A quick post!
Serena Robar is giving away a copy of Uglies on her blog today. Tell your uninitiated friends!
Have you mysteriously forgotten what Uglies is? Then check out this cool fan trailer:
Now I must go to my Lindy Hop lesson.
Author: scott
BEA Stuff
Justine and I had a great time at Book Expo America (as she explains on her blog), so here’s my report on the festivities.
My signing was a blast, with somewhere about 200 people dropping by to chat with me for, like, 23 seconds each. Thanks for all your kind words and tolerance of my sometimes brain-missing schmoozing. (I can only schmooze about a hundred people per hour before I start to spout the random.) And thanks to everyone who put up with the line changing locations after we ran out of time.
I met a lot of cool people over the weekend, including Shannon Hale. Unexpectedly, we found ourselves enemies on Saturday night! There was this silent auction of art from children’s books, and Shannon, Justine, and I all wound up bidding on the same fabulous piece by John Rocco from his new book Moon Powder. Anyway, we managed not to come to blows. (And Justine and I got the art. Bwa-ha-ha!)
The Alternate History panel with Holly Black and Cassie Clare was also cool. We tried to unpack why messing with history is so much fun, mixing up the familiar with the strange, and days of yore with that which never was. Anyway, the crowd seemed to enjoy our attempts at deep thoughts. Thanks to NYPL’s Jack Martin for stepping in to moderate.
I also did a pair video interviews. One was for Romantic Times, a magazine devoted to romance novels, which is cool. You may not know this, but the romance genre is vast, accounting for about half of all novels sold. And when you add in romance books from YA, fantasy, and sf, it really is the uber-genre. So RT is a big deal, and it was a pleasure to talk to them. (Whether Leviathan is romance or not, I leave as an exercise for the reader.)
The other interview was with Borders, who had their own video studio on the convention floor. Here’s my makeup session, and me being interviewed:
Alas, these interviews won’t go online for a few months, about a week before the pub date for Leviathan. But I revealed a lot more of Keith’s art, though, so you guys should enjoy them.
Anyway, thanks for everyone who worked behind the scenes to make BEA happen, and all the folks who said nice things when they saw my nametag. You rule.
Me at BEA
Hey, all you lucky publishing and bookselling types going to Book Expo America. This is where you can find me:
Friday, 8:00AM
Justine and I will be at the YA breakfast. (There’s an 8AM now?)
Friday, 2:30PM
I’ll be giving away and signing galleys of Leviathan in the autographing area, Table 21.
Friday, 6:00PM
Justine and I will be at the ABC Not-a-Dinner and Silent Auction.
Saturday, 10:30AM
I’m doing a panel about alternative history with Holly Black and Cassandra Clare at the BEA Big Stage. This should be cool.
Saturday later
Various cocktail parties. I’m the dude in the snazzy suit.
Sorry to all of you who can’t be here in NYC. We’ll miss you! And to make up for it, I offer the first official look at Leviathan interior art!
Yep, that’s how good Keith’s illustrations are. And this is one of fifty—in other words, two percent of the total art!
Yowza.
Leviathan comes out October 6, and you can preorder it at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, or at independent book stores everywhere. My Canadian fans can pre-order from Amazon.ca or Chapters Indigo.
Folks from Oz will also get the book in October, from Penguin Australia, and Francophones will be seeing it in autumn 2010 from Pocket Jeunesse.
Cover Whiplash!
Okay, so remember how I posted the US cover for Leviathan ? Well, it turns out that there has been a change . . .
So this will be the actual cover in the United States:
Behold the gloriousness. It’s steampunky, baroque, and very, very shiny.
But, you may ask, why did this happen? From where comes this entirely new cover?
Well, I just work here. The writer’s job is to write and the publisher’s job is to publish, and covers are a key part of publishing a book. Which is not to say that I haven’t been consulted, but I’m not privy to all the pressures that come from Sales, Marketing, Major Accounts, and all the other Powers That Be. So I’m not sure exactly what happened to the old cover, except that it may have been deemed a bit . . . young.
The thing is, I loved that cover and I love this one too. But I will admit that this cover is more adult-friendly and, for lack of a better word, literary. Both of which are good things, though I’m a bit sad to lose the manga-ness.
But we must remember: adults are very delicate. Like horses, they are afraid of loud sounds, sudden movement, skateboards, the internets, slang, and getting band names wrong. So in order to bring more people gently into the fold of Leviathan reading, Simon & Schuster has decided to use a cover that won’t ruffle anyone’s fragile sense of adultiness.
And hey, I’m a big tent kind of guy. So welcome everyone, and I hope you like this new cover as much as I do.
Note 1: To my readers in the UK, you’re still getting this cover, and I don’t know yet which way France and Australia will go.
Updated Note 2: Turns out that Sammy Yuen, the overall designer of the book, created this new cover based on some of the elements drawn by Keith. (That’s Keith Thompson, the illustrator of the book.)
Leviathan comes out October 6, and you can preorder it at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, or at independent book stores everywhere.
