Journal

I’m tempted to open a betting pool…

42 Comments

So… how many books will have been pre-ordered by the time I close pre-orders late Friday?

Hint: As of April 30th we’d recieved 1552 pre-orders.

Go ahead and guess. No fee to play, no prize to win.

I’ll go ahead and open with “2001”, because I’m a wishful thinker. Treat that as the extreme upper limit. You are allowed to be more optimistic than me, but we’ll just both end up being wrong together.

–Howard

42 thoughts on “I’m tempted to open a betting pool…”

  1. What are the hours for the Keep again? And where is it? I’ll probably come by tomorrow to preorder a copy.

    1. 11:00am through 7:00pm.

      If you’re planning to pick up your copy at the Keep, you can pre-order there right up until May 19th. Sandra doesn’t need to make mailing lists out of those.

      –Howard

      1. Nope, just checked.

        The radio show first aired in 1978 on BBC Radio 4. The first book was published in 1979. You have to go to the source.

  4. 1552? Seriously? Shit. SHIT. That’s a lotta books. I mean, probably not insofar as the publishing industry is concerned, but if they’re $10 a pop and you make at least $5 profit on each one…

    I hate you, Howard Tayler.

    Also, 1969, dudes!

    1. Yeah… ummm…

      I’m making more than that. With the books that have been sold thus far we have socked away a little more than 4 months of my salary as a cartoonist. Said salary feeds a family of six, and the 4-month run should give me enough time to get the next book out.

      This is what I’m doing for a living. Feel free to hate that. 😉

      –Howard

      2. Ouch, that’s a hard salary to feed 6 on, I mean if you were single it would be doable, but 6 people? Wow. You must be some sort of deific mega-saver god. Then again, I don’t know what your expenses are… but I don’t think I could feed and house 6 on my salary and it would be similiar to you making around 15 dollars a book.

      3. The more dosh coming in the better.
        The book’s worth it, YOU are worth it and I have no regrets about pre-ordering at all.

        Got no complaints about anyone makin’ a livin’ without hurtin’ anyone else at all….

  9. 1812. The last two orders being placed by a Canadian (so he can ceremoniously burn the final one, while still having one to enjoy).

  11. 1645 was a very good year

    Blaise Pascal invented his mechanical calculating machine; Montrose defeated the Covenanters under Argyll at Inverlochy, then defeated them again under Hurry at Auldearn. The House of Lords passed the Self-Denying Ordinance, laying the foundation for the first army officered by professional soldiers instead of by aristocrats. The Treaty of Brömsebro was signed by Sweden and Denmark-Norway, the Maunder Minimum began, and Jeanne Mance founded the North American continent’s first hospital in Montréal. Captain William Kidd was born in Scotland, to become one of the most notorious pirates in history, and the great samurai Miyamoto Musashi died peacefully in Japan after completing his fourth book, the Dokkodo.

    I’ll go for 1645.

  16. Well, someone beat me to 1812, though they got the wrong year if they’re trying to allude to certain events in North America involving fires and national capitals.

    I’ll go with 1882, the year the 1812 Overture was premiered. Replace the field artillery with Schlock’s plasgun.
    (THOOOM! THOOM! THOOM! THOOOOOM!)

    1. Eh, I got the war’s eponymous year. You can have 1813 if you want… I lay no claim to the No-prize for that. 😉

    2. Congratulations. 1882 wins the pool, being the closest to 1884.

      Email me your Paypal reciept (I assume you pre-ordered) and I’ll see about getting you a prize.

  22. Going to honor the books I’m reading right now and at the same time sort of snub you: going with 1632. Nothing personal.

  24. 1977

    for being the year that “Star Wars” changed the world of Hollywood.
    (though i gotta admit – i didn’t see Star Wars until 1978 – and it was still playing in a first-run theater at that time!)

  25. My guess

    I remember when Howard was doing his cholesterol contest. I was not near optomistic enough and guessed way low.

    Even though there is no prize this time, I’m not going to make that mistake again. I’m guessing 2027 (Hey it’s prime but then so is it’s twin).

    Regards,
    Robert

  27. I went by the Keep and preordered my copy today. (Amazingly enough, I’d never been in there before, though I’ve been in the area for 2 1/2 years now! I’ll likely be going back tomorrow, though, for Free Comic Book Day.)

    Out of curiosity, was this 1552-count made with or without the Keep preorders?

    I was about to say 2001 in honor of the odyssey when I realized that Howard already took that guess, so I’ll go with 2000. ‘s when I graduated, and it’s a pretty cool number.

    1. Pre-orders at the Keep have not been counted, because I don’t need to ship them, and haven’t collected any money for them yet.

      Last I checked, there were about 25 on the list there.

Comments are closed.