ell, okay, it’s in SOME stores and my publishers tell me it should be more widely available within the next week or two. Plus, of course, it’s for sale on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Ignore the promotional text on Amazon (somehow unvetted text was uploaded at some point and we’ve had trouble getting it updated). I couldn’t be more pleased to finally be touching a hard copy. This probably sounds crazy, but I never printed out any of the text while writing the book and so only now have something tangible in hand.

Also, many thanks to Cory Doctorow for the stunning review on BoingBoing today. I’m humbled and grateful.

he book is all laid out now and just about to head out to the printers. I’m told I’ll have a hard copy in hand by mid-September. It’s great that book publishing is finally allowing authors to contribute to conversations in close to real time, but now that the pages are out of my hands, I’m already feeling that angst that comes with not being able to change or add to what I’ve already submitted. I’ll use the pages of this blog to record ongoing points that seem most pertinent. As always, I welcome comments and encourage any readers to add thoughts to any blog posts new or old. I’ll be adding a feature to these pages that allows me to point to these ongoing dialogues.

here were days when I doubted that the book would ever be completed, but my publisher not only now has all chapters in hand, most of them are already laid out. Working with Peachpit/New Riders has been a pure pleasure and I’m happy to report that books will be on shelves in early September. I’ll have a link to Amazon here on the blog shortly. Also, I’ll be posting a few more chapters and some select content to the blog over the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned.

f you’re in the Bay Area, the Independent Press Association has invited me to be the guest speaker at their upcoming Indy Press Thursday, May 18th, at Stacey’s Bookstore, 581 Market Street, San Francisco, 5:30-7pm. I’ll be discussing the role blogs and social networks are playing in today’s publishing world. It’s a daunting topic. I’ll only have time to touch on the most important areas of interest and hope to learn from the publishers generally in attendance at these events. If you’d like to attend, the IPA asks that you RSVP either by phone (415.445-0230 x100) or email (members@indypress.org).

Should anyone be interested in reading a bit about the history of open discourse through the ages, I’ve just posted a draft of chapter two, The Urge to Publish is Universal and Irrepressible. I’m inviting comments, so do feel free to call it as you see it.