Chion at Forbidden Planet, Belfast

Autographed copies of Chion are now in stock at Belfast’s Forbidden Planet shop on Ann Street, priced £4.99. If you’ve read Chion and it gets your thumbs-up vote, and you know someone in the Belfast area, please spread the news.

BBC News: Russia probes smelly orange snow

How often do you hear about weird snow on the news? In a creepy coincidence with the theme of my only-just-released novel, Chion, here is something from the today’s BBC News (thanks to Ali for bringing it to my attention):

Russia has flown a team of chemical experts to a Siberian region to find out why smelly, coloured snow has been falling over several towns. Oily yellow and orange snowflakes fell over an area of more than 1,500sq km (570sq miles) in the Omsk region on Wednesday, Russian officials said.

Chemical tests were under way to determine the cause, they said.

Residents have been advised not to use the snow for household tasks or let animals graze on it.

“So far we cannot explain the snow, which is oily to the touch and has a pronounced rotten smell,” said Omsk environmental prosecutor Anton German, quoted by the Russian news agency Itar-Tass on Thursday.

“We are waiting for the results of a thorough test on samples.”

But Vladimir Gurzhey, an official with the civil defence ministry in Omsk, told the Russia TV channel that the snow had four times the normal levels of iron in it.

The TV also reported that coloured snow had fallen in the neighbouring regions of Tomsk and Tyumen.

Omsk, in western Siberia, is a centre of Russia’s oil industry. About 27,000 people live in the areas affected by the snow, Russian officials said.

Spooky!

[ Link ]

Chion now in three local bookstores

Just a quick note to those living in and around Portadown. Chion is now in place, on the shelves of our three local Eason stores: in High Street Mall, Meadows Shopping Centre, and Rushmere Shopping Centre.

(Sadly, Jeffers newsagent, which was responsible for selling a fabulous 80 copies of Ulterior a few years ago, is no more.)

Eason backs Chion

Northern Ireland’s biggest bookchain is Eason, with over thirty stores across the province. Yesterday, I received word back from the Head Buyer, authorising the sale of Chion in all the stores. The next step is for me to contact each branch individually and ask them how many (if any) copies of the book they will accept. With Ulterior back in 2002, some stores took as few as five copies, while others wanted as many as twenty; I sold over three hundred books in one day! Hopefully I will have the same experience with Chion. And this is where I realise that I should have thrown caution to the wind and ordered five hundred copies from Lightning Source, instead of two hundred and fifty. But no matter; I can order more as and when required.

A few hours after hearing from the Eason Head Office, I was delighted to receive an email from one of the local stores, asking for ten copies. It was a really nice surprise for a bookshop to ask me for my book before I’ve even had a chance to approach the bookshop. That’s the beauty of having done this before: awareness of my identity already exists, to some extent.

Online sales are also going well. All in all, I’m having a great experience thus far.

The arrival

Well, now, what’s a boring old photograph of cardboard boxes doing on my blog? It means the shipment of books has arrived, of course … one day early. Good ol’ Lightning Source. Looks like I’ll be busy with the bubblewrap and Sellotape this evening, folks.

My thanks to all the regular posters, whose comments created a great sense of excitement and anticipation on the blog. I’ll do my best to get all the existing pre-orders on the way in tomorrow’s post. UK buyers can expect their book in Wednesday’s or Thursday’s mail; shipping to USA normally takes seven to ten days.

Fiction podcast: An excerpt from Chion

To help promote the new novel (and for those who can’t wait for their dead tree version to arrive), here’s a podcast of the first twelve pages of the book (25 minutes worth of listening, somewhat longer than the text excerpt I released last year). The audio recording comes in two flavours: 128kbps version for the connoisseur and a 32kbps version for the bandwidth-challenged.

This is the first try-out of my new microphone, the MXL Desktop Recording Kit. The acoustics in the room could be slightly better, but the mic still has a nice rich sound. As is my custom, I’ve featured carefully chosen snippets from the excellent music of Mike Andrews for the scene transitions. Enjoy!

[ Download Podcast ]

Chion is here!

The proof copy of the novel arrived today, and I’m thrilled to see it in actual book form. As well as the photo on the right, here’s one of the back cover and one of the inside text. Lightning Source did a great job.

