Friday, 30 November 2007

November Winner

Swishhhh-Swushhhhh-Swooooooo! That's my impression of the windy end of autumn. Brilliant, isn't it?

Ah, the year grows late, dusk draws in early, fallen leaves flail upon the chilly norwesterly, and 'tis time to toast one's toes before the open fire, perhaps while enjoying a cup of mulled wine from the soft hand of a serving wench. What's more, 'tis the final day of November, and therefore by the ancient laws made up on the spot by me seven weeks ago, the dice shall choose the second (extremely) lucky winner of a Signed, Lined, Dated proof of Last Argument of Kings.

Pray to whatever dark gods you worship that the dice favour you.

And the winner is:

Wait for it.

Wait for it.

The dice are rolling.

Wait for it.

The 112th entry to the competition, which was from ...

Drum roll please ...

PEDRO MARROQUIN!!!!

Who, apparently, deserves a proof of Last Argument of Kings because ...

"...I'm in the middle of "Before they are Hanged", and I don't want to wait 5 months for the end of the story. You get so close to the characters such a long absence would be like being separated from your girlfriend for those 5 months."

Ah, Pedro, far be it from me to stand between you and your lady love. A round of applause, Ladies and Gentlemen, for PEDRO MARROQUIN. Don't hate him, hate the dice.

(Pedro, you should be in receipt of an e-mail from me requesting your postal address, and your choice of personalised inscription.)

I should point out that the proofs are now printed, and some of them already posted and in the sweaty hands of reviewers. So the winner should receive their proof within the next couple of weeks, just as soon as I get a response from Pedro, and can get to the publisher and sign the thing.

The dice have chosen the victor, but the unfortunate many should not despair as, on New Year's Eve, I shall pick the entry that tickles my funny bone/plays upon my heart-strings/flatters my bloated ego the most to win the final proof. The competition remains open, and anyone who wishes to enter should follow the instructions HERE.

Once again, I am FAR TOO GOOD TO YOU.

Labels: competitions

Sunday, 25 November 2007

ARCs

Ahhhhhh, look what's arrived:


Uncorrected Manuscript Proofs, Advance Reader Copies, Galleys, all used pretty interchangably to describe things like these, nearly finished but still slightly unfinished books sent out to reviewers, booksellers, other writers (and a few lucky competition winners) to promote a title.

It's a book. It's an un-proofread book, which means it has a few errors still in it (hence uncorrected manuscript proof). It's printed on less good paper than the final one. It isn't properly typeset, so the lines are further apart, and hence the book ends up a fair bit thicker than an actual trade paperback will do, as you can tell from this superb photograph of an ARC (on the left) and a trade paperback (on the right) of BTAH.


You might also be able to tell from this that the ARC has a glossy cover rather than a beautifully textured one, it has no embossing or foil or any of those other wondrous inventions that cause fantasy fans to flock to my books like moths to a flame. It has no quotes from reviews or other authors on the back, like the finished book probably will, but instead features the usual synopsis plus thrilling bullet points (of slightly questionable truth, but hey, who's counting) intended to promote the book to booksellers, reviewers, and industry-insider-types. The Last Argument of Kings proof says, in fact:

"The gripping conclusion to this must-read fantasy trilogy"

"No-holds-barred action that will set the fantasy world on fire"

"Addictive reading for fans of George RR Martin and Robert Jordan"

"Highly promotable author who has received great critical acclaim"

"100% sales increase between Book 1 and Book 2"

Make of those what you will ...

There is also, as it happens, a disclaimer inside every proof that goes out, that says something like, "This reader's copy is for promotional purposes and review by the recipient. Any duplication, sale, or distribution to the public is a violation of law." But it doesn't stop a flourishing market in these things on e-bay and the like, with proofs often reaching very high prices. 130 of Her Majesty's Pounds Stirling? They must be mental. Everyone turns a blind eye to this because, well, it's all publicity, ain't it? Not that authors or publishers see a penny from such sales, he moans with little grace. But hey, if you expected grace, you can't have been following this blog very closely.

