Screenshot
" data-orig-size="2312,1198" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" data-image-title="Screenshot" data-orig-file="https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/fredbookpagetop.jpg" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"caption":"Screenshot","title":"Screenshot","orientation":"1"}" width="600" data-comments-opened="1" data-permalink="https://markarmstrongillustration.com/2026/07/08/fred-arrived-at-the-stroke-of-midnight-which-is-800-pm-est/screenshot-3/" alt="Top portion of Amazon book page for "Fred The Coconut," a children's book by Mark Armstrong." height="311" srcset="https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/fredbookpagetop.jpg?w=600&h;=311 600w, https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/fredbookpagetop.jpg?w=1200&h;=622 1200w, https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/fredbookpagetop.jpg?w=150&h;=78 150w, https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/fredbookpagetop.jpg?w=300&h;=155 300w, https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/fredbookpagetop.jpg?w=768&h;=398 768w, https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/fredbookpagetop.jpg?w=1024&h;=531 1024w" class="size-full wp-image-19871" data-large-file="https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/fredbookpagetop.jpg?w=600" />
I’m late sharing the good news here, but my children’s book, Fred The Coconut, went live on Amazon KDP on Friday, June 26th— Fred has been published!! 🌴🥥👍😊
I mentioned in my last post that I’d been working on a website to support the book, and that, too, is now live. It’s got some fun stuff, and you can check it out here.
I still have some revisions and tweaks to make, but it’s good to be up and running.
Here’s a little Amazon publishing quirk that might amuse you.
I had originally set a publication date of May 29, 2026, then decided I needed more time and pushed it back to June 26, 2026.
About a week before publication, I found myself wondering exactly when on the 26th the book would go live. I did some googling and learned that all of Amazon’s scheduled releases go live at 12:00 AM GMT.
In other words, at 12 midnight, Greenwich Mean Time.
What the heck is Greenwich Mean Time, you ask? It’s the yearly average (mean) solar time at the Prime Meridian (0° longitude) in Greenwich, London.
From 1884 to 1972, GMT was the international standard for time zones around the world. It still exists, but the new standard (since 1972) is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) which is measured by atomic clocks which are more precise.
You can read more about the history of GMT here.
So how does all that tie back to Fred?
I’m in New Hampshire, USA, and that puts me in Eastern Standard Time. I found a site with a World Clock Converter which indicated 12 AM GMT was 8:00 PM EST, meaning 8 PM the previous evening.
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" data-image-title="Screenshot" data-orig-file="https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/worldclockconverter.jpg" data-image-meta="{"caption":"Screenshot","title":"Screenshot","orientation":"1"}" width="600" loading="lazy" data-permalink="https://markarmstrongillustration.com/2026/07/08/fred-arrived-at-the-stroke-of-midnight-which-is-800-pm-est/screenshot-5/" alt="World clock converter which shows that when it's 12:00 AM Greenwich Mean Time, it's 8:00 PM EST on the previous day." height="172" srcset="https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/worldclockconverter.jpg?w=600&h;=172 600w, https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/worldclockconverter.jpg?w=1200&h;=344 1200w, https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/worldclockconverter.jpg?w=150&h;=43 150w, https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/worldclockconverter.jpg?w=300&h;=86 300w, https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/worldclockconverter.jpg?w=768&h;=220 768w, https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/worldclockconverter.jpg?w=1024&h;=293 1024w" class="size-full wp-image-19873" data-large-file="https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/worldclockconverter.jpg?w=600" />
Would it really happen? I wondered.
I received the following email message from Amazon at 8:22 PM EST on June 25, 2026:
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" data-image-title="Screenshot" data-orig-file="https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/amazonemail.fredislive.jpg" data-image-meta="{"caption":"Screenshot","title":"Screenshot","orientation":"1"}" width="600" loading="lazy" data-permalink="https://markarmstrongillustration.com/2026/07/08/fred-arrived-at-the-stroke-of-midnight-which-is-800-pm-est/screenshot-4/" alt="Email message from Amazon KDP saying that the children's book "Fred The Coconut" is now live and available for purchase on Amazon." height="402" srcset="https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/amazonemail.fredislive.jpg?w=600&h;=402 600w, https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/amazonemail.fredislive.jpg?w=1200&h;=803 1200w, https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/amazonemail.fredislive.jpg?w=150&h;=100 150w, https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/amazonemail.fredislive.jpg?w=300&h;=201 300w, https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/amazonemail.fredislive.jpg?w=768&h;=514 768w, https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/amazonemail.fredislive.jpg?w=1024&h;=685 1024w" class="size-full wp-image-19872" data-large-file="https://markarmstrongillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/amazonemail.fredislive.jpg?w=600" />
So there was a bit of a delay, but it timed out pretty close.