So, I’m now accepting orders. The price of the book is £3.99 + postage: £0.70 for the UK; £1.80 for the rest of Europe; £2.50 for the USA, Canada, Australia, and everywhere else in the world (if you wish to use US dollars as your PayPal currency, the total including shipping is $12.99). When paying by PayPal, send to my email address as quoted on the sidebar. If sending a cheque or postal order, email me privately for my postal address.

I’ll be placing a large order with the printers tomorrow morning, so you won’t have long to wait.

The Lightning Source experience

As planned, I submitted the digital files for Chion to the printers on Monday. It’s only Thursday, the book has already been processed and the proof copy is winging its way to me in the post.

In 2002, when I printed Ulterior through ColourBooks in Dublin, I had a nightmare of a time. Here’s a list of the problems I had:

1. The company didn’t tell me I had to send a CMYK cover image until after I designed and submitted an RGB version.

2. I had numerous hiccups in understanding exactly what they were asking from me, resulting in me having to send numerous CD-ROMs to Dublin using time-wasting snail mail, because the company was too backward to stay online for a 20-minute download (even though I was hosting the files myself).

3. They didn’t think it necessary to tell me the spine-width until I asked (so that I could construct the full wrap-around cover accurately).

4. They encountered loads of missing characters when processing my book-block PDF, even though every version of Adobe Acrobat on every computer I tested it on displayed it perfectly.

5. They tried to charge me an extra £150 because the next fincancial year occurred between the generation of their original quote and the start of the job, thus changing the value of the euro against the pound (even though they had originally quoted me a fee in pounds).

6. They didn’t print the amount specified (1000), but exceeded it by 70 copies and invoiced me for them (although, to be fair, they gave me those extra ones dirt cheap).

7. They didn’t send me a proof of the book (only the cover) before printing and shipping all 1000.

8. Almost all 1070 copies possess a tiny dirty mark on the page edge near the bottom corner (take a look at your copy). It was as if there was something dirty on the conveyor belt at the packing stage.

In contrast, I have to give a major thumbs-up to Lightning Source thus far. The company has been very friendly, with prompt responses to emails, and extremely quick processing time for the book. Their website tells you exactly what you need to submit, and what parameters you need to adhere to. I have had a zero-hassle experience and thoroughly recommend the company.

I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into selling this book, and I’m not nearly as nervous as I was with Ulterior. With the first novel, I was standing all alone, shouting for attention, whereas now I’ve got tons of email addresses of past-purchasers on file and an existing relationship with the Library Board and the Eason book chain to exploit. Should only be a matter of days before we get rolling. If the proof arrives tomorrow and all is well, I’ll get the big order underway the same day.

Chion off to the printers

Tomorrow is the day when I submit the digital files for Chion to Lightning Source. I had to sit on the files for a few days, just to make sure I didn’t want to make a few last-minute amendments (and I did). The wonders of print-on-demand technology means that there won’t be a long wait for publication; the book is simply a digital file waiting for orders to come in. The first order will, of course, be mine. I’ll order a couple of hundred, to qualify for discount. Although the book will be available from Amazon.co.uk, I would urge any interested parties to purchase it directly from me, as it will likely be cheaper (and signed, if desired). Details to follow. For now, I’d like to share with you the teaser from the back cover:

First came the snow. Then came the screams.

Six hundred and fifty pupils, confined to their classrooms, waiting impatiently for the break-time bell to ring, eager to rush outdoors for a snowball slugfest. But when the first foot crosses over the doorway to the playground, something goes terribly wrong: the boy is strangely powerless to prevent himself from falling … and then screaming.

If the pupils thought being restricted to a classroom for half an hour was hard, all of them are about to get a lesson in the real meaning of the word “confinement.” No one can leave the building. Not now, not when school’s over, not tonight, and not tomorrow. It’s the same story all across the country, in every school, every workplace, every home, every vehicle: death is waiting outdoors.

No one knows whether the phenomenon is a freak weather condition, a chemical weapon, or a divine curse, but what’s lying outside is not snow. And unlike snow, it is not melting away.

