I just wanted to stop by and let everyone know that, for the remainder of 2/20 all the way to the end of 2/26, all proceeds from the sale of Mooncalves (that is to say, all money not tied up in shipping costs) will be donated to trans support charities across the pond – Galop UK, and the Scottish Trans Alliance. This goes for digital as well as hardcover orders.
I’ll tally up sales at the end of the week and split the pot between the two. I’m hoping I can raise at least $500.
If you’ll allow me explanation of this decision: God knows the state of protection and support for trans people is bad all over right now, and fascist assaults on them are underway all throughout the United States, but TERFism (we at NO long for its death) was first made urbane and anodyne-seeming in the UK and exported to us here in the US, through popular genre publishing no less. I want to help where that rotted seed took root, and also to spit in the eye of self-satisfied manufacturers of consent in any small way I can.
I don’t make the money of a children’s fiction behemoth, but I want to support, materially, however I can. Trans people have graced my life in my family, as friends, as co-conspirators, and as features in the tapestry of daily life in the places I have lived. They do not deserve the bullshit they’re subject to. They never have and they never will.
Speaking personally, and to be perfectly direct on this subject: I believe the vector through which the project of anti-Trans genocide has spread its poison in America, and the pretense by which the managerial center comprising our Democratic party has reneged on meaningful opposition to it, has been the centrist compromise with the right wing that parents of children should have an immutable and privileged control over the lives (often literally) of those children. By this dogma the experiences, decisions, thoughts, and desires of children are the last possible thing considered. This is the liberal compromise that has led to this point.
To that end, I recommend that anyone read the work of Sophie Lewis and other scholars and journalists in the field of family abolition. This radical program sites, in part, the construction of the family unit as essential to oppression and abuse. The reality of this idea can be plainly seen in our current march toward principled, policy-enabled genocide. I just wanted to make that clear. Family abolition now.
Beyond that, it’s been a month since the release of Mooncalves as a book sold here on the NO site, and as of this writing I’ve sold 130 of the 250 hardcover copies I’ve had made. I consider that a healthy number, and the proceeds are likewise healthy; NOPE#2, Adam Golaski’s collection Stone Gods, is well-funded and moving at a brisk pace by this point, and I am looking into more projects in the coming year. More on that as it develops.
It’s worth mentioning, if it was not already clear, that the digital version of the book is now on sale through the NO Press site. It will be available for Kindle devices in the US and UK on March 6th. Though obviously, I make more if you buy from here 😉 I’ve looked into the possibility of an audiobook, but given the wide range of voices and perspectives brought to the stories, I’m not sure what the best practice is there.
In terms of continuing marketing efforts, I’m just about to pull the trigger on some good old-fashioned ads but have also booked two podcast appearances, one a grand and humbling showcase of Mooncalves (including author readings) on the mighty Outer Dark podcast, and a critical conversation on the Elder Sign podcast regarding Mooncalves contributor Brian Evenson’s classic story “Windeye”, which will also hopefully serve to expose our book to the masses.
I also have a short interview with dear Brian to do a little editing on and to post here, following last week’s talk with the magnificent Christi Nogle.
Thanks to everyone for making Mooncalves a success. I am beyond humbled. It simply does not feel real. As I write this, I’m waiting for new shipping boxes to arrive, as with 130 units sold, I am exactly one (1) order confirmed beyond my current stock of shipping materials. But that, and any new orders put in to support those wonderful trans causes, will be going out ASAP.
Until next time!
John WM Thompson, Proprietor and Haunted Thing