near + far

As you may know from the five bajillion posts and tweets and updates and god know what all else, I just had a book come out. I tried to have a somewhat coherent, or at least well-documented, promotion battle plan. Some stuff worked, some things worked better than others, and some stuff I dropped the ball on.

Things I did included:

• Making jewelry: Anyone following the blog has seen the jewelry based on the interior art that Mark W. Tripp and I put together. They turned out beautifully and were a lot of fun to make. I’ve used those pieces as giveaways at the book launch post, as well as various web giveaways, and people seem to like them. I’ve been able to post some pictures of people wearing those, and that’s been fun as well. I made sure the pieces I handed out at WorldCon had chains with them, so people could put them on immediately and many did. I also made special versions for blurbers and other people involved with the book design.
• Sending out an email: I sent out an email listing what people could do to promote Near + Far. I sent it to friends, fans, fellow writers, anyone I thought might be interested, and tried not to be too spammy about it, including a way they could remove themselves from my mailing list.
• Contacting book bloggers and reviewers: I contacted a number of people, making my list simply by poking around on popular spec fic sites to look at their blogrolls. I’d intended to set up a blog tour, but didn’t get my act together on that, so there was no organized effort along those lines, but I did do a number of interviews.
• Getting stories out there in both audio and print form: Figuring that samples of my work were one of the best ways to intrigue people, I sent out a lot of stories, including a number of audio reprints. I made sure that in the bio statements for each of these I mentioned the new book.
• Goodreads giveaway: I set up a Goodreads giveaway, following the excellent suggestions Emily Chand laid out in How to Run a Goodreads Giveaway with Maximal Results. The giveaway is currently on its last day, with 752 people requesting it, which seems like a good result, particularly since a third to half of them have added it to their to-read list.
• Blog giveaway: I gave away three pieces of jewelry on the blog, and had about a hundred entries all together. In retrospect, I might follow the poilicy mentioned in the Goodreads piece and just distribute one thing at a time, but next week I’ll be doing a sticker giveaway with stickers from the interior art.

Last day of the giveaway! Remember that you can comment five times (one per giveaway post) in order to be entered five times in the jewelry giveaway. Here’s another shot of that jewelry, just because it’s so pretty. 🙂

The book launch has been going well. If you’re one of the people who’ve finished the book already, Amazon reviews are most welcome if you feel so inclined. (Yeah, I know that’s shameless, but I’d really like this book to do well because I love it so much.) Lots of people have signed up for the Goodreads give-away and 165 people have added it on there.

Some of the interviews, reviews, and guest blog posts:

• An interview with Marshall Payne
• A plug from my cousin Tammy Salyer, author of CONTRACT OF DEFIANCE 🙂
• A giveaway on Diabolical Plots
• Interview for Amber Sistla’s Writer Wednesday
• Review on Tor.com by Stephen Raets
• Katherine Sparrow calls me daring, twisted, dark, hilarious, and wise. Your mileage may vary.
• An interview and giveaway on Far Beyond Reality
• Interview with Bryan Thomas Schmidt
• I talk about sex and the book for the Outer Alliance blog

So here’s the last five of our images, left to right.

Image #1 accompanies the story “Angry Rose’s Lament.” It’s another of the images that remind me of a submarine, if you had one carved by Aztecs.
Image #2 was chosen to go with the story, “Long Enough and Just So Long.” I like this image to the point where I’m considering another tattoo, featuring this. I don’t know why it appeals to me so much.
Image #3 was chosen for its swordlike aspect to illustrate the superhero story, “Ms. Liberty Gets A Haircut.”
Image #4 is set with the story “Seeking Nothing.” This one’s half submarine, half brass musical instrument.
Image #5 illustrates the story “Surrogates,” because it often looks to me like a laughing jester’s face, of the sort that perfectly illustrates that story.

Day Four of the giveaway and row four of the art! This week has seen some nice press for the book, including a nice Tor.com review by Stephen Raets. If you’re looking for other places to possibly score a piece of the jewelry, try David Steffen’s blog, Far Beyond Reality, or the Goodreads giveaway for Near + Far. As always, comment here to be entered in this particular giveaway!

Image #1 appears on both the title page of Far and the story “Five Ways to Fall in Love On Planet Porcelain.” Christmas tree, one-eyed triffid, and rocket ship all in one.

Image #2 accompanies the flash piece, “Space Elevator Music”. I picked it for its upward line, which made me think of a rising elevator.

Image #3 is a favorite of mine because it always makes me think of the submarine in Yellow Submarine. I picked it to go with a story that’s light and funny and silly accordingly, “Zeppelin Follies.”

Image #4 is a lovely piece that, if I look long enough, becomes a woman wearing an elaborate headdress. As always, your mileage may vary there. It goes with the story, “A Querulous Flute of Bone,” which appeared in the anthology TALES FROM THE FATHOMLESS ABYSS and features the philosopher-king Nackle.

