Here, for the first time on any stage, is the draft of the cover for my upcoming e-book, Troll Valley. Our own Phil Wade is the artist responsible for this work of wonder (though I took the picture of the house). And the tag line, of course, was provided by commenter Adam.
What do you think? We’re still taking suggestions, but I think it’ll look very much like this.
Tin House has an illustrated edition of Moby Dick and a video to promote it.
Thanks to all who made suggestions for the tag line for Troll Valley.
Although I had decided to go with something else, I thought it over and concluded that commenter Adam had the best suggestion. His tag line will go on the book, in a slightly modified form:
“The Fairy Tale Your Grandparents Never Told You.”
Adam will receive a free copy of Troll Valley once the thing is published. Assuming he has the capability to download e-books.
I’m pondering a small problem with my upcoming e-book, Troll Valley. And I thought, hey, I’ll crowdsource it to the world’s smartest people, the few, the proud who read Brandywine Books.
Our own Phil Wade has been applying his considerable graphic skills to creating a cover, based on a photograph I took of the Gunderson House, the house in my home town (Kenyon, Minnesota) which inspired the house where the main characters of Troll Valley live.
Friends, this is going to be an awesome cover. I know the word “awesome” is overused, but I mean it literally. Or almost literally. Anyway, it’s great. Phil took a bright, sunny picture, ran it through some filters, and turned it into a dark, numinous sort of thing, with extras that you’ll just have to wait to see. Almost identical to what I envisioned, and much better than I dared hope.
But here’s where the problem comes. We’re laying it out with my name where it belongs (at the top). And the title, somewhat larger, near the bottom.
And it occurred to me that most books include some kind of tag line, a teaser to give people a hint what sort of story they’re looking at here.
I’m trying to come up with a tag line that will suggest the kind of weird book this is. Here’s where I solicit your help.
But you need something to work with. A short synopsis of the story: Continue reading Help needed
“As early as 1896, Publisher’s Weekly wondered whether the book business was ‘A Doomed Calling’—a question that, by the late nineteenth century, had already become a cliché.”
Ben Tarnoff says people in the book business have been complaining about it’s final curtain drop for over a century. Back in Mark Twain’s day, they worried the subscription model would ruin everything. Today, it’s e-books. Tomorrow, it will be holographic gaming galleries.
The Gunderson House, Kenyon, Minnesota, which I borrowed for my new book.
[Thousand Ills That Flesh Is Heir To Dept.: My cold continues pretty much unchanged, like a visitor you expected to come for dinner, who means to stay a month. I still have no voice. It’s a little disturbing to realize that I can actually get through 99% of my day without needing a voice.]
Some of you seem to be interested in the new book, which I’m planning to publish digitally. I thought the process would take a while, but I sent the document file to Ori Pomerantz one day, and he got it back to me, tentatively formatted for Kindle, the following night. I think he’s formatted it for Nook too. The big slow-down may be the read-through I’m doing now myself, and the time it takes for me to whip some cover art together.
I can’t promise a release date, and no doubt there will be delays, but as far as I understand what’s going on (not much), it looks to be available soon.
Eventually, if I sell enough electronic copies, I may be able to get some dead tree books printed.
What’s the novel about?
Well, it’s called Troll Valley (you may recall the name of the place from Wolf Time). It’s set at the turn of the twentieth century, in my default literary locality of Epsom, Minnesota, a small town based on my home town.
The main character is Christian Anderson, a boy from a wealthy family, who has a deformed arm and a fairy godmother.
Major themes include Lutheran pietism, the goodness of God, grace, and the Evangelical-Progressive political alliance of that time.
I’m rather surprised to find, doing my read-through, that I quite like the book. I’m prejudiced, of course, but I think it holds together pretty well.
More as the situation unfolds.
I confess I learned about the new Kindle from TOP10 Kindle Fan and friend of BwB Hunter Baker on Twitter. He and the world have been excited over the news. The Kindle Fire
The NY Times has an eye-opening overview of Judith Krug’s crusade against content filtering in their 2009 obit. She claimed, “Library service in this country should be based on the concept of intellectual freedom, of providing all pertinent information so a reader can make decisions for himself.” She eventually applied that concept to her arguments against filtering internet access for children using library computers and against the federal government looking into a person’s library borrowing record (The USA Patriot Act still allows “the Justice Department to conduct searches of library and bookstore records, in the investigation of suspected terrorist activity.”)*
Miss Krug credits her parents for inspiring her to stand up for readers of the world. That story comes at the end of the obit. With crusaders for immorality like this in the world, it’s no wonder parents want to pull books out of school libraries or pull their kids out of public schools.
How can moral parents raise moral children in an immoral world? Continue reading Remarkable Legacy of Banned Books Week Founder, Judith Krug
Here’s a nice review with photos of Ripping Yarns, a bookshop of the type every city should have. Jen Campbell, the shop manager, is the one with that book, you know, that book about things folks say in shops like her’s. It’s not yet available in the States, but I’m sure President Obama will work out that diplomatic offense.
Editor Nick Harrison has a post on how a writer should attempt to find the right editor or agent for his material, not just the first available. One editor may reject a manuscript or cover letter on a technicality; another may give it a chance.
The first commenter on this post, Tim Riter, offers this illustration from his experience. “For two of my books, I sent in a proposal to an editor, who promptly rejected it with the nicest form rejection letter. Within a year, at writers conferences I met another editor from each of those houses with whom she, I, and the book clicked, and the houses bought it.”