This is the first full week THE PENGUINS OF DOOM has been out and I'm starting to hear from kids and parents about how well the book appeals to reluctant readers, advanced readers, math geeks, boys, girls, and ages 8 through 91 at least! The positive feedback has been the best and most satisfying part of the entire publishing process, by far.
Also this week I toured New Hampshire and Vermont with fellow debut authors of the Class of 2k7: Sarah Aronson, Alice Bauer, Carrie Jones, Jo Knowles, and Heather Tomlinson. On Tuesday the six of us read from our books and answered questions in the Dartmouth Bookstore in Hanover, New Hampshire, where I forgot to bring to bring my camera so you'll have to take my word for it that the book display was awesome. On Wednesday we were at the Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne, Vermont, where our book presentation was enhanced by pizza and commemorative mugs!
In addition to those fine independent bookstores and others, this week I learned that THE PENGUINS OF DOOM will be carried nationally by Barnes & Noble. This is huge news for my publisher, Blooming Tree Press, because it's so difficult for books from a smaller press to get the attention of the chains.
And finally, I'm selling autographed copies through Amazon because I've been hearing from people who want my name written in their book but aren't located close enough to make that practical. Autographed copies cost $13.95, which is the cover price of a non-autographed copy. What a bargain!
Fairytale: n. 1. A projection off the posterior of a fairy that wags when the fairy is happy, puffs out when the fairy is scared, and drops down when the fairy is sad. Note: In some sub-species, fairytails may be prehensile!
I'm never sure whether fairytales must have fairies in them or whether they're just a synonym for those folktales with magical creatures of any kind--and I'm too lazy to look it up now.
The real point of this post is that my friend and fellow 2k7er, Sarah Beth Durst, has made her fairytale into a novel: the wonderful upcoming INTO THE WILD. To celebrate, she's asking other authors about their thoughts on the fairytale genre. And this week, she interviewed me!
A couple things that didn't make it into the interview... I mention THE MAGIC FISHBONE by Charles Dickens, which is a tale with fairies in it but not a proper folktale, since it never evolved over time in an oral tradition. The version I have is a self-contained and well-illustrated volume that's been passed down from my grandfather, but I recently learned that this story was one from a set of four that Dickens wrote while traveling in America, with each of the four told by an unreliable child protagonist--just like THE PENGUINS OF DOOM!
Also, the question Sarah Beth asked about my use of fairytale motifs got me thinking about the sci-fi version of Sleeping Beauty that vanished in a hard drive crash. It would be fun to write again, if I could remember how it went.
So thanks to Sarah Beth for the interview and for giving me even more story ideas when I don't have time to write them down. :D
How about an Advance Reader Copy of your upcoming book?
Happy Mother's Day, Mom!!!
Today's Word of the Day is: Pre-Order
Pre-Order: vt. 1. To register a desire to purchase an item before that item is not quite officially for sale; 2. To stake a claim on a hot new thing no one else has; 3. To buy something that you can't take home with you.
I've been hearing from people who have already placed a pre-order for The Penguins of Doom on Amazon, which is incredibly gratifying for me as an author. It means that people are eager to have a copy at the earliest possible date and that they're willing to purchase the book without seeing it first.
But I've also heard from people who are waiting for autographed versions to become available, or who wish there were an easy way to pre-order the book from their local Barnes & Noble, Borders, or independent bookseller.
So in the spirit of making your pre-order experience as effective as possible, I'm offering a Penguins of Doom pre-order kit that includes:
- Penguins of Doom cards with all the information a bookseller would need to place a pre-order for you;
- An autographed bookplate that can instantly transform an ordinary copy of The Penguins of Doom into an autographed copy;
- A letter from main-character Septina Nash, thanking you for your purchase; and
- A chance to win an original Penguins of Doom manuscript page, suitable for framing.
THE PENGUINS OF DOOM
P.O. Box 541401
Waltham, MA 02454-1401
If you want the bookplate signed to a specific person, please spell out the name in your most legible print.