Tensions escalate as the dreadful reality dawns. What will happen when our food runs out? How can we be rescued if we’re merely a handful among millions? How can the rescue services function when vehicles can’t use roads and aircraft have nowhere to land?

How will anyone anywhere survive?

I spent the rest of the Christmas holiday writing part of the script for a new movie that Andrew Harrison and I intend to make in 2007. Actually, I spent very little of the holiday doing that. I put in a lot of time gaming, working right through Half-life 2 and Land of the Dead. The latter wasn’t great, but since it’s zombie-blasting, you can’t help but love it. The former was terrific. I’m currently investing my leisure time in an extremely nerve-wracking and difficult game called Splinter Cell: Double Agent.

Chion ready for publication

This is just a quick note to let everyone know that my new novel is now ready to go to the printers. All the editing is finished, the typesetting is done, the cover (front, back and spine) is designed. The only thing throwing a spanner in the works at the moment is Christmas and the expected postal service delays.

So, short of some unforseen catastrophe, Chion will be released in January 2007. The first thing I’ll be doing is ordering a couple of hundred copies to get the ball rolling.

Chion cover design - Part V

Thank you, everyone who commented on the last cover design. After some more fiddling, I’ve come up with the following “improvement.” James, I think you were right about the Aliens font, after all. To hell with being a copycat; it looks good, and it gives the cover a nudge in the sci-fi direction.

I wanted to move the title from the top of the cover to the middle, because the shadowy central section is a bit boring and is better covered. The translucent text didn’t quite work on the more varied constrast of the background, so I had to lose it. And since we’re now back to clear, obvious print, I’m putting the tagline back on again.

Another thing that struck me was that people tend to buy books according to genre, and my cover gives no clear indication of what genre the book belongs to. It could be about hunting down the Yeti, for all anyone knows. So, having a sci-fi font and a suitable tagline helps communicate the message: “sci-fi disaster story.”

It’s interesting that no one communicated any particular attachment to the other cover design, the one with the school and the dead kid. Sorry, Eddie (who posed as the dead kid), but the combination of images just never felt like they gelled quite right. I think we’re hitting the nail on the head now. Of course, Mark Stevens, who came up with the “blood on the snow” design, hit it long ago. I think that whatever changes I make from here on in will be small.

Chion cover design - Part IV

Somebody tell me if this is a stupid idea, but I’m thinking of using Mark Stevens’s cover design for Chion with no clearly visible text (click through to the larger image before you cast your verdict). I’m not usually a fan of gimmicks, but I think this one might work. I think that if I spotted a book cover on a shelf with nothing but snow on the cover and a blood-spatter in the corner, I would be intrigued enough to pick it up. Ideally, I would love to have a glossy cover with the title and author embossed colourlessly in matt, so that you don’t see anything until you tilt the cover, making it reflect in the light. But that kind of stuff costs money. So I would settle for subtle translucent text, as shown in the example.

In an attempt to make the right decisions, I’ve been casting my mind back to book covers of yesteryear. Four in particular leap to the front of my mind as being strikingly memorable. I’ve found the images on eBay, so you can see for yourself:

- O-Zone by Paul Theroux
- Consider Phlebas by Iain Banks
- Watchers by Dean Koontz
- Wolf in Shadow by David Gemmell

O-Zone doesn’t look like much until you realise that the “O” is actually a hole in the cover (there’s another gimmick for you), and when you turn the page you get a glorious sc-fi painting of a craft flying over a ruined city. Without exception, the common element in the four covers is a singular striking image that creates intrigue: a UFO on a beach with a native walking towards it; someone or something peering through the bushes at a lonely country house where somebody’s home; most spectacularly of all, the Titanic on dry ground with a cowboy on horseback overlooking the scene. If that one doesn’t pique your curiosity, nothing will. I think I’ve been concentrating way too much on the choice of fonts and the positioning of the various elements; I don’t think any of that really affected my attachement to the four book covers above.

My eBay search revealed further editions of these books with different covers. I couldn’t help but think that the more modern incarnations weren’t nearly as striking. I get the feeling something has generally gone wrong in the world of graphic design today, and that feeling is confirmed when I browse the shelves of the local bookstore. Ninety-nine percent of what I see is instantly forgettable. There’s also a heavy reliance on photographic material. It’s a far cry from the gorgeous airbrushed paintings of yesteryear. Unfortunately, my own limited graphic design skills require me to begin with photographs, too, so at least I’m competing on a even playing field with the pros.

