Endorsements > Hate Mail

I guess that should be obvious

That right there is the new endorsements page for the forthcoming Bantam Books version of On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down (on shelves October 10, pre-order now).

If you have the old versions, you know that Volume II began with hate mail/comments that I received for Volume I. And yeah, it was kinda funny. But when it came to the Bantam version the lawyers said sorry but even if you’re only using first names we still should get permissions. Well, that wasn’t gonna happen, especially since it had been a while and I had no idea how to track them down even if I had wanted to.

Then I saw Mary Ann leave a random comment on one of my posts about her laughter scaring her cats, then right after that Shawn said I was gonna give him another heart attack, and a light went off.

And so, I began compiling positive Facebook comments on various posts, collecting all the permissions, and I must say that I enjoy this a lot more than the hate mail. I think it creates a better vibe for the book as well.

I did briefly consider collecting endorsements from academics, but quickly dismissed it because the book wasn’t written for them. It was written for the “real people” you see named in the feature photo.

I will say that I have had a number of history professors laud and share my work an that tickles me. A couple said the fact that I didn’t do a PhD is a boon to my writing because keeping it at a master’s level likely helped me in terms of being able to relay historical facts in an accessible way rather than in a PhD micro-focused academic way that only a few care about. I’m not sure that’s true but it is nice to get some respect from the academic community on my ability to make history enjoyable for the masses. I’ve been told I write history books for people who don’t usually read history books.

Anyway, we’re getting close to pub date so please pre-order that mofo now.