Image #5 actually doesn’t seem to appear in my copy of the book, but it’s a proof, so things may have changed somewhere along the line. Bonus!

I had to go hunt for my proof copy of the book in order to be able to look up the art this time. Tod snagged all my extras in preparation for the reading this Friday, at the University Bookstore in Seattle, at 7 pm. I’ll be reading with three terrific writers: Alma Alexander, Corry L. Lee, and Roz Kaveny.

So! Here’s day three of the giveaway. Comment to win!

(left to right)

Image #1 goes with the story “Therapy Buddha,” which is about how much we project things onto objects and coincidences. It’s near future, another one of the eyed creatures, this one peering down, a little inquisitively, a little confusedly. It looks like part of an organic machine, like so many of Mark’s images.

Image #2 accompanies the story, “Close Your Eyes,” which originally appeared in Apex Digest. This is the one I have as a tattoo, from back before I moved to Seattle, given to me one night in a Durham tattoo parlor. I like it for its ability to be wing and eye and fish, all in one. Vicki used it with the Table of Contents as well.

Image #3 looks like a rocket ship and a Greek amphora at the same time, perhaps bubbling over with some sort of pine and summer scented wine. I selected it to go with “Peaches of Immortality” because it seemed to me it looked a little like the machine at the end of the story.

Image #4 is a detail of the larger image that goes with “The Mermaids Singing, Each to Each.” I’m glad Mark pulled it out like this for the jewelry, since it makes a lovely little piece. His work often has a tribal feel to it, and this looks like an orca to me.

Image #5 goes with “Legends of the Gone”. Sometimes Mark repeats images and this is a variant of one that I always see as a large flightless bird, standing looking at the viewer. (You may not see it. That’s okay.)

Today’s the official day that Near + Far is launched upon the world. Huzzah! If you’re wondering how to buy or spread the word about the book, here’s some details.

There’s a giveaway for jewelry going on here on this blog throughout this week.
There’s a giveaway for a signed copy of the book along with one of the Near + Far necklaces on GoodReads.
David Steffen is hosting a giveaway here.
Here’s a book trailer!

Some of you have received the mail I sent out talking about what you could do to spread word of the book. Here’s some of the pertinent details from that for those as wants such.As you know, publishing is changing and increasingly authors are part of the promotion process. I’m asking — if you should feel so inclined — for your help if getting the buzz out.

So what can you do?

Well, sure, buy the book is top of the list. But we don’t all have the budget. Here’s some other ways that you can assist in getting the word out about Near + Far:

1. Request it through your library. Most will even let you do this online.

2. Request it at your local bookstore. It’s available through Ingram, a major book distributor, so they should be able to get it.

3. Write an Amazon review or tag the book on Amazon. Amazon reviews are great! But if you don’t have the time to write one up, you can still help. One way that often gets overlooked is tagging. Scroll to the bottom of the Amazon page for the book until you see “Tags Customers Associate with This Product.” Add tags that you think might help someone find the book, if you notice anything missing, or just go through and check the boxes next to the tags you think are relevant (which is hopefully all of them.)

4. Review it or add it to your to-read list on book sites. Reviews on Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, LibraryThing (http://www.librarything.com/work/13024203/book/89765198), and Shelfari are great!

5. Blog about the book. Any mention of the book, particularly one that explains why you liked it, is awesome. There’s actually some cool little things about the book:

• The tête-bêche format, also known as the Ace Double. Flip the Near side of the book over, and you’ll find Far on the other side.
• The interior artwork is by long-time friend Mark W. Tripp.
• If you’re one of the people who’s already received a necklace, take a picture of it with yourself to send me for the Near + Far page. Or alternately, the necklace with someone/something/draped across a rotting log/in a bookstore/whatever?
• Stories range from very early to very recent, spanning markets from Asimov’s and Lightspeed to small and somewhat obscure anthologies. I’ve included some of my favorite stories, such as “The Mermaids Singing Each to Each,” “Surrogates,” and “Bus Ride to Mars.”

6. Share news of it on social networks. Sharing links on Facebook and other social networks is great. I’ll be posting links to blog entries about the book on the main networks I use: Facebook, Google +, and Twitter. Just favoriting, plusing or liking posts helps give them a little Google juice. Even going to the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/nearplusfar and clicking “Like” helps.

7. Share news of it on mailing lists and other groups. Pass the news along to your fellows on writing or SF-related discussion boards, BBSes, mailing lists, and other forums.

