Syrup 101
Today I achieved one of my life-long goals: I was used as a case study in a marketing textbook! This is cool because in Syrup, Scat lives in fear of becoming a “How Not To” case study. Now I am one! Only in a good way.
Just in case this is of interest to anyone other than myself, the textbook is Strategic Internet Marketing 2.0 by Susan & Stephen Dann, and it talks about how the NationStates game I wrote helped promote Jennifer Government.
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Syrup 101
Virtual greed is good
The British and German publishers have both just gone into a second printing, so sales must be good. Either that or they thought it would bomb and only printed a handful of copies to start with. It’s hard to know for sure. No, wait! A reprint is always a good thing.
According to Amazon.com, who always find out this kind of thing before me, there are release dates for the American & Canadian paperback (January 6th 2004, US$12.95) and the British smaller paperback (February 5th 2004, �6.99). There’s also a chance I’ll be doing touring the US in January, but that’s yet to be confirmed.
Meanwhile, I’ve realized I can manipulate the stock market. The Hollywood Stock Exchange, anyway, which is just as fun and minus the risk of getting hauled off to jail. If I say something on this web site about the movie’s development, the Jennifer Government stock goes up; if I don’t mention it for a while, it sinks. This makes me want to announce that Nicole Kidman has committed to play the lead. (But she hasn’t. They’re still working on the screenplay.)
Behind the scenes with Jen
I’ve finally posted Jennifer Government
Trivia and
Deleted Scenes,
both of which are accessible via the
Extras page. Are there any other authors who post deleted scenes of their novels? I don’t think so. They probably understand that it’s not a great promotion for your work to take some of the worst bits and put them online. Come to think of it, I’m not sure why I’m doing it. I’m sure I had a reason originally. Hmm.
If you’re in the UK and keen to get your hands on an autographed copy, you can now do so via the Orbit Books website. At least, that’s what Orbit tells me. The page doesn’t actually say they’re autographed copies, so you have to take it on faith that Orbit isn’t a bunch of filthy liars. But I’m prepared to do that if you are. The books are large paperbacks with a signed book plate (i.e. sticker with my scribble on it) stuck in the front.
In film news, Section Eight has switched screenwriters from Scott Burns to E. Max Frye. I don’t know the details, so let’s just assume there was some kind of almighty screaming Hollywood brawl involved. It’s juicier news that way.
British Jennifer
At last! Jennifer Government hits bookstores across the UK today, in “ridiculously large paperback” format. It’s been a while coming, mainly for legal reasons associated with using real company names in a work of not-so-flattering fiction. Abacus, the British publisher, got several different lawyers to carefully study the book and devise a strategy for minimizing any potential legal exposure; they came up with: “Wait six months and see if anyone sues the American publisher.” (Nobody has.)
Since Syrup hasn’t been published in the UK yet, Jennifer Government is my debut novel there. It’s nice to be a first-time novelist again. I feel all clean and innocent.
German Jennifer
Sneaking in just ahead of the UK, the German edition of Jennifer
Government comes out today. It’s called Logoland, because
“Jennifer Regierung” doesn’t sound nearly so cool. Or so I’m told. Frankly, I’ve never understood this translation business. How do my characters know how to speak German? I don’t know.
The German publisher has gone with a different cover: to the best of my knowledge, they’re the only ones in the world do that. Genius? Insanity? You decide.
Ph34r my paperback
Jennifer Government hits bookstore shelves across in Australia and
New Zealand today, as what may be the world’s largest paperback. This thing is enormous. It’s like one of those giant Fosters cans they put out in other countries to trade off the stereotype of Australians as hard-drinking beer guzzlers, even though in Australia Fosters cans are just the normal size. Ah, marketing. But I digress.
Later today I’m going to check out bookstores and quietly move all their Jennifer Government copies to more prominent locations. (Oh come on, other authors do it.) I just need to limber up first. They are really big paperbacks.