Shady Characters

Please allow me to introduce the cover of my next book, Face with Tears of Joy: A Natural History of Emoji!

‘😂’ will be published in July this year, and you can pre-order the paperback in the USA from Norton, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, Bookshop.org, Hudson, Powell’s, or Walmart. In the rest of the world, order from Amazon.co.uk, Bookshop.org or Waterstones.

If e-books are more your style, you can pre-order for your Nook at Barnes & Noble; for your Kobo at Kobo.com; for your iPhone or iPad at Apple Books; or for your Kindle at Amazon (USA) or Amazon (UK).

I’ve said it before, but I really enojyed writing this one. It’s a sequel, almost, to Shady Characters, focusing as it does on an intriguing collection of symbols which dance around the written word without ever really becoming part of it. Emoji carry echoes of cuneiform, kanji, manga, and even the interrobang, and if any of those subjects pique your interest — or even just emoji themselves! — then please consider pre-ordering a copy.*

*

On a side note, I never used to understand why my agent, Laurie Abkemeier, always encouraged me to encourage you to pre-order my books. Isn’t a pre-order just the same as a order placed after publication? Well, it turns out not. Pre-orders make the publishing world go round: they inform print run sizes, they help bookshops make sure they have the right stock, and they can influence bestseller charts. (Okay, that last one is more a “me” thing than a “you” thing.) They can even make sure that you will actually be able to read the book, since pre-orders are fulfilled before normal orders.

All this is to say, if you have even a passing interest in emoji, please pre-order the book! It would mean a lot to me, personally, and my editor will thank you too. ↢