Los Angeles, January 25 – How the hell does this stuff work?

It is, like the mind boggling majority of everything in the universe, a mystery to me; a measurement of the vastness of the unknown. That, or my own profound ignorance.

How, for instance, does a publisher make the judgment that deems one book hardcover and another paper?

Yes, granted it’s not as profound as asking to know the true nature of dark matter or inquiring into the existence of God, but I’m neither a cosmologist or a priest. I’m a fucking writer. And a lowbrow one at that. So, fucking, there.

What brings this to a boil is an Amazon listing for my next novel, THE SHOTGUN RULE. The listing posts a release date (sometime in August of this year), a cover price (a bit north of $20), and the helpful information that the book will be released in hardcover.

The attentive, or persistent, reader will be aware that all but my first novel, CAUGHT STEALING, have been released as trade paperbacks. Trades, or TPBs, are (and I don’t mean to talk down to anyone here, just that this was an education I received just a few years ago and the terminology was new to me and may still be new to others) those large format paperbacks that give a book a certain authority and seriousness without binding it between stiff covers and, thus, jacking the price and garnering significantly more review attention (this last is not meant to sound bitter, though it does, it’s just a surprising fact of life), and are distinct from mass market paperbacks, which are the smaller format soft covers that you can drop into a coat pocket and, generally, still buy for no more than the cost of your average movie ticket.

Some professional history.

When CAUGHT STEALING sold, it was the first of a two book deal. Harmonically, two companies made offers for the book. One made a two book TPB offer, the other made a two book hardcover offer. While I was at the time utterly innocent of many of differences those offers implied, I was well aware that a hardcover book is treated with rather more, well, gravitas is not the proper word, but seriousness might be, rather more seriousness then, than a paperback in whatever form. Me, however, I like paperbacks, in all their forms. I rarely ever buy hardcovers. It’s not a matter of expense, although for most of my life they were, indeed, beyond my means, but more the feel of a book. This may be a chicken and egg thing. If I’d grown up reading hardcovers I might very well have the opposite bias, but I didn’t, so, again, fucking, there. But, my own fetish aside, one thing was clear, hardcover deals are financially larger than paperback deals.

Guess which one I took.

DING!

Give that reader a cigar.

There is, quite naturally, a reason why publishers pay more to an author for a hardcover book deal. It is, no shock, because the profit point on these books is higher and they anticipate making more money for themselves. But, and here’s the rub, this anticipation will only become realization if the books actually sell. Should the book tank, the higher costs of producing a hardcover will rapidly swamp profits on a large print run that has failed to leave the stores. The greater the reward, it has been observed, the greater the risk.

And so.

As noted before, CAUGHT STEALING did not sell well in hardcover. Color everyone disappointed. Color me ignorant of the fact until I was informed that the sequel, SIX BAD THINGS, would be released at a TPB.

Worse things have happened. They’ve happened to me. They’ve happened to you. They’ve happened to everyone. And I will do my best not to mentally weigh the insignificance of that disappointment against the bad things that are happening to a lot people in some very fucked up places just now.

But, time passes, books come out, trade paperbacks everyone. Records are certainly not broken, far from it, but there is a leveling, some positivity ensues.

The subject is broached.

The hardcover subject.

The reasoning, as I follow it, goes along these lines: My publisher would like to see my books (just the crime books, the Joe Pitt books were born for paperback and will, eventually, die there) return to the hardcover format. This is, I truly believe, not simply a measure of the money they think may be there to be made, but also an indication of their belief that the books are good enough in their own merit to be pushed out there with the big boys and taken on those terms. This may be delusional on my part, or, for that matter, on theirs. But, as I have said, so, fucking, there.

I would be lying if I said I was anything but pleased. I’ve known for a few months this was the plan, but seeing the Amazon solicitation gives it a bit more solidity. Naturally, SIX BAD THINGS was also solicited as a hard cover. This encourages in me more than a bit of reserve, but things look good. My pleasure isn’t particularly financially motivated. The contract this book falls under was negotiated for a TPB and the advance fell in line with that assumption and will not be altered by the format change. As for any additional royalties that might drift my way, I’ve discovered that getting a book to “earn out” its advance and pushing its sales into royalties is a long road, and not one a writer should assume will ever be successfully traversed. I’m more pleased by the prospect that the book may reach some hands it wouldn’t otherwise. I like the idea that it may cast a slightly wider circle of ripples as it sinks rapidly to the bottom of the pop culture pool. Yes, I know, that’s awfully shallow of me. If I were half of a pool myself, there’d be no diving allowed in my end. Again, I pronounce, so, fucking, there.

I do have reservations. First and foremost is that readers who have come along for the ride at TPB prices will now be asked to kick in another ten or so bucks to keep going. I don’t know what to say about that. The new book, and any hardcovers that may or may not follow, will certainly be released in TPB about a year after the hardcover, but there’s still a part of me that doesn’t like it. For some readers, particularly the collectors, I know a return to hardcover will be most welcome. I can only hope we actually get to the finish line with this sucker intact.

The rationale on the timing is centered on the fact that I’ve completed the Henry Thompson trilogy and that THE SHOTGUN RULE will be my first stand alone novel. As such, is looks like a good place to break the pattern and try a format change.

Who knows if it will work. Or if the book will actually come out as a hardcover. Or if it should. Or if anyone but me will care.

It’s a bit of publishing alchemy that I find interesting. And not just because it’s my book. It’s just interesting how things work. Small and large. And inconsequential. All things have a manner. And I am curious.

THE SHOTGUN RULE is the story of a group of teenage delinquents that break into the wrong house and steal the wrong thing in a California suburb in the ’80s. And shit gets fucked up.

Solicited as a hardcover, it is scheduled for release on August 28 of this year and currently has an Amazon sales rank of #942, 356.

I’m gonna go order a copy and shave a few hundred thousand points off that ranking.

A little bit hard and a little bit soft,

Charlie

Casualties of Wha?

An aside of the comic book kind.

Readers of my run on Moon Knight may be aware that issue #7 finally dropped this week. They may also be aware that it is being marketed by Marvel as a “Casualties of War” title. What this implies it that the events within have some bearing on Marvel’s uber-crossover-event Civil War. So, for the members of the Marvel faithful who may feel compelled to purchase this title for that reason alone: don’t bother. The events in MOON KNIGHT #7, and any of the other issues sold as Casualties of War do show a bit of how the Civil War events are impacting Marc Spector, but they do not, in any way, impact Marvel’s main storyline. It’s no big deal to me how Marvel is selling the book, they own it after all, but I just thought I’d let people know.

Also, for the continuity conscious who may read the issues anyway, several details will, no doubt, jar. The issues were meant to publish about the time Civil War was hitting #4. The actual events in this run of MOON KNIGHT were meant to be taking place as the Civil War was just breaking out. Even if they had come out as wed planned they would have been out of sync with the main title. Now they are way out of whack. Just the comics biz for you. Close your eyes and imagine it’s several months ago. And ignore the fact that Spiderman is wearing the wrong costume.

Links! We’re Giving Them Away!

Genrebusters requires no explanation.

My podcast interview with the prodigious Rick Kleffel.

ALREADY DEAD is coming out in England. The Anglophile in me weeps with joy. I also weeps with joy for getting to do a Forbiddenplanet interview with Joe Gordon. The story also features a peek at AD’s cover in the Orbit edition. I dig it way.

David Corbett has a new book out called BLOOD OF PARADISE and will tour to support it and you should really go see him because he’s one of the best talking writers out there and you should really read what he writes because he’s really fucking good at the writing part of teh job as well.