Anyway, the bottom line as relates to this particular title, is that some (though not yet all) proofs of Last Argument of Kings will now be in the mail. To reviewers and bloggers (so we may see some early responses relatively soon) and, of course, to competition winners (yes, I'm talking about YOU Josh Meyer).

Remember, the dice shall be selecting a new winner in 5, count them, FIVE, days. Can you taste the excitement? CAN YOU?

Labels: process

Friday, 16 November 2007

Respec'

Ah, lookee here. Jeff VanderMeer, proper world fantasy award-winning respected author and critic, has posted a list of books that weren't quite in his ten best books of the year for amazon.com. Guess what, no doubt by some freak accident, got stuck to the bottom?

"The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie - A rough-and-tumble, bold entry to the heroic fantasy ranks that I found both compelling and ragged around the edges at the same time. I waffled back and forth on this, and can't remember how it didn't quite make the top ten, but I think it might've been published in the UK in 2006."

Damn that pesky 2006 UK release! When he says ragged round the edges, I'm assuming he's talking about the textured paper of the cover, of course. SFSignal has also been examining the book:

"In The Blade Itself, Abercrombie shows that humor can go a long way to energizing a story, and putting a human face on characters. We get a little sarcastic humor and some physical humor, all well timed and used to great effect. Also, the fight scenes are exceptionally well done. Abercrombie's fights are all fast paced, violent and bloody."

Sticking to the theme of adrenalin-pumping violence, Doug Pirko has passed a comment about The First Law on his livejournal that surely made me smile:

"As sword pr0n it is sans pareil if you like tight, confusing, slipping in the mud, colliding and collapsing into a deadly heap action."

'Sword pr0n sans pareil'. That heady juxtaposition of digital-age deliberate misspelling and chivalric french. I absolutely love it. Perhaps the title of my next work ...?

Labels: reviews

Tuesday, 13 November 2007

Proof-Reading

Not so long ago I launched a scathing attack on reviewers who blame editors for bad books. Alright, not an attack, I just said I thought it was a bit weird, when you've no idea what the editor did or didn't do. I made the point that, ultimately, an author has the right of refusal on changes and has to be responsible for the finished work. Poor proof-reading as a criticism I gave similarly short shrift. The author reads the proofs too, you know - they should be checking for errors, and again have the ultimate responsibility for the blah, blah, blah.

Then this lot arrived:


Not the tea, the page proofs. For those unfamiliar, when these turn up from the publisher it is the final chance to catch errors. The manuscript has been edited and desk-edited. Now the author, plus a paid proof-reader, sit down and examine the proofs which are, in theory, the final setting of the book, just on loose-leaf A4 rather than in a bound hardback, paperback, or whatever. There should hopefully be very few changes to make at this point. A spelling error or two. The odd double 'the', stuff like that. No re-writing of any significance, certainly. In fact, the author is supposed to pay for any changes made at this point (though my dark masters at Gollancz, being nice folks as dark masters go, have let me off so far).

It's hugely exciting when you see page proofs of your work for the first time (at least for me, I don't get out much). Even in this age of word-processors and desktop publishing, there's still something about seeing a book properly typeset. It gives the work extra authority. It seems suddenly something more than that nonsense you dreamed up alone in a dark room.

Unfortunately, the novelty does somewhat wane with time. Especially when you see page proofs of a book for the second or third time - for a mass-market or a foreign edition, say. There's also a strange effect that seems to happen after a book has been out for a while. All that stuff you thought you went over so carefully, that stuff you combed, and straightened, and flicked at until it was all perfect, suddenly some of it doesn't seem quite right anymore. You start to see clumsy constructions, words repeated too close together, and above all, the dreaded things you'd do differently now.

You squint at the page thinking, "bloody hell, can this really be the same version I proof read last time? This can't be right!" You drag an old edition down from the shelf (I do, as it happens, keep a shelf-full of my own books to hand, don't hate me) and you leaf through til you find the spot and, "bloody hell it is the right version! How did I never notice how rubbish that is?" For some reason, sequences you always thought were great at the time are particularly prone to this - perhaps, having written them and thought they were good you mentally put them to one side, then pay less attention in the edit, while re-writing, polishing and improving the weaker parts to the point where they're actually better.

