Chas Freeman book: Buy it on Amazon!

We’ve done it! The paperback version of Amb. Chas Freeman’s book, America’s Misadventures in the Middle East, is now available for purchase through Amazon. The paperback, hardcover, and e-book versions of the book will all be available through other sales channels in the near future. But for now, you can be the first on your block to order Amb. Freeman’s fabulous book, which is an author-curated compilation of his essays—many of them previously unpublished—on U.S. policy in the Middle East from 1990 through 2010.
The three titles that will follow Freeman’s from Just World Books in Fall 2010 are all books that bloggers on foreign affairs have “self-curated” from among their own best previous oeuvre. You can find the whole line-up on this page on our website. Just World Books’s stated goal is to publish “Timely Books for Changing Times”– and I hope you agree with me that all these books certainly fit that category!
I hope, obviously, that you buy– and enjoy!–Freeman’s book. (Buy lots of copies! It will make a great holiday gift for friends and family!)
Sadly, the way we are producing the book means that Amazon won’t allow us to discount it. But if you buy multiple copies, at least you can save some on the shipping costs… no small matter, these days.
Also, I am not sure yet how the availability of the book to non-U.S. destinations will be organized. If you live in such a place and have any problems ordering it, let me know. I am hoping that my deal with Amazon will also put the book onto Amazon.co.uk, but I need to figure that out.
In addition, I would really welcome any help you could give in spreading the word about this important book. Here are some ways you might do this:

* Write a customer review on the book’s Amazon page; or at least, scroll down to the Custmer Reviews section and give a thumb’s-up to the reviews that boost the book!
* Write about it in print, or in any on-line forum you belong to. (If you have a blog or website, contact my margeting guy, Brooke Heaton, to get a blog badge that you can put onto any kind of website, that will link to the book. Sometimes, you can even get credit from amazon for doing this!)
* We’ll be happy to send you a stack of 20 copies of the great postcard we have, that advertises all our Fall 2010 titles. Once again, just contact us.
* Go to your local bookstore and ask them to order in a few copies of the book– for you and your friends. (We get less royalties if the book is sold this way– but the exposure is great!)
* Write about the book’s appearance on your Facebook or Twitter page. Link to our Facebook page, and the info it will soon have up about the Freeman book. If you don’t have Facebook or Twitter accounts, make sure you tell the people in your family who do have accounts to post something about this book.

I am really psyched that we got the book onto the Amazon site and available for purchase today. The publishing model I created eight months ago and have been following ever since promises most of our authors a maximum three-month turnaround time from the date we accept their manuscript to the date it is available for purchase. When I created the model, I still wasn’t sure we could do it. Now, we have! Of course, it helped a lot that Freeman’s manuscript was beautifully written and altogether in great shape. It came in to me on July 7, and I accepted it for publication almost immediately.
And now it’s a book. Wow.
… Now, our editing and layout teams are hard at work on the other three books in the Fall list. They’re doing a fabulous job– professional, and deeply committed to our goal of speedy turnaround.
Have you checked the website recently? We’ve been putting a lot of new content up there, including a couple more podcasts over the past two weeks, news about our authors’ continued blogging and writing activities, and some of the great advance praise we’ve already received for Laila El-Haddad’s Gaza Mom book…