Kevin J. Anderson's Blog, page 11

TERRA INCOGNITA: Anatomy of a Book Release

<!--StartFragment-->

This will be a four-part series on the background efforts behind the release of a book.

Part 1:   Building Steam

 Writing the novel isn’t enough.

 In these days of numerous demands on the audience’s time and interest, an author can’t just deliver the finished manuscript to a publisher and trust that everything else will happen automatically.  When the book itself is completed, a lot of the writer’s work is just beginning.

 Although I’m a prolific author, each new book release requires specific attent

For Aspiring Writers

Many aspiring writers send me e-mails asking for advice on many aspects of the publishing and writing business.  Two blogs I would strongly encourage you to follow are by David Farland (Dave Wolverton) and Kristine Kathryn Rusch—both are bestselling, award-winning, and prolific authors, and both know what they’re talking about.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch posts a regular Freelancer’s Survival Guide with topics that are spot on.  You would be wise to read, and follow, what she says.

Dave publishes his “

WINDS OF DUNE banner

Tor has developed a striking new banner for THE WINDS OF DUNE.  The novel won’t come out until August, but we would very much appreciate if you’d post it on your MySpace, Facebook, or other pages.

 

Here is the code:

“

http://us.macmillan.com/thewindsofdune“>[image error]http://us.macmillan.com/CMS400/uploadedImages/TorForge/Non-Menu_Items/windsofdunebanner.jpg” bor

6000 Signature Sheets for THE WINDS OF DUNE

Boy is my hand sore (well, shoulder actually). Over the past week, night after night for a total of more than 16 hours, I autographed six thousand signature sheets for THE WINDS OF DUNE. Brian Herbert had already finished them and shipped two big boxes to me. Tor will be binding the signature pages (with Stephen Youll artwork) into “signed first edition” copies of the book, to be released in August. These signed books (which should have a sticker on the cover) will be distributed around book

Roswell Six/Terra Incognita: 40,000 plays and counting

 

The sample tracks on the Roswell Six profile page passed 40,000 plays today.  The major music distributor Ryko will be carrying the CD, distributing through retail channels.For those of you who preordered the CD through either  AnderZoneShop  or  ProgRockRecords , copies have already shipped.  

Meanwhile, the booklets for the signed, limited edition are circulating among the performers.  Chris Brown just sent us a photo of his autographing session (below); next, the booklets go to Gary Wehrkamp.

The

Contest winners announced

The winners of this month’s drawing for free hardcovers are JR RAITH (who received an autographed Enemies & Allies) and NEAL WILLIAMS (autographed Last Days of Krypton).  The names were drawn from those of you who have posted the Terra Incognita widget or added one of the Roswell Six songs to your profile on MySpace or other social networking sites.

At the beginning of June, we will do one more drawing, this time for three hardcovers—Paul of Dune, Enemies & Allies, and Last Days of Krypton.  We h

Las Vegas Booksigning, May 28

We have just set up a book-signing event for the Las Vegas area on May 28, 7 PM, for Enemies & Allies.  Rebecca and I will be at the Barnes & Noble in Henderson, NV—567 North Stephanie, Henderson, NV 89014  (702) 434-1533—to give a brief talk and then sign books.  I’ll autograph the new book, any of my backlist titles, as well as any of your own copies you bring into the store.  (I don’t require you to buy anything to get a signature, although remember that the bookstore is making the event happ

Video clips for ENEMIES & ALLIES

I’ve posted two new video clips from HarperCollins for Enemies & Allies, both filmed in the New York studio from my March trip.  The general video has a lot of bells and whistles, while the shorter clip is specifically tailored to Roswell Six fans.

USA Today also just picked Enemies & Allies as one of their Hot Summer Reads.

ENEMIES & ALLIES Released in Hardcover

My novel Enemies & Allies—the first meeting of Batman and Superman in the 1950s during the Cold War—has just hit bookstore shelves in hardcover from Morrow and DC.  

Jacket text:  ”As America and the Soviet Union race to build their nuclear stockpiles, two extraordinary heroes must form an uneasy alliance.  These studies in opposites—shadow and light—must overcome their distrust of each other to battle evil and injustice.

“Sputnik silently circles in the skies above the fabled cites of the United

THE WINDS OF DUNE Copy-Edit and UK Jacket Text

Brian Herbert and I have each received the manuscript of THE WINDS OF DUNE, which has been marked-up by the copy editor for spelling, punctuation, and consistency.  By the time we deliver a new DUNE ms., it has been studied and proofed so many times that it’s usually fairly clean. For WINDS, we have a new copy editor who seems to be unfamiliar with the series, either our new novels or Frank Herbert’s originals.  So, we’ve had to go through carefully to mark STET on all the times the copy editor incorrectly corrected (incorrected?) Chusuk to Chusak, adding an unnecessary second hyphen to Lisan al-Gaib, spelling out St. Alia of the Knife (which Frank Herbert did not do), and adding a hyphen to good-bye (which is not the style in any of our ten previous books…do they also want to add a hypen to to-night and to-morrow?) We are being very thorough, and then after we return the manuscript, we will see it one more time to proofread the typeset galleys.  Publication date is August 5.

We have also received the cover copy for the UK edition, to be released by Simon & Schuster. Here, as a sneak preview, is the jacket text:

After the reign of Muad’Dib, an empire begins to crumble.

Paul Muad’Dib – cheered as a hero, worshipped as a messiah, hated as a tyrant – has vanished into the endless deserts of the planet Dune, leaving his turbulent empire without guidance.  Now it’s up to his young sister Alia and  his formidable mother, the Lady Jessica, aided by the faithful Gurney Halleck, the Fremen leader Stilgar and the resurrected Duncan Idaho, to keep the human race from tearing itself apart.

Fuelling the flames of dissent is the outspoken rebel, Bronxo of Ix, doing everything he can to destroy the myth of Paul Muad’Dib, the man responsible for more deaths than any other in history.

Working with Princess Irulan, Jessica tries to uncover the truth about her son.  As the winds of rebellion and treachery brew, she discovers that Muad’Dib may have knowingly planted the seeds for his own downfall. And that Bronso of Ix has a secret mission of his own, one that will force Jessica to choose between the memory of her son and the future of the human race.

KJA


Get more on Kevin J. Anderson at SimonandSchuster.com