Have they stopped the shredder yet?

To be honest, no. But on Monday I’m calling the people at Querido to tell them I want to buy all my books. So, not a single copy of ‘Toiletten’ will “end up as toilet paper”:http://www.nielsthooft.com/theyre-destroying-my-novel.

So far, over four hundred copies of ‘Toiletten’ were ordered — some folks buying five or even ten copies at once. Wow! Depending on the final price my publisher sets for the 1615 copies, this could already be enough to pay for the rest.

(I still need your order though, so do click on that Contact link above and get in touch with me!)

Let’s get back to the response I got — it’s been amazing. Not only have people been ordering like mad, they’ve also been sending in a lot of ideas. Which comes in handy, because I’m still figuring out the fun part: what to do with the rest of the books.

What makes this even better for me personally is that the ideas have ranged from useful to absolutely bonkers. I never knew that a publisher threatening to shred a book could result in such joy.

Finally, to name a specific examply, I really liked the e-mail I got from a teacher who wants to buy a stack of books for his students, for them to put on their reading lists. In return I’ve offered him to drop by in his class and tell about my writing.

This feels like exactly the type of thing I’m looking for — my book ends up with young people and chances are they’ll actually read it. Any other high school teachers reading this? Feel free to follow your colleague’s example — even if you don’t have a budget, I’m sure we’ll be able to work something out.