Winterbirth

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Man Buys Book and other links

September 7, 2007 in Winterbirth by Brian | No comments

What happens when a marketing professional buys a copy of Winterbirth? You get an interesting discussion of one man’s fantasy fiction purchasing decsions, and the role of marketing, packaging and promotion in said decisions, that’s what happens.

Just in case anyone is sitting there thinking ‘Well, I might buy a copy of Winterbirth, but what I really need to inform my purchasing decision is a proper extract. That prologue on your website’s just not enough. My appetites are bigger; I need something meaty, substantial and filling,’ what you’re looking for is now available here.

Leaving behind any pretence at relevance for one final link, here’s a report on the use of sacrificial goats in aircraft maintenance.

Self-Interviewing

August 16, 2007 in Interviews, Reviews, Winterbirth by Brian | No comments

There’s a very enthusiastic review of Winterbirth over at The Fantasy Review. Good stuff.

At the very end, there’s a plea for someone to get out the thumbscrews and extract an answer from me to a particular question. In an effort to cut out the middleman, and because one or two other people have been curious about the same subject, I thought I’d short-circuit the system a bit and do a quick interview with myself. So here we go … Oh, this will make basically no sense whatsoever to anyone who hasn’t read Winterbirth, by the way. Sorry.

Q: Is there going to be any more information on the Anain, Saolin or Whreinin?

A: Well I don’t want to stray into spoilerish territory. The safest thing to say would be that a little more info on all the races can be found in the Gazetteer on this very site, and more is likely to appear there eventually.

Q: ‘Little’ is a very accurate description of what’s currently in the Gazetteer. You can surely be a bit more revealing than that?

A: Okay, okay. First off, the Whreinin are extinct, so the chances of them taking an active role in this trilogy are … slim. They may get talked about now and again, though. For those interested in the archaeology of the writing process, back in the mists of time there did once exist a draft of Winterbirth, and a notional outline of the next two books, in which there was considerably more stuff about the Whreinin floating around. It didn’t survive the slaughter that is revising and rewriting.

As far as the Anain are concerned, the short answer is yes, there’s more to come on the subject of the Anain in both Bloodheir and Book 3. The focus stays on humans and Kyrinin, but the Anain won’t be staying entirely passive. What part they play, I obviously can’t tell you or I’d have to kill you.

Q: That’s slightly more illuminating, I suppose. Still seems a little coy as answers go. You haven’t even mentioned the Saolin, for example. Couldn’t you … Hello? Hello? Oh, our interviewee seems to have gone off to boil the kettle. I guess that’s the end of the interview.

Paperbacks, a Feast and a Big Fish

July 29, 2007 in Signing, Winterbirth by Brian | 1 comment

The UK paperback of Winterbirth has definitely been released into the wild. I know this because I have seen it there with my own eyes, looking all pale and pristine and appealing on the bookshop shelves. (And because Amazon is uttering those delightful words ‘In Stock’.)

In other news, Reader’s Paradise bookshop in Cape Town is running a Fantasy Feast for the next couple of months. They’ve managed to assemble signed bookplates from a whole heap of authors – me included, along with a lot of rather more high profile folk like Tad Williams, Neil Gaiman and Charles Stross (it’s an sf feast too, see) – so there’s a veritable mountain of signed books available, along with various other goodies. It looks like a great event (and a great shop), so now anyone who’s in Cape Town in August or September knows where to go …

And here’s a link to a photo that illustrates very clearly why I won’t be going swimming in the Mekong River this lifetime.

Covers

July 4, 2007 in Covers, Translations, Winterbirth by Brian | No comments

More bookskins. The German edition of Winterbirth is due out some time around November. I’m guessing, since there looks to be a line of figures winding its way between the pointy mountains, that this is an image of the Vale of Stones, through which first refugees and then armies march in the book. The trilogy’s got the overall title of ‘Die Welt aus Blut und Eis’ (The World of Blood and Ice) in German, which sounds suitably dramatic. Wagnerian, even?

And the final version of the cover that’s going to be used in the US and on the UK paperback (released in September and August respectively) has emerged, slightly different from – and I think ever so slightly improved on – the one I posted a while back.

I’ve liked, in one way or another, all the covers I’ve seen applied to Winterbirth so far. No doubt some of them will work better than others in drawing attention to the book (and selling it, which is my favourite part of the process obviously), but I don’t really feel able to judge that (yet – I wonder if publishers dread the moment when authors start to develop and voice strong opinions about things like cover art?). What I can say is I’m a big fan of the UK paperback cover, which is the only one I’ve seen a hard copy of. It’s got a nice cold, gritty vibe going on. Plus, although you can’t tell it from this image, the word ‘Winterbirth’ is embossed and has a bit of a metallic sheen to it. To be embossed is good; to be embossed and shiny is doubly good. You see how easy authors (well, this author at least) are to please?

Orbit USA

April 30, 2007 in Covers, Orbit, Winterbirth by Brian | No comments

Orbit’s new USA imprint is showing its first signs of life: orbitbooks.net. And the first book displayed on their publishing schedule is … Winterbirth. It’s scheduled for release in September. This is a good and exciting thing.

