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So...

http://www.neilgaiman.com/feedback/vote.php?issue=freebook&show=results

tells us that 26,500 of you voted. (Or at least, 26,551 votes from 26,551 individual computers came in.)

And, with 28% of the vote -- as it had from the first hour the voting went up (well, it had 29% of the vote on the first day, a lead that was whittled away as the next 26,400 votes came in) is American Gods.

So that's what we'll put up. Details and links to follow....

It was really interesting. I don't think I would have put up American Gods as a first choice for free book myself -- mostly because a) it's really long and b) it divides people. As far as I can tell, for every five people who read it, one loves it utterly, two or three like it to varying degrees, and one hates it, cannot see the point to it and needs convincing that it's a novel at all. (Quite often the last person really likes some of the other books I've written, if they ever pick up anything else by me ever again.) But that's the fun of democracy, and American Gods has won more awards than any other single thing I've written.

Thank you to everyone who voted. It was fun. (And a special thank you to the web-goblin, who did all the heavy lifting.)

Last weekend at NE SCBWI, I learned more about the Class of 2k7, the group of talented debut authors who got together to promote their books.  It got me thinking about how writers can work together to promote reading and books.  During my morning run today, I realized that I have a great opportunity this fall.  In November, I'll be presenting a workshop at the New York State Reading Association Annual Conference in Saratoga Springs. The topic is "Historical Fiction as a Bridge to Content Area Reading."  I designed the workshop as a way to share my Revolutionary War novel SPITFIRE and its study guide with teachers, but I'm also going to talk about other works of historical fiction that would work well in the classroom.

Here's the invitation part. If you have a work of historical fiction that's been published with a traditional publisher and you'd like me to include your book in the workshop, please let me know. At the very least, I'll display it and include it in my handout, and I'll feature some of the books in my multimedia presentation as well. I already have a list of books prepared, but I know there are so many more fantastic titles out there, and I don't want to waste an opportunity to promote them. The presentation is part of the middle school strand of the conference,so I'm interested in MG and YA novels, as well as older picture books and picture book biographies that could be used with grades 4-8.

If you're interested, let me know in an email or comment so that I can contact you.  Include the title of your book, your publisher, a brief synopsis, and a link to your website.  If you have writer friends who might be interested, feel free to share this link with them.