#DisorderedCosmos is out in the wild and what is Substack doing?
Dear Party People,
Thanks to all of you who have bought The Disordered Cosmos, gifted it, attended an event, clicked on an interview or an excerpt. The response has been so incredible that the book is backordered at Bookshop.org and Bold Type Books is printing more copies of the book. (Yes, a second printing!) I’m writing because the excitement is not over yet and also to make suggestions of how you can help. I also want to make a statement about what’s happening at Substack and why I may need to move platforms.
Also, want a free copy? Vanguard STEM is giving a copy of The Disordered Cosmos away every single week this month! Keep your eyes peeled on social media for other possible giveaways
Virtual Tour Dates (Note time zones!)
This week, two free bookstore events:
3/16 @ 7:30 PM ET Charis Books with Imani Perry (Decatur, GA)
3/17 @ 5 PM PT Powell’s City of Books with Elissa Washuta (Portland, OR)
Over the next month I will be doing non-bookstore events including my UK launch:
3/31 @ 6 PM ET University of New Hampshire with Katherine McKittrick
4/6 @ 6 PM PT Commonwealth Club of California with TBD
4/8 @ 7:30 PM PT Town Hall Seattle with Jaleesa Trapp
4/15 @ 7 PM BST The Royal Institution (UK Book Launch!)
How You Can Help
So far The Disordered Cosmos hasn’t gotten much mainstream press which means I rely a lot on word of mouth and social media. You can help by attending all of these events and circulating details about them, especially this week’s bookstore events! Make a date with a friend to go! If you’re on Facebook, there’s a page setup for tomorrow’s Charis event with Imani Perry (THE IMANI PERRY!!) whose work was such a big influence on The Disordered Cosmos.
I am also so thrilled to be in conversation on Wednesday at Powell’s books with Cowlitz writer and my dear friend Elissa Washuta whose essay collection White Magic comes out next month, and is going to rock your world. Preorder it now. Tell your friends!
You can also follow me (and encourage others to do the same!) on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
If you liked the book, please leave a review somewhere that reviews are read (yes I know a lot of them are owned by Amazon . . . such is their monopoly).
Listen to and circulate an excerpt of the book at Libro.fm, with the phenomenal Joniece Abbott-Pratt narrating. When you buy through Libro, you support indie bookstores.
Read and circulate excerpts from the book:
A Black Femme Dreams in Equations (also in the Essence Jan/Feb issue)
In Hawaii, an ancient observatory offers lessons for modern stargazers (Popsci)
Excerpt from Chapter 4: The Biggest Picture There Is (Space.com)
Read/listen to/watch and circulate interviews with me about the book:
EBRO IN THE MORNING (video from HOT97 radio interview)
Public Thinker: Chanda Prescod-Weinstein Looks to the Night Sky (by Katherine McKittrick for Public Books)
Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein Wants You to Know Science is For Everyone (by Nylah Burton for Shondaland)
Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein’s Jewish Universe (by Emily Burack for alma)
In ‘The Disordered Cosmos,’ a physicist explores how physics and society intersect (by Meghan Bartels for Space.com)
Black Feminism Meets Physics in Chanda Prescod-Weinstein’s ‘The Disordered Cosmos’ (by Kate Tuttle for the Boston Globe)
Read and circulate these great reviews of the book:
Kirkus, Starred Review
Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
Booklist, Starred Review
Finally, if you know anyone at the Los Angeles Times, it is kind of a dream to see the book in my hometown paper. I also want kids from East L.A. to see the possibilities of what we can do when we work together. Also if you know anyone at any other newspaper, please poke them and let them know about the book!
Bonus ask: This doesn’t help my book in any way, but I really encourage folks to follow African-American Women in Physics, Inc. on Facebook because they’ve been doing awesome highlights of Black women in physics this month. Also if you’re wondering where you can donate to make a difference, AAWIP has no employees and puts pretty much all money directly into student support for Black women and non-binary Black students.
A Response to Substack
I started using Substack because I was approached by a member of their staff about it. I didn’t know at the time that they were approaching other people and, for example, offering them $250,000 advances to join the platform. First of all, that’s real nice money! To be clear, I have gotten nothing ($0) from Substack and got nothing like that for writing my book. Most writers on Substack have not gotten that kind of cash. But it’s recently come to my attention that a few have, including folks with a very public track record of transphobia. Please read Jude Doyle’s post, and Substack’s (in my view) inadequate response. Also please read Julia Serano’s tweets about the fact that Substack has offered a platform to someone who is in my view a vitriolic transphobe who has been deplatformed elsewhere because of his hatred toward trans people.
As you can see, Serano is saying she will not click on Substack articles because of this, and I completely understand why. Those of us who are queer and trans and using Substack have now been put in a shitty position because Substack looked at the monumental effort to deplatform people who advocate (what I consider to be violent) hatred toward BIPOC and LGBTQIA people and instead of saying “right on!” they saw a business opportunity, to provide the platformed people with a platform.
I haven’t had time to process all of this because I have a full time job, and I’m book touring right now but I am struggling with the idea that Substack is using what is likely a combo of profits off the writers with Substack paywalls — including trans writers — and venture capital to pay transphobes to be on their platform. (Let’s be clear that the First Amendment doesn’t guarantee you getting paid to write horseshit that in my view promotes violence, so this isn’t a matter of their rights under the law.)
As a Black queer agender woman, this probably means I will have to leave the Substack platform. But I hope they reconsider their choices in the coming days. I encourage folks who read me here to contact Substack and let them know what you think.
See y’all at Charis and Powell’s this week! Tell your friends about The Disordered Cosmos! I love seeing your pictures of the book on Twitter and Instagram.
xoxo,
Chanda
