It's not supposed to happen until the end of the month, but Akron's getting a boost from a new book that's already available on Amazon.

The city plays a staring role in "The Smartest Places on Earth: Why Rustbelts Are the Emerging Hotspots of Global Innovation," which is due out Tuesday, March 29, but has already begun shipping on Amazon.

The book is written by Antoine van Agtmael and Fred Bakker, who at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 14, will discuss it in an event at the Hudson Library & Historical Society.

"I got mine already," said Dr. Eric Amis, dean of the College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering and Vice Provost for Research at the University of Akron, of the new book.

Amis says he's happy to see Akron getting some good press, much of it for the way the city embraced and fostered the growth of its polymer industry when its tire factories closed their doors.

According to the book's publisher, Public Affairs, the book is "the remarkable story of how rustbelt cities such as Akron and Albany in the United States and Eindhoven in Europe are becoming the unlikely hotspots of global innovation, where sharing brainpower and making things smarter — not cheaper — is creating a new economy that is turning globalization on its head."

The book is getting some attention, too. Amis said he first read about it in The Economist.

In a March 6 article titled "Rust Belt Revival," the British business magazine cited the book in saying this:

Akron, in Ohio, has capitalised on its heritage as home to America’s four biggest tyremakers by turning itself into America’s capital city of polymers. The University of Akron’s Polymer Training Centre houses 120 academics and 700 graduate students. Companies such as Akron Polymer Systems and Akron Surface Technologies are inventing new ways to commercialise synthetic materials. North Carolina has done the same for textiles. Its state university is home to the Nonwovens Institute, which does research on textiles that can resist heat and chemicals, including ones used in weapons."