U2-A Diary

U2 – A Diary was the main topic of discussion last weekend when we recorded the “roundtable” segment of the @U2 podcast. The five of us at the (virtual) roundtable were Sherry Lawrence, Jennifer Tomooka, Jaime Rodriguez, Mark Stevens, and yours truly — and we had a fun, loose conversation about the book (with several off-topic tangents and lots of laughter).

You can catch it here: @U2 Podcast Edition 4-7

If you’re new to podcasts, you might think you need an iPod or some other mp3 player to listen, but that’s not true. Just click the link above, and on that page, click the gray button that says “pod” on it, or click the blue link at the bottom that says “ATU2_OCT_08_Podcast_Master_MP3.mp3″ and you should be able to listen to it right in your web browser.

Thanks to Flo (from U2tour.de) for this news from Amazon Germany: People who have pre-ordered U2 – A Diary are being told to expect the book between November 1 and November 4:

So that target date is now pretty much the same as the North American target date.

I’ll do my best to keep you posted. And please let me know if you get an update from wherever you’ve pre-ordered. Thanks!

Sorry for not posting sooner on this. I’m not online as much on weekends. Anyhoo…….

Thank you to everyone who took me up on the offer to do a five-question interview about U2 – A Diary. We ended up with 14 interviews published online, and after opening up the contest, we reached triple digits in vote count.

The winning interview?

Congratulations, Beth! That was a fun interview to do, and I think my favorite question was the last one Beth asked, about the appearance of any sermons in U2 – A Diary:

U2 Sermons: Since this blog began with a book of homiletics that drew on U2′s work, here’s my effort to make the interview on topic: Any mention of preaching or sermons in U2: A Diary?

McGee: How about this… The first mention of a sermon is about the fact that Shalom leader Chris Rowe gave the sermon at Bono’s and Ali’s wedding in 1982, despite the fact that U2 had — according to conventional wisdom — already left Shalom by then. In truth, it shows that the situation was a bit more complex than that, and that the relationships and connections still existed, even after U2 had survived its spiritual crisis and committed to staying together as a band.

Beth’s $50 Amazon.com gift certificate is already on its way, and a copy of the book will be on its way, too, once I get my hands on the book. :)

Thanks again to all who participated! As a reminder, there’ll be another contest soon so that people who don’t have blogs or web sites can also participate. Stay tuned for that….

In the previous post, I mentioned that Amazon.com started emailing customers with a target date of October 22-24 for the book to arrive.

Now, a couple @U2 staffers have received emails with a later date:

Meanwhile, if you go to Amazon.com, it says Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks, which I think is codename for “We don’t know when we’ll get our copies.” :-)

Well, I emailed my contacts at Omnibus to see what they know. The book is being shipped by boat to the UK, and then will need to be shipped from there to North America and elsewhere. Here’s what I learned:

UK/Europe

Quote: “The estimated date for arrival of stock at our warehouse is Oct 13, and we’ll probably ship it out immediately.”

So, if you’re in the UK or Europe, everything seems to be on schedule.

U.S./North America

Quote: “The books are due in end of the month but we never get dates as we are not in control of the import clearance and timetable to our warehouse. I am certainly hoping we ship books this month.”

So, if you ordered from Amazon.com or are planning to buy the book at your local store, I would plan on early November.

One thing I’ve learned is that, unless you have a BIG release with a BIG publisher (like U2 by U2 with Harper Collins) where everything is planned and scheduled out to the exact day, the publishing of your book is kind of a “it’ll be released when we get it” affair. I remember when the most recent update of U2 Live – A Concert Documentary came out, I somehow managed to buy a copy in my local bookstore before Caroline Von B — the author! — got a copy herself. Crazy.

Anyway … I’ll post any new information as I get it. And please let me know if you get any updates from wherever you pre-ordered the book.

My good friend, Dr. Mike Dorausch, shared an email that he received tonight from Amazon.com about his pre-order of U2-A Diary. In the email, Amazon says the book’s expected arrival date is October 22-24:

Based on what I understand of the process, that makes sense. The book is due to arrive in the UK this week from the printer, and be ready for shipping/retail next week in the UK and probably in parts of Europe. It seems logical that it’ll take another week or two for the book to make it over here to North America to Amazon’s warehouses (and other warehouses, too).

If you ordered from another store, please use the comments below to let us know if you get any similar emails about the expected arrival date. Thanks!