Double Happiness

Thank you for participating in the launch of Double Happiness!

How did it go? Well, you were amazing! Nearly every First Reader came though on their pledge, and many of you bought multiple copies. In short, we did it — we launched Double Happiness into the world!

Understanding amazon’s enigmatic numbers has been another matter. Having paid attention to what little data I had available to me, I believe the peak was around Sunday afternoon. The “Hot New Releases” list only includes 100 books, not 200, as for some reason I had thought, and I never saw the book break into the top 100. But I did see it climb into the Travel subsection, and it stood in the upper 20s for a while. In Travel / Asia it hit number 1!

Over in the “Best Sellers” section, Double Happiness stood at #3 in Travel / China for two days.

The truth is I don’t have any insight into any sales data that you don’t have. I also don’t know why amazon seemed to categorize Double Happiness with travel guides instead of with other travelogue books. I checked the public pages every hour or so and amazon ranked the books as it saw fit. Perhaps you saw the book hit a higher spot than I did?

I took a snapshot of it at #1:

What a Week

What I want you to know is that it’s been an amazing week.

You were a Kickstarter backer or you were a First Reader or you posted on Facebook and bought copies as gifts, or maybe you did all of those things, or maybe you just forwarded one of my emails to someone you though might be interested. Or maybe you just said a little “I hope that goes well for him,” and did no more. Whatever it was — it was what you could do — I thank you for your help!

For years I hoped this day would come just like this. In my darker moments of doubt, when I wondered if it would come at all, I never believed I could experience this combination of wonder, confusion, delight, hard work, and deep gratitude.

But here it is, and so it is.

The book is out. May the story go forth into the world; it is no longer mine alone. May it help, entertain, enlighten, and, for people seeking one, show an unexpected path to happiness.

With gratitude, relief, and delight,
Tony