Then, of course, there's that strange feeling of shiftless panic you get when it's actually time to hand the proofs back and let go of your work. Ever have it when you're posting a letter? You raise it to the slot in the postbox then suddenly you think - hold on, this is the right letter, isn't it? The envelope's got something in it, right? I put a stamp on it, didn't I? Then there's this odd sensation of horror as you finally drop the thing in the box and can't retrieve it any longer. The button is pushed. Multiply that by a thousand and that's the feeling of finishing the proofs, for me at least. No big moment of wey-hey! Now I can have the one cigarette a year I allow myself only when I finish a book like James Caan in Misery! Just a long, slow moment of - Shit. What did I get wrong?

March is going to be a big month for me. And perhaps for you too, if you're a reader of me, who knows? Before They are Hanged is coming out in the US, then in the UK in mass-market paperback, then Last Argument of Kings in the UK in hardcover and trade paperback. Great. The downside is that all three sets of proofs have turned up to read at once. Now the Last Argument of Kings I don't mind so much. Firstly, it's a brilliant, brilliant book (ha ha). Secondly, I haven't yet been able to just sit down and read it right through in a set form. Thirdly, I'm sure I'll find quite a few little corrections I want to make.

But I also have two very slightly different versions of Before They are Hanged to read. Better yet, I read it already a couple of months ago when I read the entire series back to back looking for howling plot-holes, and sudden changes of character hair-colour and the like. I read proofs of the UK trade editions before it was published last year. Furthermore, of course, I've read and re-read the entire thing while copy-editing and editing, I've read every chapter while writing, I've gone over and over, cutting down and refining, cutting down and refining, until I know it like God Save our Gracious Queen, just without the misty-eyed nostalgia.

I mean, Before They Are Hanged, it's a brilliant, brilliant book (ha ha). Of course it is. But please, just for a year or two...

Can I not read it again?

Labels: process

Monday, 5 November 2007

Going Dutch

So a Dutch deal for The Blade Itself came through last week, which is nice, and made me think that a quick statement of the status of The First Law around the world might be worthwhile...

UK
The Blade Itself and Before They are Hanged are out, Last Argument of Kings will be out in March 2008. The UK editions are also distributed throughout the Commonwealth, in theory, so Canada, Australia, and South Africa should get the books around the same time.

US
The Blade Itself is out in trade paperback from Pyr, Before They are Hanged is due in March, Last Argument of Kings hopefully in September 2008.

Germany
Kreigsklingen (Warblade) and Feuerklingen (Fireblade) are already out in a kind of chunky mass-market paperback format. I'm guessing the third book will follow at some point in 2008, maybe late summer? Don't know what it will be called, but one imagines it will have klingen on the end.

Spain
La Voz de las Espadas (the Voice of the Swords) is the Spanish title of The Blade Itself, and has been out in a very handsome hardcover from Alianza Editorial's Runas imprint for a few months. A Spanish edition of Before They are Hanged should follow in 2008, though I've no idea what they'll be calling it. Paperbacks at some point, maybe?

France
The Blade Itself will be published, I think in hardcover first, in February 2008 under the title L'Eloquence de l'Epee (The Eloquence of the Blade, doesn't everything sound cooler in French?). The French publisher, J'ailu, have bought all three books, but I'm not sure how quickly they plan to publish the other two, or when/how/if they'll schedule paperback editions.

Russia, Czech Republic, Poland, Finland, and now Holland
Translation rights have been sold to publishers all these countries, but I'm not sure when they're planning to do the translations. Russian rights were actually the first to be sold, I think, well before the UK Edition of Blade Itself was published even, so a good couple of years ago. Still no sign of a Russian edition, though, which is a shame, as I'm looking forward to seeing what the cover's like...

So, basically, as with many things, it's a whole lot of what I don't know. When they'll be published, what they'll be called, or what they'll look like is anyone's guess, though it's always interesting to see the different approaches that are taken to covers and titles in different countries. The one thing I can guarantee you, is that you'll know when I know ...

Labels: news