At close of business in Seattle today, May 31, at 5 pm sharp Pacific Time (8 pm Eastern), it’s all over. The pre-order discount, I mean, only at DarwinsDoubt.com. The book itself is out June 18.

I’ve tried (and largely failed) to impress our kids with the idea that a deadline means business. It’s called a deadline because there’s a moment beyond which there is no going back and trying to get that generous deal you were offered earlier. In the case of Darwin’s Doubt, it’s 43% off the cover price with free shipping and four free digital books.

Some people will set a supposed deadline and then keep extending it and extending it. Not us. I think you are failing to grasp how thoroughly merciless, implacable and absolute this deadline is.

Did you notice the seeming arbitrariness of that number, 43%? Not 40% or 45%, but precisely 43%. Real deadlines are arbitrary! Always. That’s something else I’ve tried to tell my kids (though it too has largely fallen on deaf ears). I actually advocated to colleagues that we make the discount 42.9%, or even better 43.03%, just to underline that we’re not messing around. Sadly, I was overruled.

5:01 pm Pacific Time will be too late. And by the way, that’s 5 pm in Seattle where our main offices are, not on the Eastside across Lake Washington. Though Bellevue and Redmond are of course in the same time zone, there is a difference, very slight yet measurable.

UPDATE: Did you doubt us? At exactly 5:01 pm, May 31, 2013, this special pre-order discount was terminated with extreme prejudice. Readers are now directed to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or the appropriately (and quite attractively) amended website DarwinsDoubt.com.