Matt Forbeck's Blog, page 77
March 19, 2010
Gathering Blurbs
I've had a dozen novels published to date, but everyone of them has been a tie-in. That means that the marketing for them has mostly on the strength of the brand to which the novel is tied. With my upcoming Guild Wars 2: Ghosts of Ascalon novel, for instance, Simon & Shuster is betting that the players who have ponied up for six million copies of the original game and its expansions are going to be interested in the book.
Original novels like Amortals and Vegas Knights, though, stand on their ...
Spiffed-Up Site
Amortals is due out in the UK on April 1, 2010, not even two weeks away. With that and Vegas Knights and Guild Wars 2: Ghosts of Ascalon coming down the pike this summer, I thought it was time to give the website a new look with a bit more spit and polish. I don't normally pimp things too hard here, but I think it's time to step that up for a little while.
Check out the sidebars. If you click on a sidebar's header, it collapses. Also, you can drag and drop the bits in each sidebar to...
March 18, 2010
2010 Scribe Nominees Announced
The nominees for this year's Scribe Awards — given out by the IAMTW for the best tie-in novels of the previous year — have been announced. The awards will be given out at Comic-Con International this July. Congratulations to all the nominees, especially to my pals Nathan Long, Jeff Mariotte, and Aaron Rosenberg. I'm glad to see such great work getting its due recognition.
2010 SCRIBE AWARD FINALISTS
BEST NOVEL (GENERAL FICTION)
AS THE WORLD TURNS: THE MAN FROM OAKDALE by "Henry Coleman" & Alina...
March 17, 2010
The Future of Publishing
Here's a brilliant little presentation that DK (publishers of The Marvel Encyclopedia I revised last year) put together for an internal sales conference in February, as Penguin's blog tells it. It's a clever piece about the end of publishing as we know it and the hope that gleams straight through that. Be sure to watch it all the way through.
(Hat tip to the ever-observant Mur Lafferty. I spotted this in her I Should Be Writing blog.)
March 16, 2010
Tools I Use: Scrivener
One of my favorite programs over the past few years is the Mac-only writing program Scrivener. If you're doing any kind of creative writing, give it a try. I raved about it on my Twitter feed a couple weeks back, and David Johnson — the sales and marketing man and chief tea-maker for the program's publisher, Literature & Latte — asked if I'd be willing to provide a testimonial for it. Once I finished up Vegas Knights, I did just that, joining a host of authors including Lou Anders, Tobias...
March 15, 2010
Gary Con 2 This Weekend
My son Marty and I will be heading up to Lake Geneva for Gary Con 2 this weekend. The current plan is to spend Saturday afternoon and evening there. If you're in the area and up for some old-school type gaming, come on out and join us!
Family Games: Writers and Games Announced
Family Games: The 100 Best — the sequel to the award-winning Hobby Games: The 100 Best — should be in stores sometime next week. If you can't find it at your friendly local gaming store, you can pre-order it through Green Ronin's site, and they'll offer you their Walk the Plank game for only $5 (about $10 off).
Editor Jim Lowder did a great job with lining up some serious talent for this tome, and the writers chose some excellent games to discuss. It's also bookended by two of my favorite...
The Leverage RPG
If you've been reading my Twitter feed, you probably know that I'm a huge fan of the TV show Leverage. The acting is sharp, the stories are great, and it looks fantastic. I've known the series' co-creator, John Rogers, for a few years, and the love he has for Leverage shows through in every episode. My son Marty has started watching the show with me this year, and we're having a ball with it.
When I spotted that Margaret Weis Productions has a Leverage RPG in the works, I shot them a note...
Vegas Knights Away!
Late last Thursday night/Friday morning, I finished the Vegas Knights death march and submitted the manuscript to my publisher, Angry Robot. The book is slated to appear in the UK this June, and in the US in July, so I cut it awfully short. I'm pretty happy with the book though. It combines many of my favorite topics: gambling, Las Vegas, magicians, and more. I'll be sure to tell you much more about it soon.
Next up, I'm working on a new draft of the Brave New World screenplay for Reactor 88...
March 4, 2010
Amortals Cover and First Review
The fine folks at Angry Robot are gearing up their diesel-powered PR machine for the impending debut of Amortals. Check out the snazzy action-movie-style cover on the left for a good gander at their graphic-design chops. I'm in total love with it and have been staring at it as my computer's desktop background for months.
I have a lot more to say about the book and to help promote it myself, but I'm still blazing away at Vegas Knights, my next novel after that. Just brace yourself for loads of ...
