First Floor #177 – Time for a Nap
a.k.a. The book tour is complete. It was great. I'm exhausted.
Just a quick one today.
The book tour is officially over. After visiting eight cities in eleven days, I’m both thrilled with the enthusiastic response and very much in need of some down time.
That said, it was an absolute pleasure to see and meet so many First Floor readers and supporters during my time on the road. During the past few years, the newsletter has by and large been a solo endeavor, and while I know people read it and pay attention to the little metrics that Substack provides me, getting out into the real world and having real, in-person conversations with folks who were genuinely interested in my work provided not just an ego boost, but also some affirmation that all the time and effort I’ve put into First Floor has made a real difference—at least to those who’ve come across it.
Perhaps I’ll have more to say about the tour in the near future, but in the meantime, you can click on the image below to see some tour photos and read the wrap-up I posted on Instagram earlier today:
As for the book, it officially drops tomorrow! In truth, it’s already available in certain stores (and directly from Velocity Press), but as of tomorrow, you should be able to find it (or at least order it) in stores across the UK and Europe. It’s also available online—this link has several options—and via Amazon too.
(One bit of bad news: for those of you in North America, the books are still making their way across the Atlantic, but I’ve been assured that they’ll be in shops over there very soon. Feel free to preorder a copy in the meantime.)
I know this place has been stuffed with book-related talk during the past few months, and while the book will probably continue to get mentioned here and there, now that the tour is over I can re-dedicate myself to putting together the “normal” newsletters. Thanks for sticking with me, and know that next week First Floor will be back with all the usual news items, links to interesting articles, track recommendations, interviews, essays, etc.
Until then, I wanted to share a couple of things I’ve done during the past week:
On Tuesday I paid a visit to Radio Primavera Sound in Barcelona, and was interviewed by Ben Cardew for the latest episode of his Line Noise podcast. It was a good chat, and we talked about the newsletter, the book, the current state of music journalism and lots more.
Chanel Kadir’s Untitled 909 platform interviewed me for a new installment of its ongoing Book Club series, asking me about books and writers who’ve impacted me over the years. It’s not often I get to talk about Stephen King or Kurt Vonnegut, let alone both within the span of a single conversation, and I also shared some of my favorite music-focused titles, provided a window into my personal reading habits and mentioned what book I’m excited to read next.
That’s all for now. Have a great rest of the week and if you’re interested, please do buy the book. I’d love for you to read it.
Thanks so much for all the support so far,
Shawn
Shawn Reynaldo is a freelance writer, editor, presenter and project manager. Find him on LinkedIn and Twitter, or you can just drop him an email to get in touch about projects, collaborations or potential work opportunities.