Today I'm releasing the ebook of my novel TRIBES worldwide (except Canada*). It will be the fifth ebook of my backlist that I've released so far. To recap here are the others:
I've really enjoyed the challenge of understanding how to create and market ebooks and of working with the various distributors. On a "gee where is my career going" level, it has been an experience to reread these books from my past. Some are even as old as fourteen. I mean that's grade nine for Pete's sake!
TRIBES is a short novel, weighing in at a little over 25,000 words, but it is dense with ideas: evolution, big bang, first love, suicide, grad week shenanigans. I still remember writing a note to myself that went something like this: anthropological study of high school students big bang science stuff. That's about how much sense my notes make sometimes. But soon Percy the anthropologist wannabee was appearing on the page telling me all about his high school and the dangerous tribes that lurked inside it: The Lipstick and Hairspray tribe, The Hockey Tribe, The Gee-The-Seventies-Were-Great-Even-Though-I-Wasn't-Born-Yet Tribe.
If I am allowed to have favourites out of my sixteen novels, this one is near the top. I just loved the way Percy's mind worked, his obsessive and tragic need to catalogue every experience. On another level I had always hoped for more for this novel. Just before it was going to be released there was a real buzz about the book (Spike Lee's movie company came close to optioning it and selling it to Disney) and both my editor and agent felt the book would really make a splash. It did well, was nominated for several awards, and grew a following, but it never really knocked on the door of true success. That's why I'm happy to have it out there as an ebook. We all deserve a second chance. In fact I'm big on third chances, too.
And I must say I adore the new cover created by Christopher Steininger. I had absolute confidence in his skills to create a brilliant piece of artwork and he didn't disappoint.
Just click here for the official TRIBES page.It is available on Kindle and iBooks (and soon B&N and Kobo) for the existentially low price of $2.99.
*TRIBES. is not available in Canada at this point as an ebook, but is available in paper at fine bookstores everywhere.