The X Pipe

  PSA I received an email from Peterson on Thursday that there has been a delay in the delivery of the PPN Commemorative pipes to SPC, but that these should be ready for everyone to order next week.  Hold fast! Lunting Bear I’m going to venture off the trail just a little this morning to share a selection from The X Pipe & Other Mystagogic Stories for the Pipe Smoker, which has just been released internationally through Amazon’s KDP print service. The X Pipe had its launch at the Chicago Pipe Show last spring (see Post #394), and we took a few boxes of a special first edition Gigi prepared using a high-quality paper stock and ink. At the show, Smokingpipes.com generously agreed to carry this edition, which can still be obtained through them. Since then, I’ve been stymied as to how to promote the book, which has languished without advertising aside from the Chicago show and this blog.  It occurred to me that as there are as many readers of PPN outside the US as inside it, in fact, in 101 of the 106 nations recognized by the United Nations.  I know from emails with many of them that postage is an issue with anything they purchase overseas, often doubling the price of an item, not to mention VAT or customs.  I also know our non-US Pete Geek are avid readers, as their comments and emails following the posts on Kapp & Peterson in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (Post #210), Joyce’s Ulysses (Post #285) and the posts on Mark Twain all attest. After kicking around the problem, I decided to see if I could not only accommodate these PGs as well as get the word out by making The X Pipe available through a program at Amazon that would allow it to be sold through nearly all their world online outlets (and doubtless at their Ireland site, which debuts in January).  Here are the direct links: Amazon.com.au : Australia Amazon.com.br: Brazil Amazon.ca : Canada Amazon.fr : France Amazon.de: Germany Amazon.it : Italy Amazon.co.jp : Japan Amazon.com.mx: Mexico Amazon.nl : Netherland Amazon.sg : Singapore Amazon.co.uk: United Kingdom Amazon.es : Spain Amazon.se : Sweden Amazon.ae : United Arab Emirates Amazon.co.uk: United Kingdom and of course Amazon.com : United States Amazon.in : India [not listed] Amazon.sa : Saudi Arabia [not listed] Amazon.cn : China [alright, I couldn’t read the characters at this site—do let me know if you see it, PGs in China!] While Gigi couldn’t choose paper and ink quality as she did on the first edition, by revising the imaging of text and illustrations she was able to bring it to her impeccable standards and is pleased enough with the results to release it in this new edition. Launching an independently published pipe book is not a money-making or probably even sane idea, especially when it’s not even about a specific brand of pipes but about pipe smokers and their philosophy of smoking.  When you add an intention to be…