Canadian Update: For you folks up north, it’s the same cover as above, and you can pre-order from Amazon.ca or Chapters Indigo.
UK Leviathan Cover
Because one cover is never enough, behold the United Kingdom cover for Leviathan!
Unlike the US cover, this image is based on one of the black and white illustrations in the book. Keith added color and a few extra elements.
For the sake of comparison, here’s the previously revealed US cover:
No official word yet as to whether the Australian and French covers will be one of these, or a different image entirely!
I like ALL the covers so far. What do you guys think?
IMterview with Maureen Johnson
So I think it’s time for another IMterview, because we all love them.
You may remember my previous IMterviews, such as this discussion of Cycler with Lauren McLaughlin, and chat with Robin Wasserman about Skinned, and this deep and meaningful with Justine on the subject of How to Ditch Your Fairy.
Today we have Maureen Johnson, best know for her fabulous novel Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes. Her latest series is Suite Scarlett, and this IMterview marks its paperback release. I read it back in its manuscript days, and those of you who follow Maureen’s blog will not be surprised to hear that it is totally hilarious!
So without further ado, let the IM-ing begin . . .
You can find Suite Scarlett at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or any independent bookstore.
Mind-Rain Contest
As you may remember, I recently edited a collection of essays about the Uglies series, called Mind-Rain. We got a bunch of YA authors together and asked them questions like, “Is Shay the real hero of the Uglies series?” “Who was the better boyfriend for Tally: David or Zane?” and “How can we prevent prettyheaded behavior in our own world?”
The answers are thought-provoking and will re-wire your brain!
Mind-Rain doesn’t come out until June 2, but Teen-Libris (the publishers) are having a contest right now. Enter now to win a copy of Mind-Rain AND Robin Wasserman’s excellent book, Skinned. You may remember Robin as a guest blogger here, and from this IMterview with her I did last September.
Here’s a brief description of the collection:
In Extras, the last book in Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies series, Aya tells us that when Tally Youngblood made the mind-rain fall, it cured all the pretties and changed the world forever. But Tally and her friends did more than change their world; they changed ours too.
Mind-Rain continues what Tally started, with startling, funny and insightful essays on the world, characters and ideas of the Uglies series, plus the short story that inspired Westerfeld to write the books in the first place.
Think you know everything about Tally’s world? After Mind-Rain, you’ll never look at the Uglies series the same way again.
With essays by Lili Wilkinson, Robin Wasserman, Diana Peterfreund, Sarah Beth Durst, Gail Sidonie Sobat, Rosemary Clement-Moore, J. Fitzgerald McCurdy, Janette Rallison, Linda Gerber, Charles Beaumont, Ted Chiang, Will Shetterly, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, and Delia Sherman.
For the contest rules, go here to the Teen-Libris contest page.
Click here to learn more about the collection.
Click here to read an excerpt.
You can pre-order the book from Borders, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and of course Indie Bound.
Update:
The contest accepts entires until May 30. When first posted, the rules had a typo saying April 30, but that has been corrected!
Leviathan Cover!
In celebration of my birthday, I give you the US cover of Leviathan . . .
Frequently asked questions:
What? This is the first book of my next series, which will include three novels and one full-color guidebook, The Manual of Aeronautics.
When? Book 1 comes out October 6, 2009. The other two novels come out in October of 2010 and 2011.
Where? It will be published (almost) simultaneously in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. No waiting! We’ve also sold rights to France and Taiwan, so far.
Who? It’s by me, silly. But it also includes 50 awesome illustrations by the artist Keith Thompson, most of them full page! This amazing cover is also by him. I’ll be posting samples here every month, and they will astonish you.
Why? Why is it illustrated? Because back in 1914, almost all books were illustrated, and I wanted it to look and feel like a book from that period. Plus, there are so many weird animals and machines in the world of Leviathan that I wanted to show them.*
WTF? Okay, Leviathan is set in an alternate world in which Charles Darwin discovered biotechnology. So the British Empire was built on the backs of strange, fabricated beasties. Living airships! Fighting kraken! Message lizards!
Um, but what’s that thing on the cover? That’s a Clanker contraption. You see, the Germans and Austrians in my world use machines instead of beasties. Cool walking machines!
Aren’t you sick of answering all these questions? Yes, and it’s my birthday. So enjoy the cover. I’m out of here.
Can’t I ask one more question?
Sure, but that was it. Ciao for now!
____________________
*Also, I wanted an excuse to go to Comic-Con
Stack of Leviathan!
I was at Simon & Schuster the other day, and saw this gratifying stack of advanced readers’ copies:
Yes, there are ARCs of Leviathan at large in the world.
Watch this space, for soon the cover will be revealed!
Viruses Are Gone!
As some of you have commented here or written to me about, there have been virus and malware issues on this blog.
But they are gone now! So I can finally post the cover of Leviathan . . . soon.
Thanks to everyone at MDDHosting for kicking malware ass all weekend.
That is all.
ganked from I Can Haz Cheezbuger?