I wasn’t sure a blurb would come in on time to make the Game of Cages cover, but it did! Picture this:
Move the text “A Twenty Palaces Novel” down beside the word “of” and in its place, picture this blurb:
“Connolly keeps you turning pages and wanting more.” —C.E. Murphy
Yeah. It’s a good day.
I’d post the cover flat itself (instead of describing it) but it’s not quite final yet. Soon!
I am informed by Reliable Sources that the Delivery and Acceptance check from Random House is on its way. Yay! Man Bites World is now officially turned in. All I have left is title it, review the copy edits and galleys, plus whatever promotional stuff I have to do.
I feel unemployed.
More and more I see people posting Bookscan numbers for authors’ books. (example) Not their own sales numbers–this is for authors they don’t know at all.
Cool? Not cool? I’m a little uncomfortable posting those numbers, like saying “Bill? He earns $65,000 a year at his sales job. Down a bit from previous years, but…”
It’s one thing if the author does it himself, but complete strangers? As much as I’d like to know my own Bookscan numbers, I wouldn’t like them posted online for everyone to read. (Note: I don’t actually want to know my Bookscan numbers.)
The PW blog Genreville just posted that reader-created book trailer. Awesome.
They’re also asking for favorite book trailers. If you have one, post a link; if you want to see some, check out the comments. I certainly will later on, for trailer research.
My German foreign language agent has just sold worldwide German rights to Otherworld Verlag Krug Keg. They’re an ambitious small(ish) press out of Austria, and it’s incredibly exciting.
That makes Russian, French, and German sales. So far.
:D
I dropped in at my neighborhood bookstore yesterday, where they had just placed their orders for September books from Random House. Even though I didn’t buy anything (they didn’t have the cars issue of Consumer Reports) they were nice enough to let me take the catalog with me.
Not only was I able to see how many copies of Game of Cages they’d ordered (answer: 10), but I had a chance to look at the way RH designs their mailed catalogs. It was mostly just what you’d expect, except for one thing that surprised me (but shouldn’t have): Most of the books had a line for Story Locale and another for Author Residence.
It surprised me, but it makes perfect sense when I think about it: if the story is set in Portland, Powell’s might carry it as local interest. Same for authors.
1) Can YOU crack the Zodiac Killer’s cipher? The original documents are now available online.
2) Pop quiz: Comic book character or wrestling move?
4) I hope I hope I never get a book cover like these. via genreville
5) This book on hoarding sounds fascinating!
6) Take a look at the 15th, 20th and 24th pictures. (Not to mention all the nice happy people).
My editorial notes on Man Bites World were really simple and straightforward–ambiguous dialog! contradictory description! repetitive narration!–right up to the last one. The very last comment I had to deal with bowled me over.
It’s a line of dialog that makes sense in my head, but none of the meaning it’s meant to imply comes out on the page. It is, essentially, a declaration of war on the status quo in the Twenty Palaces setting, and that’s not something you clarify in a ten-minute revamp.
For four days I’ve been trying to make this work. I’m going for a nice walk now to think about it.
… but I want to talk about it a little. The blog linked below doesn’t list the reviewer’s name (at least not where I could find it) but the Google Alert that directed me there said it was written by one “David Marshall.” Check this out:
“Poor unpublished Harry Connolly” pretty much describes me when I was doing the last polish on Child of Fire. I would have made “Poor” my first name and “Unpublished” my middle if I could have afforded the courthouse fees. But I couldn’t. I was poor.
Of course, now that I’m published, I’m as rich as a Wall St. con man, and I’m famous on the internet. The review I linked to above is a pretty positive one, all things considered, so why comment on it? There are lots of reviews out there. What strikes me here are two distinct points the poster is making (roughly speaking):
1) That I published Child of Fire, which is not the beginning of Ray’s story, for a big wad of cash, with any existing prequels held back for even larger wads later on, and
2) That I structured Child of Fire as a thriller for commercial reasons but I could have written something more satisfying (which I read to mean “not a potboiler” and “more art/less formula”).
Formula!! ::clutches pearls and faints::
Let’s break it down! (Detailed blathering, including the bad-literary version of Child of Fire behind the cut) Continue reading
You know that annoying thing writers do when they announce that they have something awesome in the works but can’t talk about it yet? A Soopah Sekrit Project? You know how they do that thing?
Well, I’m doing that thing. It’s totally exciting and I hope I don’t fuck it up.
In other news, what happened to memes? I used to see memes cruise through my friends list all the time, but I almost never see them now (and I’m hankering to do something simple in a post). Maybe I should create one.