Macmillan have agreed a new deal with Bastei Lubbe in Germany for the next two books, Polity Agent and Hilldiggers. Great stuff - the German publisher is always the first to buy rights to my books, quite often without even reading them. Apparently my stuff is selling ‘respectably’ there.The Voyage of the Sable Keech was Lubbe’s top SF Titles for its month of publication and got a half page in trade ads, whilst Brass Man got was top SF title, got a full page trade ad, and was also Lubbe's top title (i.e. not just SF) for the month overall.
Brass Man cover adjacent. Anyone recognise it? Lubbe, though enthusiastic about grabbing my books are not so enthusiastic about using new artwork. The cover of Gridlinked was Arthur C Clarke’s 2061 cover and another from one of Meaney’s books has also been used.
Other news? I’ve finally printed up Hilldiggers and given it to my parents (applied mathematics lecturer and a school teacher – retired) and a friend in Maldon (works for Marconi – smart cookie) for criticism. I’m now having a pop at a few short stories I hope to bang off to Asimov’s and Interzone.
9 comments:
sweet, sweet, and sweet. i do feel i should mention i would be pleased to take a crack at any manuscripts in the future. 8)
Not the best of covers Neal, (imho) so what are the rules regarding graphics?
Do you have a say in them or not?
Why couldn't they use the new Brassman cover that you've featured?
I'm not really a cover person but I can see how it would influence people to pick up your book and perhaps in doing so stimulate them into reading the back-of-book blurb or synopsis and then hopefully get hooked.
So where was this one used before?
It looks a little 1980ish.
Bob
According to Ariel (Alien Online editor) "that German Brass Man covers is off of one of Cole & Bunch's Sten books!" Never heard of them myself, but I don't doubt he's right.
Ahh found a graphic of it, hmm... almost identical, Neal.
Sten3 here it is.
Always good to see things going well for you! Can I add my name to the list of people begging to help read your manuscripts (Im sure people would pay a tenner for a photocopy - and still buy the final book anyway - money making chance there?).
On a side note I wonder how much great sci-fi is written in other languages that we miss as its never imported here.
And yeah - I think the cover kinda appeals in a retro way :)
hmm… looks like the folks at Bastei don't believe in hiring young graphic talent matching the content of their taschenbuecher ;)
hmm… looks like the folks at Bastei don't believe in hiring young graphic talent matching the content of their taschenbuecher ;)
"The Messing Man" - that's a great title for a book. Or even Horace Blegg. I like how it says "novel" on it, just in case you think it's a self-help book or something.
Cover recycling is commonplace in Germany. I sometimes buy German versions of books I enjoyed reading as presents for friends and my first thought is most of the time "W__T___F" when I see the cover.
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