Ketchup

I’m on fire. I’ve written 30,000 words in the past four weeks, which is awesome, except that this is the price ya pay. Here's what I look like. And, yes, those are ice packs on my smoking hot wrists. Ouch!

It’s been especially psychotic. Land Wars. Halloween. Grinding out Mind Plague. In my last Catching Up, I forgot to mention that I also had a gig last week at the library in Tracy, which is about an hour’s drive from home. The evening went well. Yes, two of the warm bodies in attendance were my parents, but there were eleven total, with lots of good energy and questions. We sold some books and I was invited back to perhaps teach a writing class this spring, so although the event was a bump in my routine, I felt it was worth it. Plus it’s always fun to get out into the real world and talk to real people.

This week I also fielded an interview request from German web site Phantastik Couch, who will soon be featuring Nano as their book of the month. I also learned that a trade journal called “Technology Review” featured a big thumbs up of the book over there. Can’t beat that! I believe the Phantastic Couch transcript will be translated into German, but, if so, maybe I’ll post the original version here, too, if anyone likes?

More soon.

Labels: Mind Plague, NANO, the writing life

…or, Jeff Bares All Without Losing His Pants!

For you cultureless heathens who don’t already know, Towelie is the intelligent super towel developed by the military in South Park. He’s also fond of bong hits. Hence the dull, bloodshot eyes and one of his catch phrases: “I’ve got no idea what’s going on.”

My buddy Joe Jordan, a fellow writer and Writers of the Future winner who is currently far away in the paradise known as Afghanistan, was among several folks who’ve asked about the foreign deals for the Plague novels, how it all works, what’s the money like, and whether or not Diana’s quitting her job and we’re buying a pair of Porsches.

Well, no. Even worse, sometimes I feel like Towelie. I have no idea what’s going on.

For one thing, remember, I’m still very new at this. For another, keep in mind that publishing is insane. I’m not going to get into specific numbers because I’m long way from being enough of big shot that I can wow y’all with lots of zeros, but here’s what I do know so far:

My advance from Ace was modest to say the least, but it earned out immediately. We saw a decent royalty check after the first accounting period, which wasn’t even a full six months, and we’ll be seeing another royalty check again shortly. Why? They got behind the book in a good way: embossing on the cover, some ads, and, most importantly, Plague Year really was a “mass market” mass market paperback. The initial print-run was solid and, for the first month, they had me on front-of-store display towers and tables in the major chains. Possibly even better, I was in airports and bus stations. The book went to a second print run to meet demand and by now, I’m pleased to report, we’re into a third edition.

By comparison, my German advance was hefty indeed. Partly that was because it was for three books, rather than one-by-one as Ace is doing, and you get half of the money for each title up front. Partly that was also because they’re paying in Euros, and some of the checks converted at upwards of 1.6 dollars per Euro. Shazam. The weird part to me is that the print run there was non-hefty. Of course, Germany and Austria are a much smaller market than North America, and my editor at Piper Verlag tells me that our run was quite good for a first novel by a foreign author… but I can’t see how they’re going to earn their money back. Not immediately. Possibly their business model isn’t so tightly screwed down as the American one, which seems to be make-or-break right out of the gates. The Europeans are wiser and calmer, and I have to assume they know what they’re doing. I write. They publish. That’s how it works. But I worry a bit.

Here’s where it gets extra strange.

The advance from my Spanish publisher was minimal. Neither I nor my agents expected anything more than a nice trade paperback release from Minotauro, just one book among several. We never even heard anything about when it would be published. What happened, of course, in the industry terminology, is that they went completely ape shit. The print run was fantastic for a first-time foreign author, in that gorgeous hard cover, with a promotion campaign that beats anything I’ve ever heard of. If my American publishers were duplicating that effort, we’d be millionaires.

So I have no idea what’s going on.

The only people who have shown any sense to date are the Romanians, bless ‘em. Small country… small advance… a small print run is planned… but with HUGE enthusiasm. My editor there loves what he’s doing and he’s going to play the books to the hilt, and I admire that in a big way.

Does that answer any questions or just open us up to more???

Labels: La Plaga, NANO, PLAGUE YEAR, the writing life

Also while we were talking with Carsten, the editor of one of the top genre magazines stopped by and asked me for a story. I’m well aware that I’m not the only writer who was extended this invitation, but that’s not something you’ll hear me complain about. In fact, I was greatly flattered, and I replied that I had just thing for him? her? and that I would write it as soon as I was finished with Mind Plague.

In the meantime, here’s the German cover for Nano.

Labels: German edition PLAGUE YEAR, NANO, WolrdCon reports