And try to keep big spoilers out of the comments, if you don’t mind. A lot of people haven’t finished the book yet, and audiobook listeners aren’t going to get it until tomorrow.

Audiobook pre-orders are unaffected.

I woke up this morning to a phone call that Waybound was down on the Kindle Store and people were getting messages that their pre-orders had been canceled.

After talking to a senior support specialist at Kindle and checking with our team members, we think it’s OUR FAULT. We had uploaded a manuscript and we had multiple people check it, to the point of going through it page-by-page to make sure there was nothing wrong.

But there was a final step we were supposed to complete, and our team member didn’t know that. When something like that happens, Amazon automatically removes the file 72 hours before the listed release date.

We have calls out to different people at Amazon, and we’re hoping they know a secret way to reverse all this. If we hear from them, I’ll let you know immediately.

If we don’t, we’ll be uploading the book manually. In that case, it’ll come out on time or a little earlier, but it won’t be exactly at midnight in your region like the pre-order would have been. Which is one of the major reasons why we did pre-orders in the first place.

FAQ:Does this affect audiobooks or paperbacks?It does not! Only the ebook pre-order was affected. Audible pre-orders are completely separate, and in fact you can still pre-order through Audible, and paperbacks didn’t have a pre-order process so they’re still unchanged.

If I pre-ordered the book, will I get it?Right now, it looks like you will not. You won’t be charged either–the entire thing was canceled. So unless we hear from someone at Kindle who knows the forbidden magic to get it back up, pre-orders are dead.

Is W still coming out on June 6th?Yes. I will do everything I can to make sure it is available on or before the 6th.

I’m very sorry.That’s not a question, but I am sorry. We’ve been doing pre-orders to p problems like this, so there won’t be any errors in the upload process, and there still was.

This is our biggest release ever, both for me and for you guys, and to let you down on this one is absolutely devastating. I’m sorry, and I still hope we can fix it.

But tons of you read it, the reviews are better than I expected, and all the discussion on Discord and Reddit has been incredible to see.

I know it’s a risk checking out a new series, even from an author you like. I salute you, brave explorers, boldly going where there are no Amazon reviews to guide you.

You all are awesome. So many of you read the story that we got up to #12 on the Kindle Store, which is insane for any first book.

I know it’s only been out a couple of days, so most of you probably haven’t read it yet, but m of you have. I hope you enjoyed it, but thanks for giving it a shot either way!

I look forward to seeing you all in space again soon…but first, of course, we have to finish things up in Cradle.

In some other regions, the paperback i/p>

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the book! Some intrepid readers, or those from future time zones, have already finished.

Often, I have people ask me how they can help support the books besides buying them. People also ask “How can I support you without supporting Amazon?”

Thanks to the success of the Kickstarter, we were able to fund a print run of trade paperbacks and trade hardcovers of U, S, and B to replace our print-on-demand paperbacks that were only really available via Amazon.

Currently, they are available for pre-order online from Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Walmart, and Target.

However, this isn’t a guarantee that they will end up on bookshelves in a real store. It’s only a guarantee that you can buy them online.

Ingram (the book distributor) has to go “sell” new titles to the stores to get them to carry our books in physical stores. They have told us that the BEST way to increase the chances of them getting in stores is having a strong pre-order.

The more people who pre-order the paperback books, the more likely bookstores are to actually stock them.

Now, I want to get into bookstores because A.) it would be very cool, since I love bookstores, and B.) because there are still people who only read books that they bought in person. There might be a whole new audience out there who would enjoy Cradle.

TL;DR – If we sell a bunch of online pre-orders for the paperbacks, bookstores will put them on shelves.

So if you wanted sets of physical books that aren’t from Amazon (and you missed the Kickstarter), good news! This would be a great time to order them.

Having said all this, don’t feel any pressure from me to buy the books if you don’t want to. I’m telling you all this because I know some of you would want to know.

For real, you reading the books is already more support than I deserve. But if you w to see the Cradle series on Barnes and Noble shelves, this is the way to make that happen.

I didn’t know almost anything about how this worked until, like, today. This territory is as uncharted for me as it is for you.

1.) This doesn’t affect the books you got through the Kickstarter. You’re getting those regardless. Different set of books; Kickstarter books are still on their way, don’t worry.

2.) If you pre-order books through any of the above retailers, you ARE buying the books normally. You’ll get books.

Thanks for hearing me out! I feel awkward for even bringing this up,  but when Ingram brought this to our attention, I knew I should say something.

*EDIT: Turns out, this list is not exhaustive. The books are available for online pre-order from many booksellers, including those outside the United States.

Here’s the link for Waterstone in the UK, and if none of these stores ship to you, odds are the books are still available from a store that does! Unfortunately, I can’t link every  bookstore site in the world.

Not until my powers reach their peak.