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US proofs are out
I've just recieved the proofs for Dangerous Offspring, the US edition of The Modern World.
Christophe Sivet is the artist again and this time he shows Jant being chased by the Gabbleratchet. What's a Gabbleratchet? Well, you'll have to read the book to find out.
If you want to write a review, proofs can be obtained from Eos. The finished book is released at the beginning of July.
Dangerous Offspring
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Omg, that's just tacky. Poor Americans.
Yes - I think the US publisher is marketing my books squarely to the wrong audience. They seemingly only have one audience in mind, traditional fantasy fans who - by and large - don't appreciate Castle or indeed anything that is even slightly not what they expect. And so they miss the sort of readers who would like Castle but would not be attracted by these covers.
If you could only see the cover art that they commissioned first: Jant as a muscular hero. I explained all to the first artist, Steve Stone, who then produced a wonderful, gracile Jant, but his artwork was rejected by the publisher's marketing department, probably because it looked too contemporary.
Getting them even to accept a cover like that of No Present Like Time has been an uphill struggle. Christophe Sivet, the artist of all three covers published, is an excellent artist and he isn't to blame. Christophe and I have done our best to overcome the language difference, as he is French and my French is rather basic. But the language difference between England and America is a much deeper divide.
The change of title is a case in point. They clearly believe putting the word "modern" in the title of a fantasy book is going to confuse or offend their target audience... In that case they're targetting the wrong audience.
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