8. Share links on bookmarking sites. If you use bookmarking sites like Delicious, Reddit, or Stumbleupon, please think about bookmarking pages about the book. Here’s some pages that might be worth bookmarking:

Hydra House page for the book
Overview of the book
Zeppelin Follies, read by Folly Blaine

Resources for Sharing:
Here’s a link to the book on the Hydra House Books page:
http://hydrahousebooks.com/bookstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=7

Here is the Amazon listing:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0984830146/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0984830146&linkCode=as2&tag=carawr-20
Barnes & Noble listing:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/near-far-hydra-house/1112139962?ean=9780984830145

Here it is on other networks:
Delicious
FaceBook
GoodReads
Pinterest
Shelfari

This week sees the book getting officially launched on Wednesday. This week I’ll be doing a series of five posts about the interior art. Comment on a post to be entered to win one of three pieces of Near + Far jewelry; comment on all five posts and you’ll be entered five times.

Here’s the second row of pieces. I was talking to someone last night about why it made me so happy to use Mark’s art: he’s been showing it to me for close to two decades and I’ve always wanted to use it to illustrate something.

So, left to right: Image #1, which has a funky little seahorse feel. When looking at Mark’s pieces, I tended to use the older stuff for “Near” stories and newer for “Far”. This one went with VocoBox ™, an early story about what would happen if cats could talk. (And I think it’s fairly accurate in that regard.) My cat is named Raven, much like the cat in the story, and this is my way of preserving him, because he’s been a great cat. 🙂

Image #2 has a sparse feel to it, and there’s one of those funky little eyes peering out at you. It accompanies the story “Not Waving, Drowning” (a title shamelessly taken from Stevie Smith, because it’s so terrific), which is about the harder side of telepathy, which always seemed to me like a terrible, terrifying superpower.

Image #3 is another earlier one, and it makes me think of the idea of spaceships as living things. It accompanies RealFur, a story about the relationship between people and objects, a theme which gets explored in “Therapy Buddha” as well.

Image #4 accompanies a story that appeared in Talebones, “Memories of Moments, Bright As Falling Stars”. It’s a cypberpunk-influenced story, and one I like a lot for its grungy and sometimes eccentric world.

Image #5 also accompanies a story influenced by the cyberpunk movment, “10 New Metaphors for Cyberspace.” It’s a flash piece, or perhaps a prose poem, depending on your definition, trying to think about how we might have seen cyberspace if Gibson hadn’t shaped it so definitively.

If I picked a favorite from this batch, it would be either #2 or #5. We still haven’t seen the one that I have as a tattoo yet, or the one that I’m thinking about for a new tattoo. 😉

This week sees the book getting officially launched on Wednesday. This week I’ll be doing a series of five posts about the interior art. Comment on a post to be entered to win one of three pieces of Near + Far jewelry; comment on all five posts and you’ll be entered five times.

So left to right above are five of the interior illustrations from the book. One of the things Mom said to me last night was how much she was enjoying the afternotes, so I’m trying not to repeat those too much, but to add a touch more to them.

Leftmost is a star like pattern, which accompanies far future story “Timesnip,” in which 18th century Victoria Woodhull copes with life in the future as a traveling saleswoman dealing in time travel. It’s actually a version of one of the other illustrations, arranged in a star cluster, which mark didn’t point out to me till later. That seems very fitting, given the circularity of the story.

The second pattern is one that accompanies the story “Amid the Words of War.” Its cramped interior echoed the desperation on Six’s part that I wanted to convey over the course of the story. The story is about war and conflict and the distrust they force on each other. The pieces in the book are black and white and here Mark’s chosen to create a white “eye” for a number of the illustrations which (to me) just adds to the coolness and makes each one become a creature presenting itself sideways to the camera.

The third design accompanies the story “Kallakak’s Cousins”. Again, there’s that eye looking out, and sometimes it’s a creature and sometimes a face, sometimes a helmet built of butterflies and submarines.

The fourth accompanies a flash piece, “Futures.” It resembles a submarine, or perhaps a rocket ship, although once more there’s an eye, set dead center in this case.

The fifth is used with the slipstream afterlife story, “Bus Ride to Mars.” It’s one of Mark’s older pieces, a sideways slash of a piece that appears differently in here than in the book itself.

I’m prepping for next week and the official release of the book. I’ll be doing some blog posts about the interior art over the next few days as well as trying to tie up a lot of loose ends. (And I’m prepping for the next round of classes – plenty of time to sign up still if you’re interested.) And at the end of the month, I’m off to Baltimore for a few days for the Baltimore Book Festival, yay!

The party at WorldCon was so! great! And it helps to have such a nifty book to show off. So I wanted to enthuse a bit more about it and why I’m so happy with it.

