Commercial Announcement

Drawing Dead, my first published novel, is now available on Kindle for a mere $2.99. I don't know how long this deal will remain in place—I'm guessing for a few more days. That is all.

"Apocrypha," not "Apocalypta!"

Last winter I spent about two months emailing back and forth with librarian and author Joel Shoemaker. Joel is an exceptionally entertaining guy to correspond with, and since the main topic of our emails was my books, I was doubly fascinated. Joel had undertaken the task of reading all of my YA novels, several of my adult works, and a book that featured my three wildlife artist brothers. That's a lot of books!

Our extensive interview, in the end, totaled nearly 15,000 words. Joel managed to cut it back by ninety percent, and the result is now appearing in the June issue of VOYA, a leading library journal dedicated to the promotion of young adult literature and reading.

You can access the article here. The interview begins on page 14.

The article's subtitle, BTW, is one of Joel's little jokes—he noticed in The Cydonian Pyramid I make reference to the "Apocalypta of Adrian the Sinner." The word I had intended to type was "apocrypha." Author fail. Copyeditor fail. It happens. We will fix it in the paperback edition.

Home Delivery

Over the past two decades, the publishing industry has been changing rapidly. The good news is that there are more good books to choose from than ever before. The reasons for that are many, but the biggest driver is that there are more people with an education and the free time to write a book, and more ways for them to get their work published. Ebooks, print-on-demand, and self-publishing have created a very crowded marketplace. Publishers are scrambling to remain relevant, and writers are becoming ever more desperate to get their books noticed.

One strategy that seems to be working is the rebirth of an old idea: the serial novel. John Scalzi’s most recent effort, The Human Division, was published in thirteen weekly installments as an ebook, at 99¢ apiece. After the final installment was released, the book was published in its entirety as both print and ebook. It seems to have worked quite well.

Mary Logue is doing something similar, but more old school. Her novel Giving Up the Ghost is being published in fifty daily installments in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, beginning on Sunday, June 9. That’s how Charles Dickens did it 150 years ago. Her complete novel is also available as an ebook.

I remember reading serialized novels in the paper back in the 1960s. (Ian Fleming's last James Bond novel, The Man with the Golden Gun, was published serially in the Minneapolis Star.) Waiting every day for a new episode was exciting! I'm glad to see the practice revived. In fact, I've just ordered home delivery of the Star Tribune for the first time in a decade. I have missed the solid slap of a newspaper landing on the front step every morning—so much more substantial than the electronic ping of an arriving email.