Here is the official, final cover of Dying Is My Business, in a brand new, high-res image. Click on it to make it bigger! (That’s what she said.)
Coming from St. Martin’s Griffin on October 8!
When I decided to use this blog to track the journey of Dying Is My Business toward publication for all you budding writers and other interested folks out there, I promised to detail the good and the bad. Today, the developments are on the bad side. Publishers Weekly, one of the book business’s major trade publications, has released the first pre-publication review of the novel, and it isn’t exactly complimentary:
Dying Is My Business
Nicholas Kaufmann. St. Martin’s Griffin, $15.99 trade paper (368p) ISBN 978-1-250-03610-0
Now, the last time Publishers Weekly gave me a bad review it was for Chasing the Dragon, which went on to be nominated for two major literary awards and rack up dozens of five-star raves, so I’m not too concerned. Still, a positive review is always more welcome than a negative one, so I’m a little bummed. For whatever reason, PW just doesn’t seem to like my stuff. I have to accept that and not let it trip me up.
And of course I can always console myself with this list of amazing advance blurbs from nine awesome authors!
Having a thick skin is an important part of this crazy business. It’s so easy to be discouraged by any little thing, and a bad review can be doubly discouraging because it can feel like if one reviewer doesn’t like it, nobody will like it. Plus, every writer I know already suffers from the Impostor Syndrome. A bad review can validate that particular neurosis and make an author say to him- or herself, “See? It was only a matter of time before everyone realized I’m a fraud.” But bad reviews are part of the business. All any writer worth his or her salt can do is soldier on. Because if writing is what you want to do, what other choice is there?
Book #2, tentatively titled Die and Stay Dead, has been delivered to my editor at St. Martin’s! Now we wait for his response and notes, if any. He already told me he’s so swamped it could be a couple of months before he has a chance to read it, so the wait could be a substantial one. In the meantime, I will keep myself from going crazy by focusing on other projects that are waiting in the wings, such as a short story set to appear in a forthcoming PS Publishing anthology, and a 10,000 word novelette for a project with IDW that hasn’t been announced yet. My agent has also asked me to run some other book ideas by him in the meantime.
I’m also going to start sketching out book #3, which I’m thinking of calling Only the Dead Sleep. It’s a tad premature, as my existing contract is only for two books, and we don’t know yet how well Dying Is My Business and Die and Stay Dead will do. Dying Is My Business doesn’t even come out until October (though you can pre-order it from Amazon for nearly 20% off!), and Die and Stay Dead likely won’t be out until the fall of 2014. Still, it’ll be good to have Only the Dead Sleep ready to go if I’m given the green light.
Speaking of Dying Is My Business, I had a pleasant email exchange with the St. Martin’s Press publicist assigned to my book. He seems nice and competent, both of which are excellent character traits in a publicist. He told me the ARCs have been sent off to the long lead time review organs like Publishers Weekly and Locus. Apparently he also sent it to some men’s magazines! Intriguing! I’m looking forward to working with him.
In somewhat related news, it looks like we’ve secured a great venue here in Brooklyn for the book launch in October. More news as it develops!
Here’s a gargoyle I found in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. He’s a lot nicer than the gargoyles in Dying Is My Business, but not quite as active.
