I am pleased to announce that, effective as of today, The Debutante Ball is sponsored exclusively by Amazon!
We didn’t want to announce the sponsorship decision until all the details were set, but we’re very excited to usher in the brand-new Debutante Ball. In the coming weeks, you can expect to see some fantastic new features here at the Amazon Ball.
Among the highlights:
– Special guests selected by our sponsor
– Newsflashes and updates about new and exciting Amazon finds
– Beautiful images, direct from Amazon
And, of course, our regularly scheduled Debutante Posts.
We know some authors and readers have objected to seeing Amazon everywhere, and particularly to the increasing control Amazon exerts on the publishing landscape. To this, we say “nonsense.” Amazon’s territory is actually decreasing and its future survival may well depend on the visibility it gains from sponsoring formerly independent blogs like this one.
What does this mean for you, the reader?
– Increased visibility of Amazon here at the Ball, and special articles highlighting Amazon’s features.
– More information about Amazon products, and easier click-through ordering straight from this site.
– Fewer posts about Debutantes’ personal lives, and more about how Amazon has improved our lives.
And finally, best of all: 
– 100% more APRIL FOOL.*
*Check the date. Check who’s posting (on a Monday) … and if any doubt remains, check one of those links.
Be honest. How many of you did I catch?
I figured you were fooling with us! lol
I’m glad it made you laugh! One never knows with April Fools. 🙂
Susan, you rock. You are a true Amazonian woman. 🙂
Thanks Kerry! And thank you for trading with me this week so I could bring on the Amazonian tomfoolery.
You guys are the best. I knew it couldn’t be true…but still, I wasn’t sure! xo
Thanks Amy! I’m glad you liked the April Fools plot. 🙂
Funny girl!! Someone made the analogy of Amazon’s slow take over being like a lava flow. As long as it doesn’t char everything in its path, I’m still hopeful…
Fear not. The sky won’t fall and publishing will always remain. When the lava comes, we’ll have to put down our books to move out of the way, but don’t worry. We can outrun lava.
We can outrun the lava, but we’ll have to momentarily stop reading. It wouldn’t be the right time for that “run into a tree because your nose is in a book” moment.
Oh, good point. Knowing me, I’d drop the book in the lava, too, and never find out the ending. That would suck.
Good one! You had me going there…
Thanks Pamela! I figured I had to run at least one April Fool prank, and since I’m behaving myself as a lawyer today (it’s not easy!) I thought this might be a good place to pull a stunt.
Nice one, ladies! Definitely a better trick than the red food coloring I added to our cream this morning (biologist hubby was not impressed but girls were so it was all good;))
Glad you liked it Erika! The red food coloring in the cream actually sounds like a good one. I know it would startle me if I saw it, for sure.
Hahahah ahhahhahahh
I will admit I did start when I saw the facebook post. But then I thought, they’d tell me, right?
RIGHT?
xx
I almost did let you guys in on the joke in advance, but then I thought “surely they won’t be fooled … after all, how could we accept sponsorship without everyone knowing?”
And then I thought “You know, if it was YOU, you’d be fooled, because you’d assume you just missed the announcement.”
And then I posted without telling 🙂 Because I’m evil that way.
You ARE evil! It’s the best kind of evil, though, Susan.
Because this was Amazon you wrote about, and because Amazon is kinda taking over the known book world, you had me fooled most of the way through. Good job on that!
I’m a closet conspiracy theorist, so I get suckered by things like this every once in awhile. See? I think to myself, Such-and-such (Amazon in this case) DOES have a dark and dastardly secret agenda. Hah!
Too funny even five days late!
It was a good one, all right. 🙂 Susan has a wonderful twisty mind.