As is pretty much always the case, crossing the Atlantic involves a new cover, so here’s what Winterbirth will be wearing in the US this Fall:

Odds & Ends

December 11, 2006 in Magazines, Reviews, Translations, Winterbirth by Brian | No comments

There’s a very friendly review of Winterbirth over at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist. If all goes according to plan, I should be doing an interview for that site soon, too.

A PS to my last post about Interzone: I discover (via the excellent UK SF Book News) that there’s an ambitious newcomer on the UK sf/f/h short fiction scene: Hub Magazine. While idly poking about their website, I further discover that they have a competition in their first issue, in which they seem to be giving away copies of Winterbirth. Now if that doesn’t tempt the masses into subscribing nothing will. Maybe. Or not. Anyway, quite aside from their excellent taste in competition prizes, any new fish in the small pond of UK genre magazines is to be welcomed.

Plus: Looks like another European sale of the Godless World trilogy is sorted out, this time for the Czech Republic. Hooray.

And finally: I’m looking forward to this. Rumour has it, it’s pretty good once it gets going.

Winterbirth Goes on Holiday

November 6, 2006 in Photos, Winterbirth by Brian | No comments

Even a book needs a break now and again. Tom sent this photo of Winterbirth relaxing on a beach in Mallorca, in the company of a cool sand sculpture. Like it. The book was released into the wild in a hotel lobby, so somewhere in Mallorca there’s a lonely copy of Winterbirth mooching about the bars looking for friends, probably fluttering its pages seductively, asking people if they like its cover and trying to shake the sand out of its crevices.

Winterbirth Going International

October 31, 2006 in Signing, Translations, Winterbirth by Brian | No comments

Just in case any non-Brits are visiting (and very welcome you are, if so), it might be worth mentioning that there are to be translations of Winterbirth. Dutch, German, Russian, Polish and Romanian editions are in the works so far – exciting stuff for your average first-time author who thought just trying to get a UK publishing deal was being optimistic!

The first to see the light of day is likely to be the Dutch edition from M, scheduled for around April 2007. Current plans are for the German edition, from Piper, to hit the shelves in Autumn 2007. I am in awe, by the way, of those who have the skills to translate a novel. Being functionally illiterate in any language but English myself, their abilities seem almost magical to me.

And for anyone toying with the idea of buying the good old-fashioned English language version of Winterbirth, a reminder that if you contact Transreal Fiction they can sell you a signed (and optionally personalised!) copy, as reported in this post. It may be an enormously valuable heirloom one day. Or a handy signed doorstop. Never know when you might need one of those.

Signed Copies – an Update

October 23, 2006 in Signing, Winterbirth by Brian | No comments

So … I said a few days ago that there were only two ways to get my signature in a copy of Winterbirth:

(a) ask Orbit to send you a signed bookplate thingy for insertion into your copy, and

(b) search the bookshops of Edinburgh for the signed copies that most of them have (or certainly did have a week or two ago).

Well, now there’s a third rather more user-friendly option that works even for those who don’t live anywhere near Edinburgh: contact Transreal Fiction, Edinburgh’s specialist sf/f bookshop, and they will be happy to sell and post you a signed copy. There might be ever so slight a delay, since I will have to actually pop in there to sign the thing, but it’ll only be a few days. A (very simple!) personal dedication or inscription should be possible if you ask for it.

I believe Anderida Books, a specialist seller of signed first edition books of all kinds, also has a few signed copies in stock at the moment, or will do very soon (as well as whole host of other tempting offerings for the discerning book collector).

A Tentative Schedule, Signed Copies, Vicious Books

October 13, 2006 in Signing, Winterbirth by Brian | No comments

Got a couple of questions via the website, the answers to which may be of wider interest, so:

When are the second and third books in the trilogy going to be published? The plan is for a roughly annual schedule, so Book 2 should be out late 2007, Book 3 late 2008. Plans are fragile things of course, but that’s the one in place unless and until something changes. Titles are to be confirmed – I think I know what Book 2′s called, but at the moment I’ve got title block over Book 3 …

How can I get a signed copy? I’m afraid for the time being there are only two ways, and one of them’s relevant only to a few readers. The first is to contact Orbit ( Orbit(at)littlebrown(dot)co(dot)uk with the (at) and (dot)s replaced as appropriate, of course ), and ask them to send you a signed bookplate that you can put into the copy you’ve already bought. The second applies only to those geographically fortunate enough to live within easy reach of Edinburgh: most of the bigger bookshops have signed hardbacks for sale (unless they’ve improbably sold them all already).

And finally … got my first report of Winterbirth-induced bloodshed: “In an incident as freakish as it was dramatic, at 6am this morning I managed (in my sleep) to knock my newly acquired hardback copy off the shelf above my head and deliver a gash to the forehead … Luckily I wasn’t blinded but I think I will gain a black eye.” Obviously I regret any pain and suffering caused, though a little bit of collateral damage is probably inevitable in the cutthroat world of publishing. And it does seem strangely appropriate, given the not-unbloody cover art.

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