The Curious Case of the Release Date & Giveaway

This morning, I spent some time at the Borders in the next town over. I had two coupons for 33% off 1 item that expired today. For those of you who are Borders Rewards Members (this is free) it's possible to get 2 coupons - 1 should arrive in your email; the other can be found by following @Borders on Twitter. The coupons have different codes. If you use them in the store, you'll have to go the register 2 times and use each coupon separately. It works. However, that's not the point of this post.

On my releases list for July 2010, I listed Shadow of the Vampire by Meagan Hatfield as a July 1st release. Online, Borders.com, Amazon.com list the release date as July 1, 2010. BarnesandNoble.com lists the release date as June 29, 2010. Meagan Hatfield, at her website, lists a release date of July 1, 2010.

I asked a Borders employee why the book was already out? I'm sort of obsessive about buying books ON or AFTER their release date. The employee checked their internal system and said it was released last week on June 22, 2010.

So I called Harlequin Books. It is a July title, however stores can sell the book starting June 22, 2010. So no foul on the part of Borders. I picked up a copy. But we all know or have a vague idea that books sold on or during the first week of release are the ones counted for various bestseller lists. And I'll never understand how preorders figure into this. Calculating bestsellers is arcane, I don't understand it, and I never, ever will. This is why I buy on release date if I can. Frankly, they'd save us all a lot of trouble if they started counting sales during the week before release date since so few books have what is called a hard release date. The book in that case can not be placed out for sale before that date.

So because I picked up Shadow of the Vampire early (at least in my mind). I'm going to give away a copy that I will purchase on or shortly after July 1.

Even vampires should never sleep with the enemy.

Vampire princess Alexia Feodorovna has been undead or 125 years, so it's been a while since any man has made her pulse race. Until Declan Black. One look at his bronzed body and a fire like no other consumes her. Then she discovers that he's a dragon lord come to take revenge on the vamps who killed his parents. And claim a crystal said to imbue its owner with incredible powers.

Alexia is ordered to torture and kill the dragon lord. Yet with each reckless encounter, she finds herself consumed by his fiery passion. A passion Declan battles, as well. Will he be able to resist the fire of lust she kindles within him and keep revenge in his heart? Or will he risk everything to quench the burning desire and claim the vampire as his own?


For a chance to win Shadow of the Vampire leave a comment telling The Qwillery about your release date or not buying habits. Do you try to buy releases of your favorite authors on the release date? Do you even pay attention to release dates?

If you tweet the contest, we’ll give you another entry for the tweet as well. You can tweet as much as you like, but it only counts once. If you also mention the contest on Facebook, we’ll give you another entry. You can mention it on Facebook a zillion times, but you only get one extra entry. You can also mention the contest on your blog (it must be your blog) to get another entry. So you can get your name entered a maximum of 4 times (comment, tweet, FB mention, blog mention). Provide us a link in the comments so we know that you tweeted or Facebooked or blogged.

The contest is open to all humans on the planet earth with a mailing address. Contest ends at 11:59pm Eastern Time on Friday, July 2, 2010.