You may already be pre-ordering a copy of the next Harry Potter, so you won't even need to make a special trip. The penguins thank you for your support!
 | Currently reading : The Penguins of Doom (From the Desk of Septina Nash) By Greg R. Fishbone Release date: By 07 July, 2007  |
Today's word of the day is: ARC
ARC: n. 1. Acronym for Advance Reader Copy; 2. Although the "R" is redundant because all books are intended for readers; 3. And the "C" is also redundant because all books are copies of the original manuscript; 4. But I guess it would be confusing to just call them A's.
I'm told there was an ARC of THE PENGUINS OF DOOM available for viewing at the Texas Library Association conference a couple weeks back. That's the strategy Blooming Tree Press came up with--let people see the book, make them want it, but don't actually let them have it. Not just yet! This is a book to anticipate. This is a book to make you check your calendar. This is a book like the next Harry Potter, which won't be available to anyone until the stroke of midnight on the release date. And like the next Harry Potter, THE PENGUINS OF DOOM may be pre-ordered before then at Amazon.com.
I imagine my ARC was kept under glass at TLA, to keep the pages from becoming all drool-soaked and nasty. And they probably had to hire somebody to Windex the glass every few minutes to keep it clean and sparkly. It must have been awesome!
I'm also told that select book reviewers are getting their ARCs this week. Now that's exciting! I'm really looking forward to is hearing what other people think about the story! Especially the book reviewers from Kirkus and School Library Journal, who are extremely smart and have wonderful taste in penguin-based entertainment.
ARCs are meant for review purposes and as samples for booksellers or librarians. Publishers give ARCs away to those who are in a position to generate sales of NARCs (Non-Advance Reader Copies, i.e. regular books). ARCs aren't sold, so they don't generate a penny of royalties for their authors, and for that reason ARCs should be kept forever as treasured collectibles and prominently displayed in framed shadowboxes like gold records in the recording industry.
However, these ARCs often pop up instead on Ebay or even on bookstore shelves. I once found a friend's ARC, with the publisher's big "ADVANCE COPY: NOT FOR SALE" label on it, on the shelf at a bookstore. If I hadn't snapped it up and mailed it to her, she'd never have received an ARC of her own book!
I should be getting a few ARCs this week or next. I plan to bring them around to local bookstores and show them off at the New England SCBWI conference next month in Nashua, NH...if I can borrow some of that drool-proof glass. :D
WOTD: Pod People
I made up that second definition, but Pod Person sounds so much cooler than Podcaster. Seriously, wouldn't you rather be an emotionless humanoid vegetable from outer space than just some guy with an internet radio show? Plus the space veggies of the movie spread among the human population because they were organized, communicated well, and had an effective outreach program--which is also what it takes to have a successful podcast.
I've watched from the sidelines as podcast technology and culture developed and matured over the past few years. Now that it's no longer such a hot and trendy thing to have a podcast, I feel I can safely start one up without seeming like such a complete geek.
Also, I finally have something to... cast... in my pod. In the editing process for THE PENGUINS OF DOOM, a whole bunch of letters, memos, and newspaper clippings were removed from the book. This material, mostly written from the point of view of Septina's school counselor, takes place at the same time as the book and offers some behind-the-scenes information about the story. Those are all going into the podcast, along with author interviews, classroom assignments, fun facts, and whatever else I can think of.
I don't think anyone else has ever done anything quite like it, and Blooming Tree Press is behind me 100%, so I really had to give it a try. This weekend we recorded and cut a rough version of the first of a projected 33 episodes. The process has given me a great deal of respect for sound editors and voice actors. It's going to take a whole lot of work to get this project whipped into shape, but it's also going to be a whole lot of fun.
Incidentally, they're remaking Invasion of the Body Snatchers again this year (as they did in 1978 and 1993). This year's model, The Invasion, stars Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman, and is in post-production for scheduled release in August. The Pod People are coming! The Pod People are coming!
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