In fact there were no formatting issues at all with the book (by the time you've got to your third one you've got the hang of the process); the ISBN arrived within minutes of the request, and the book was visually reviewed inside two days. It is now in the Smashwords Premium catalogue, and is available for pre-order.
August 29 is not a significant date for me. A little desk research lets me know that it is John Locke's birthday (1632), about whom I've written a fair amount (in connection with his doctrine of the association of ideas); that in 1831 Michael Faraday demonstrated the first electric transformer; that in 1742 Edmond Hoyle published his "Short Treatise" on the card game whist; and in 1842, Great Britain & China signed the Treaty of Nanking, which ended the infamous Opium war. A few other things have occurred on August 29 in history of course, but it isn't a stand out date.
A much more interesting date for publishing the book is August 21, when a total solar eclipse will be visible over a large part of the continental United States. Not many radical texts have been published to coincide with a solar eclipse, but I have the capacity to change the publication date, bringing it forward by eight days.
My book concerns ancient patterns of thought, many of which now seem very strange to us, and which are more or less unintelligible, except through a great deal of unpicking. I haven't written about eclipses and eclipse prediction in Understanding Ancient Thought, but eclipse prediction was one way in antiquity to demonstrate to a population that a priesthood had an understanding of the mind of God. That connection with what is Divine, that understanding of it, is one of the main themes of the book.
So I choose the more auspicious August 21 for the formal publication date. Available (in ePub format) from Barnes & Noble, Itunes, Inktera, Blio, Smashwords, and other eBook retailers.
UAT will now be released in the US at midnight EST on August 20 2017.
[Post updated August 11, 2017]
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