Hey everyone. Friendly helpful PSA time.

I ordered a physical book but was just told my ebook is ready to download. What happened? 

Don’t worry. If you backed These Are My Friends on Politics, you’ll either have received or soon will receive an email informing you your ebook download is ready. That’s not a goof — every physical book comes with a complimentary ebook version you can load onto your preferred e-reader of choice. So you’re getting that right now while the physical books are being prepared for shipment. If you ordered a physical book (or three, or ten), that package will be heading your way before long. This is just a pre-order bonus.

Sounds good. So what’s a .mobi file? 

If your experience with getting ebooks comes from buying them straight from Amazon’s or Apple’s store, you might be a little thrown by seeing two different formats presented for your consumption. The download page has all the instructions you’ll need, but here’s a bonus quick cheat sheet. 

ePub version: This is the .mp3 of ebooks, and it works on anything not called a Kindle. So if you’re using iBooks for iOS/Mac, Google Books for Android, or a Sony Reader/Nook/Kobo/basically any e-reader ever made that isn’t a Kindle, this is the format for you. 

Kindle (.mobi) version: This one is for anyone using a tablet made by Amazon -- be it a Kindle Fire, the regular monochrome Kindles (Paperwhite, whatever weird name that new one is called) or anything else that has the word "Kindle" stamped on it. It also will display nicely on the Kindle desktop app for PC and Mac. The one place it won’t load: the Kindle app for iOS, which uses a different file format that’s laden with DRM and requires purchase through Amazon’s own store to display books properly. Fortunately, if you’re an iOS person, the ePub version plays perfectly with iBooks. 

So should I read this ebook now or wait for the physical book if I ordered one of those? 

Honestly? If I’m being candid, I’d wait, because I think the physical book is the best experience. I love ebooks, but I don’t think heavily-illustrated books are best served by that format. I also hope this is the kind of book people open up and enjoy together, which is something the physical book better allows to happen. It’s up to you, of course, but if you’re waiting on a physical book and choose to ignore the email about the ebook as result, you’ll get no argument from me. 

Good Morning Readers,

Today would have been my Dad’s 70th birthday, and to say that I have a heavy heart this morning is an understatement. Over the course of the past week, I have been trying to think of ways to be able to celebrate his life today, rather than to mourn his loss. For starters, I’m going to play tennis, as he would have done on a gorgeous September afternoon. And for dinner, I will cook one his best recipes, penne vodka, from scratch, and yes, with real heavy cream and a whole stick of butter to boot :). When I’m 64, has been such an amazing, inspiring, and healing part of my journey over this past year that it seemed fitting to find a way to incorporate that into this day as well.  So, without further adieu, I would like to outline the rules of my Dad’s Birthday Giveaway:

In honor of my Dad’s birthday I am going to raffle off 2 tickets to see  Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden on October 28th, 2016. How do you win? Any book pre-order placed between now, September 20th, 10:00 am and the end of his birth month, September 30th at 11:59 pm , will get entry into the raffle. EACH COPY PURCHASED counts as a single entry, so that means if you purchase multiple copies (each person is capped at ten pre-orders of the book by Inkshares), you get additional entries into the raffle.

Don’t like Billy Joel? Live out of the area? NO problem! If you decline the ticket prize, you can opt to receive a $100 Visa Gift Card, instead!

Please share this information with your network and help make this day a significant one in the life of When I’m 64! There are just about 3 weeks left in our funding period so share, share, share.  You know what they say, you can’t win if you don’t play - and in this case, you can’t play if you don’t know about the game!

 Happy Birthday Dad :)

Love,

Lauren