1. It’s the old Ace double format. I used to love those whenever I found them in the used bookstores.
2. Vicki Saunders did an amazing job with the book design, including using elements from the interior art to create printer’s ornaments to denote section breaks. In a move I consider above and beyond, they differ between the two books.
3. I have been admiring Mark Tripp’s art for over a decade now. He’s a good friend and I can’t begin to say how much it means to me to use his art, so we’ve got a collaboration other than the game we’ve both worked on for a bajillion years, Armageddon MUD.
4. I found out I had more than enough SF for a collection. In fact, we had to cut some of it. A surprising amount.
5. A favorite editor from Microsoft, Jo Molnar, agreed to do the copy-editing. I’d worked with Jo before and knew he was meticulous and careful, and that he’d bravely face the demands of a spec fic collection, including questions like how one formats telepathic communications.
6. I got plenty of input in how the book looked, the order, the editing and so forth. It’s more than just a collection of my work, it’s an expression of my philosophy regarding books.
7. Publisher and friend Tod McCoy has become one of my favorite people to work with. He solved problem after problem, came up with clever ideas, and was always enthusiastic, knowledgeable and supportive. And fun as hell.
8. The awesome blurbs, including a somehow very Norman-ish note from Norman Spinrad and an unconventional list for an unconventional book by Karen Joy Fowler.
9. Getting to throw a book launch party at WorldCon, the biggest of the SF conventions.
10. It’s appearing in time for World Fantasy Convention, and I know Tod will make sure there’s copies there so I may actually sign more than a couple books at the con.

You can find the book for preordering at Hydra House.

It’s the day after the last day of Chicon 7, and I have caught up a little on sleep. I had one of the best times I’ve ever had at a convention, and the book launch party went (IMO) swimmingly. Lots of people showed up, people really loved the jewelry and the stickers, and everyone seems to think the book design almost as cool as I do.

Some people who helped make it the most awesome of cons were: Al Bogdan, who’s provided some lovely party pics; the enigmatic Folly Blaine/Christy Johnson, who is always good con company; Randy Henderson, who pitched in when needed and also kept everyone from taking things too seriously; Stina Leicht, whose book And Blue Skies From Pain was also being promoted at the party and who was an excellent co-host as well as providing a vicarious experience of being on the ballot 😉 ; Vicki Saunders, who trekked and fiddled and above all, kept me from stressing (too much); Dallas Taylor, bartender extraordinaire and always, always, always Tod McCoy for being one of the prime instigators of all this madness.

Various highlights:

1. Watching the Hugo Awards from the bar with Folly Blaine, Gio Clairval, and Tod McCoy and supplying what John Scalzi was saying since we didn’t have any sound.
2. Lovely lunch with Kay Kenyon and all too brief Louise Marley time.
3. Several people thanking me for personalized rejections from Fantasy, and one young man saying that rejection was one of the reasons why he was still writing.
4. As always, meeting many people I knew from correspondence or social networking and getting a chance to put faces and voices to the icons and screen names. Two I was particularly excited to meet were Gio Clairval and Jay Caselberg.
5. Getting to squee like a fangirl upon meeting Sharon Shinn.
6. A stint at the SFWA table and getting to stroke Catherine Lundoff’s lovely book cover for Silver Moon, which is a kickass novel about menopausal women turning into werewolves, which I’m downloading onto my Kindle asap.
7. The Broud Universe Rapidfire Reading, which was jampacked with great stuff, including a closing filk song, which was about the nicest way to end a reading that I’ve seen or heard in a long time.
8. Getting to see Rachel Swirsky in full and beautiful glitter.
9. A lot more which is still full of happy, giddy blur, so if I’m overlooking you, it is because my memory is still aswirl. 😉

Tomorrow, I’m off to Chicago and WorldCon, the largest of the SF cons. I’ve been to one before, in Denver, and I’m happy that this one is in familiar territory, since I grew up near there. I want to wander over to the Art Institute some point to commune with the Marc Chagall windows there and maybe even walk as far as the Shedd Aquarium, scene of so many school trips.

First book party! Saturday! Let me know with a comment if you need the room number, I am somewhat loathe to stick it up on the Internets.

Stina Leicht, Vicki Saunders, and I are co-hosting the party, “Pink + Blue: A Riotous Occasion.” You’ve seen some of the promotional items mentioned earlier; there will also be books and handmade journals and stickers. Yay! I prepped by going to the huge party store near us and buying stuff in the obvious colors. They had a full range of plain pink and blue products. Also purchased: gift bags, paper room decorations and one set of flamingo lights. I even got a small purple basket to put cards in for the gift bag drawings.

In figuring out things, Mary Robinette Kowal’s blog post on book launch parties, along with her observations about her own party, have been super invaluable.

Enjoy this insight into planning a book launch party and want more content like it? Check out the classes Cat gives via the Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers, which offers both on-demand and live online writing classes for fantasy and science fiction writers from Cat and other authors, including Ann Leckie, Seanan McGuire, Fran Wilde and other talents! All classes include three free slots.

Prefer to opt for weekly interaction, advice, opportunities to ask questions, and access to the Chez Rambo Discord community and critique group? Check out Cat’s Patreon. Or sample her writing here.