

I have gone from pre-pub Zen to pre-pub ZOINKS.

At the close of my last newsletter, in which I explained how I sold nearly 7,000 copies of The Deepest Lake in one week and still missed the bestseller list, I claimed to be ready to unplug, settle down, and get back to the task of writing.

And in some ways, I have. I’m making excellent progress on my next novel, a Gothic historical horror novel about women artists in a spooky mansion on a small, storm-tossed island (which happens to look like the island where I live, conveniently). I’d taken the novel apart at the seams earlier this year, and I’m glad I did. The new draft is working much better and I am having fun.

At the same time, I am gearing up for the Jan 6 release of WHAT BOYS LEARN, my mother-son thriller set on Chicago’s ritzy North Shore suburbs, where I grew up. I’ve never set a novel close to my childhood home town. Not very nice of me to fill a North Shore novel with murderers!

But, getting to the main storyline of today’s newsletter…

My distribution at the moment is lopsided.

B&N has ordered a fair number of hardcovers, but I’m not satisfied with shipments to independent, i.e. non-chain bookstores, and that’s a shame. I had two Indie Next books that made the ABA list, the last one, called Behave, came out…(does math in head)…ten years ago. Crikeys.

Maybe I’ve done an insufficient job cultivating relations with indie bookstores, even though I love indie bookstores and wouldn’t be a writer without them. Maybe it has nothing to do with me. Hardcovers are hard to stock and hard to sell; lots of bookstores and even Amazon are making smaller orders of new books. But the irony is that if your hardcovers don’t sell, stores don’t stock your paperbacks.

In my last newsletter, I opined that it was beyond an author’s power to move thousands of books. But I do believe there are smaller levers we can pull—and here’s the one I want to focus on now, with your help: pre-orders at local bookstores.

Even one book pre-order at a local bookshop can send a signal. Multiple copies would be even better. And filling an entire US map of pre-orders—dare I aim for thirty?—would be best of all!

On Dec 15., I happen to be driving from Canada, where postage rates are exorbitantly expensive, to Seattle, where mailing packages is reasonable. That makes it convenient for me to mail supporters some rewards for helping. And I have cool stuff to share! In addition to copies of my backlist titles (everyone who orders a hardcover of What Boys Learn gets to choose a backlist book via the form), I have bookplates and some other surprises.

TA-DAAAAA…a pre-order campaign is born. The first one I have ever tried.

I started it quietly last week, with direct requests to a few people, just to make sure I could get a few pre-orders placed, so the map wouldn’t be *BLANK* before I rolled it out more publicly. It’s hard to do something visible like this. Everyone will see if you fail!

Here’s where we are now, a week after I hatched this scheme.

I am really happy with that map. Look at all the fun bookstores! I’ve had a great time looking them up, one by one, as readers filled out my pre-order form.

Before you know it, I will have a dream map for some future cross-country bookstore-to-bookstore drive, from Elliott Bay Books in Seattle to Tombolo Books in Florida! From Mrs. Dalloway’s (cool name) in Berkeley to Harriett’s (named after Harriett Tubman) in Philadelphia!

(By the way, if you have already pre-ordered my book from anywhere—indie, B&N or even Amazon, do let me know via the same form so I can send my thanks and a bookplate! I am grateful to you as well. I am also grateful to anyone who has ordered the book via their library. It all helps!)

Here’s where I’d love to be in two weeks, map-wise.

Dreams are awkward, aren’t they? You have to aim big, you have to experiment, you have to risk failure.

Oh darn, it sounds like writing a book.

I mean, YAY! It sounds like writing a book!

One aspect of this campaign is that I promise to share how it all went—what I learned, why I did it, what worked and didn’t work—for those interested. The form has a spot for indicating if you’re one of my readers who wants behind-the-scenes info I can’t share via public newsletter.

Haven’t checked out the form yet? Here it is again.

I also have a smaller Canada campaign in progress, focused on the Chapters/Indigo stores, though I’m beyond thrilled with any local Canadian bookstore pre-order. If you’re in Canada, send me a note, and I’ll explain more.

I have a final nuclear option as well, which I am simply calling “Campaign Number 3” for now. Please don’t make me push that button. We don’t need to talk about that one until January.

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Thanks for reading. I’ll close out with a recent review. So far, we’re running 4/4—I’ve received four trade reviews, all incredibly positive, including two starred reviews.

My publisher provides me with blurb images, but I can’t stay off Canva. I’m also an incorrigible sticker designer, as you will see if you pre-order a book. Go figure.

Andromeda Romano-Lax is the author of seven novels, a travel narrative, and a dozen other nonfiction travel and natural history books. She is also a book coach and developmental editor who works with select novelists and memoirists. See her website for more coaching details. She will be a guest instructor on the Queen Mary 2 Writing+Publishing Voyage with Allison K. Williams and Jessica Berg, in September 2026. Curious about it? Sign up for the online Open House on Dec 6.