A book launch is a scary thing. Even though I am serializing Machiavelli and publishing on the Web, it is still structurally a book: it has a narrative arc, chapters, pages, and other elements associated with books. And yet I’m adding hypertext commentary beneath the pages, footnotes and links that wouldn’t be included in a paper edition—or would only as endnotes that don’t interact with the artwork in the same way that this post does with the artwork that you see just above it. As I move from the prologue—which is intended to set a mood—into Chapter One, in which Machiavelli takes his place at center stage, I’ll be using footnotes in the form of blog posts to shed light on historical details which may be relevant but not central to the story I’m trying to tell. I may also link to sites which I feel will be interesting to my readers, or have some relevance to Renaissance studies. I will avoid linking to or posting about topics that have no connection to Machiavelli or the project. I hope not to do too many “meta” posts like this one. The web site is the book. And it will continue into the second book (not Machiavelli, but…I’m getting ahead of myself.)
But I digress. A book launch is a scary thing. What has struck me the most in the past week is how much support I’ve gotten from unexpected places and it’s caused me to reevaluate, seriously, the way I look at people. People who you think are critical to your success may not be, and it’s the people who stand by you when no-one is watching who count.
So thanks to you guys who have Twittered about Machiavelli, submitted it to BoingBoing, joined my Facebook “fan” page (we few, we happy few), or set up LiveJournal feeds. You’ve placed a trust in me and I will do my best to earn that.