They buried the wrong man in March and nobody said anything until August.

It was not a secret exactly. Half the village had stood at the graveside and a good third of them had known, in the way you know a thing you have decided is not yours to raise, that the name on the stone belonged to somebody else entirely. Ellen counted them afterwards from the church door: eleven who knew, four who suspected, and her mother, who had chosen the hymns.

What she could never afterwards explain was why she had said nothing either. She was nineteen and she had a train to catch and the ground was very wet, and those three facts arranged themselves in her memory for the next forty years into something that was almost, but never quite, a reason.

You aren't charged now — Nothing leaves your account until it ships, at every retailer. If the price drops between now and then, you pay the lower one automatically
You can cancel — Up to the day it ships, in a click, with nobody asking why. That is worth saying plainly because it is the thing that stops most people
It counts on week one — Preorders all land on the first week's number, and that number is what decides whether shops reorder. It is the entire reason authors ask
It tells the printer — Print runs get set months ahead off preorder figures. Too few and the book is short in exactly the shops that wanted it
It doesn't pay me any more — The royalty is identical whenever you buy. This is about shelf space, not about money, and pretending otherwise would be a con
Buying it later is fine — A book bought in month three is a book read. Nobody should ever preorder anything out of guilt

Publication dates move — Usually later, usually by weeks, and almost never for any reason to do with the writing. It is normal and it is not a bad sign
Your preorder follows it — Automatically, at every retailer. You do nothing and you keep your place in the queue
You'll hear it here first — The date on this page is the date. Where a shop's listing disagrees, this page is the one that got updated
Why they move — A printer's slot, a jacket redraw, a legal read, a shipping problem nobody controls. Rarely one dramatic reason and rarely anybody's fault
If it moves a long way — You get told why, plainly, rather than finding a different month quietly sitting there. That is the only thing anyone is owed here
If it's cancelled outright — Every preorder is refunded automatically, and you'd hear it from me before a retailer's system got round to emailing you

"First edition" means the first printing — Not a special version and not a limited one. Every copy of a new book is a first edition until it reprints, and almost all of them are worth precisely the cover price
A signed copy from a shop — Is genuinely signed — a stack goes in the back and comes out again. "Signed" on a resale listing is a different proposition entirely and there is no way to check it from here
Bookplates — A signed sticker, posted to you, to go inside the cover. Not as nice as the real thing, available anywhere in the world, and the only option if you are far away
Dedications — Ask at a signing, and say the name and how it's spelt. Nobody minds being asked and nearly everybody forgets they can
Proof copies — The uncorrected version sent out to reviewers months early. They are full of mistakes on purpose, they are not for sale, and a listing offering one is telling on itself
The jacket may still change — Right up to printing. If the cover you're preordering is part of why, that is worth knowing now rather than when the parcel opens

What you get — An email when the date is confirmed, and one on the day it ships. That is the whole list
What you don't get — A newsletter, a launch countdown, or anything at all between those two emails
If the date moves — You get told once, with the reason. Not once a month while it keeps moving