Where’s Chion?

Okay, it’s almost the end of September, and regular blog-readers will know that I intended to publish Chion at some point this month. Am I going to make it? No. October, then? Maybe not.

Here’s the deal. Earlier in the year, I entered a short story called “Time Travel for Dummies” into The James White Award competition. The results are due in October, and I have to believe there’s a chance I can win (otherwise I wouldn’t have entered, would I?).

My guess is, the magic words “I won this year’s James White Award” would go a long way to attracting the attention of a literary agency. And in order to approach an agency, I need to have a fresh, unpublished product available to shop around. So, it makes sense to hold off from self-publishing Chion until I see whether I’m in with a shot with the big boys.

After all, as indie writers, finding an agent and being traditionally published is our big aspiration.

An affordable POD paperback? Surely not!

Yesterday I set up an account with Lightning Source, the printing company that almost all print-on-demand publishers use. Lack of funds at my end has prompted me to take the POD approach with Chion, rather than opting for a traditional print-run. The downside is that each copy of the book will cost slightly more to produce, but the upside is that the novel will never go out of print. Thankfully I’ve got the necessary skills in desktop publishing and graphic design in order to go straight to the printer, rather than using one of the existing POD publishers. Those publishers are doing a great service for budding authors, but they’re also part of the reason why the books need to be so overpriced: printing cost + publisher’s cut + author’s cut + bookshop’s cut = retail price. As for retailers, did you know that many bookshops demand 40% of the retail price? Ouch! However, for internet sales, a man in my position can easily restructure the equation thus: printing cost + author’s cut = retail price. This model is effective for sales that come directly to me through my website. Why tell your readers to go buy your book at Amazon? That’s throwing money away. If the author does all the promotion necessary to bring visitors to his website, why send them away to another? After all, when’s the last time you ever went to Amazon scouting for new talent?

It occurs to me that it will cost very little to put my first novel Ulterior back in print again using the POD model. However, I’m less than happy with the novel’s original cover (I’ve had a lot more Photoshop experience in the four years since publication), so I did a little digital sketching this morning and came up with something. This is by no means a final design, but I thought I’d share. Comments and comparisons welcome.

Podcast fiction - Part II

Over the past few months I’ve become interested in the world of podcasting, so much so that I’ve grown into the habit of loading my MP3 player up with podcasts instead of music each time I go out walking. Usually I listen to sci-fi chit-chat, reviews and interviews - occasionally some fiction. I can’t shake the desire to experiment with it myself, so I’ve decided to record a story - one that I’ve just finished writing. It’s a tale I’ve mentioned previously (about zombies) and it’s called “Is There Anybody Out There?” I don’t have any pro recording gear, but I can make the recording pretty clean using Andy’s external camcorder mic, and add some atmosphere by dubbing in some creepy ambient music. MacIdol, where I host my music, has a feature that lets me count the number of downloads, so I should be able to gauge how successful this venture is. If successful enough, I might even get cracking on a serialised novel (podiobook, if you will).

Chionophobia is no more! That is, I’ve shortened the title to Chion. After looking at the original Greek carefully, I discovered that “chiono” is the word for snow, while “chion” means “like snow”. And that, frankly, is perfect for the title. It’s still a pain that no one’s going to know whether to pronounce the word as “chee-on,” “chy-on” or “ky-on,” but I think it looks a lot cooler on paper than Chionophobia. If you look up at the new logo, I’ve incorporated the original Greek in the design.

Editing is nearly done. My friend Earl, who has been learning the finer points of grammar for the past year, scrutinised every sentence in the manuscript for grammatical mishaps and style flaws. We spent about fifteen hours together incorporating his changes. I’m indebted to him for the time he put into it. Thanks also to Andy, Alison and Chris.

Some interesting podcasts you may wish to check out:
- Dragon Page
- Geek Fu Action Grip
- I Should Be Writing
- Requiem of the Outcast
- Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas
- Escape Pod
- 7th Son by J.C. Hutchins