Hi everyone! It’s been a while. I’ve been busy! I published my first essay in the New York Times Magazine of all places, and I became the TV critic at The New Republic, and, for these reasons and many other reasons, I have neglected you, my City Chicken Tenders (did we go with that name for this fandom? we didn’t? ok!).
Anyway, I write to you today to ask for a favor. Perhaps a suite of favors. The biggest thing, the thing I’ve been working toward for all this time, is my book, Avidly Reads Screen Time. And it comes out THIS WEEK! I’d like you to help me get it off the ground. I really love this book — which is about watching screens and writing about screens and having a pair of human children to watch them with — my illustrious blurbers (Emily Nussbaum! Lauren Michele Jackson! Lydia Kiesling!) seemed to like it, and I think you will, too.
Sporadic as this newsletter has been, I really value you as a readership, and I wrote it, to some extent or another, with you — the City Chicken Coop? — in mind. Criticism is a social thing. And writing this newsletter to you helped me figure out that I wanted to write this book in the first place. So thanks for that confidence, and thanks, in advance, for your help in launching Avidly Reads Screen Time this week, which you can do in any of the following ways:
1. Buy the book! If you order from THIS LINK at the New York University Press site, you can use the code MACIAK30-FM at checkout for a 30% discount. Or buy the book from your local independent bookseller! (While, of course, I covet the untold riches that will come if my book from a university press performs better than expected, this book doing well would help me write more books in the future for even bigger and broader readerships.)
2. Tell your friends and family about it, give it as a gift, or order it from your local library!
3. Post about it on social media! You can share the order link, post or re-post a review, or you can even post a picture of the book when you get it in your mitts.
4. Review it on Amazon or Goodreads! No need to stuff the ballot box, but if you’re someone with an account on either site who does this sort of thing, consider my book!
5. Come to a book event! I’ll be launching the book with Marty Riker at Left Bank Books in St. Louis on May 25, and I’ll be doing a reading on campus at Wash U in the fall. But I’m also planning another in-person event in Chicago as well as a couple virtual events over the summer, so stay tuned for announcements about those.
I really appreciate all of this. See you in the funny papers!
Phil.