On 25 January 2007, the Damn Interesting authors boldly⁠— some might say prematurely⁠— announced our intentions to expand our project into the medium of dead tree flesh. We writers are prone to episodes of optimistic whimsy, so we set out on the path of self-publication with fires in our bellies, springs in our steps, and other foreign objects inhabiting our bodies in ambitious configurations.

Unfortunately, we soon discovered that self-publication offered substandard products at superstandard prices. Undaunted by this development, we altered our approach to seek a direct relationship with a printing company, only to find that none of those options appealed to our penchant for perfection. Thenceforth, armed with the 2008 Writer’s Market, a yellow highlighter, and several spare minutes per day, I embarked upon a lengthy search for a suitable publisher; however these feeble tools proved to be no match for the awesome power of Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert.

It was a brisk and breezy afternoon in late autumn when Google’s daily “Damn Interesting” alert found its way into my inbox. Like every other such notice, it indicated linkage from a handful of very tasteful sites. On this occasion, one of the links was from the official Dilbert Blog, so I sent Mr. Adams a quick thank-you for his trouble. This innocent exchange of electrons rapidly developed into a full discourse, one thing led to another, and soon Scott was introducing me to his wonderful literary agent, Mr. Daniel Greenberg.

In the interest of brevity, I will omit the ensuing adventure, but suffice it to say that there was an exciting flurry of verbs, e-mails, proposals, and signatures. Today, after months of itching to share the news, we are delighted to announce that we have officially closed a deal with Workman Publishing. Consequently, the resulting bundles of paper joy will be shiny and delicious, and they’ll adorn the shelves of actual, legitimate bookstores. This also means that the done-date now resides much farther into the future than originally anticipated⁠— the tentative release date is Spring ’09⁠— but as they say, ’tis better to be great later than mediocre immediately. The book’s format and design are still evolving, but this development will certainly provide our gaggle of authors with more freedom to concentrate on Damn Interesting content, both online and on trees.

To those who donated to our book efforts, your generosity has provided immeasurable support to our project (unless of course you measure in dollars, in which case it is easily quantified). Those who donated $35 or more will still receive their free copy upon the book’s release, and those who sent $100 or more will enjoy a super-spiffy autographed version; but any such donors who are unwilling to endure this unexpectedly long wait are welcome to contact me, and I’ll refund your monetary kindness. Likewise, any donors who have relocated should remember to contact me to provide an updated address.

On an unrelated note, most of you have no doubt noticed our ongoing server woes, which have been plaguing the site with missing images and lackluster page-load times. We’re in the process of migrating Damn Interesting to a new, more efficient platform, and though the change won’t happen right away, its completion should make things run much smoother. As a side benefit, it’ll also add some nifty and long-overdue features, such as forums.

We’ll keep you abreast of our progress in both of these endeavors. Superthanks!

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