I got the cover mock up for Fifty Grand over the weekend. I absolutely love it. I've had good covers and bad covers in the past and this, to me, is up there with my favourite, the hardback of Dead I Well May Be. They're both mood covers, not giving away any plot but giving you an idea of the tone of the book. You need a cover that will work on Amazon and something that will make a good 'face out' * in Barnes and Noble or Borders or the local mystery bookshop. ...
I did have an initial concept that I wanted the book to have a Cuban feel to it but the more I thought about those ideas they looked too much like the cover of Lonely Planet Havana or something. So instead the designer went with the notion of ice and wasteland, which plays a major part of the geography and mood in the latter part of the story. I also like the fact that the cover appears to be in Futura Sans Serif, Stanley Kubrick's favourite font.
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Tuesday update: I forgot to mention the artist's name. He is called Nick Caruso. Thank you Nick. The consensus around here is: great job!
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*A face out is when you have the book's cover pointing outwards on the shelf - not the spine. When I worked at B&N we only faced out bestsellers and covers we particularly liked, esp Chip Kidd.
51 comments:
Very nice, Mr. McKinty. It was the cover to DIMWB that made me pick it up. Of course, your excellent writing made me buy the sequels as soon as they hit the shelves. :)
are you the same Nikki that won the page proofs? if so, any thoughts? if not, thanks for stopping by and keeping me from the poor house.
That's a good cover. I would have no idea whatsoever about the contents of the book based on the cover, but you're certainly right about B&N. That'll be a good cover for the front tables when people walk into the store. I agree about Dead I Well May Be's cover being good. I think it might have been the initial reason I picked it up. In any case, good luck.
Thanks Sam, I'm proud of this book. A lot went into it and I think its come together pretty well. Probably the hardest I've worked since DIWMB so its nice to have a cover I can run with.
*nods in agreement* Yep, that's a good eye-catching cover. When there are a lot of books together, a stark white cover stands out a mile. The black border and splashes of red help in that respect, too. I like it very much. It'll look good in my bookcase.
Speaking of face-outs, do you ever go into bookshops and surreptitiously turn your books face-out? Be honest now. (c:
Mike
Cheers for that.
I was always too embarrassed to do that. Or used to be. Until about a year ago I couldnt enter the crime section of a bookstore in case I might see one of my books, or not. But in the last six months or so I've come to the realization that shrinking violets shrink and die and that marketing yourself is also a ghastly part of this business. I'd love to be on Thomas Pynchon's lofty perch writing the books and letting them speak for themselves and not bothering with interviews or publicity knowing that 200 000 people (people like me) will buy the new Thomas Pynchon no matter what. But I aint no Thomas Pynchon and you have to do the book readings where no one shows up or the signings at that empty desk in the shopping mall or the book fairs where 500 people are queued up to meet Patsy Cornwwell and 1 kindly soul comes to your table because "you looked so lonely over there" . . . wait a minute where was I? Oh yes. Yes, for my sins, Michael, now, I do face the buggers out!
Looks great, A. Looks very icy, and the black stalagtite dealies at the bottom almost look like alpine trees. Very nice.
Excellent cover. It makes me excited to see what my publisher comes up with. They'll have to try pretty bloody hard to match yours.
Ooooh, that looks gorgeous. Simple but powerful. Nice one.
Picking up on Mike's facing-out thread, as well as the CSNI thing, I've been employing guerilla marketing tactics on behalf of my favourite authors. Last time I was in the Newcastle bookshop, Smyths, I faced out a copy of Hidden River, McGilloway's Borderlands, Bateman's I Predict a Riot and one of Arlene Hunt's titles. If I'd enough cash I'd have bought Arlene's myself as I didn't have it, but I'm a credit crunch victim. What can you do?
gb
I'm mad, I am.
gb
Liam
Cheers mate, you'll know the pressure of winter in Wyoming in about 4 weeks.
Stuart
Thanks man. The Ellroy covers for Knopf are pretty spectacular so anything along those lines...
Ger
You are doing the Lord's work. There will be no reward for you in this realm, but perhaps in another place.
Hello Adrian.
How many years to have a French translation?
Slainte.
Yvon
hey Yvon,
I hope gallimard takes it. I think they're bringing out Bloomsday Dead next year so we'll see.
a bientot mon ami
adrian...
The jacket looks great. For some reason, it reminded me of this short column I read in the August 10th NYTBR called Cover Stories on the Philip Roth/Milton Glazer connection. It's here, if anyone is interested.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9902E5DD1F30F933A2575BC0A96E9C8B63
There are actually two other short pieces in the same issue on Pahlaniuk and Murakami's cover artists as well.
That said, I think you are very fortunate in your cover art this time. Have you mentioned the artist's name somewhere that I've missed? Or do they even tell you?
dead wicked.
love black/white/red, pure class.
can't wait til it comes out! unfortunately the bookstores around my house don't carry your stuff so i can't go and face them out. :/
i did leave DIWMB out at home once and my dad picked it up and then asked me for the other two which must mean he liked them soo...
just trying to do my little bit, one person at a time.
It is an attractive cover.
Isn't Gallimard known for emphasizing a uniform look rather than that of an individual novel?
And, though I'd never thought about this before, I now find myself wondering what Alfred Hitchcock's favorite font was and Howard Hawks', Ernst Lubitsch's and Jean Renoir's.
Here's a post I made a few months ago about what is probably my favorite crime-novel cover ever.
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Oh, by the way, does "Roisin Dubh" mean "black rose"?
Seanag
Thank you for that link. And thank you for the reflected praise. I dont know the name of the artist but I will find out and if she/he wants a public shout out I'll oblige.
Christina
Again, you are after my own heart. I sometimes do a little bookshop terrorism myself putting all of the psychic/clairvoyant John Edwards type people's books in "fiction" and sticking Dr Phil in "humour"; it's a harmless frolic.
Peter
Lovely stuff. I'm more of a Spinal Tap minimalist myself though "could this BE any more black?"
Gallimard have given me pretty good covers so far and their translator is brilliant bombarding me with about two or three HUNDRED queries per book, which I really appreciate, because I know he's being very careful.
I may be wrong but I think Roisin takes her pseudonym from the song. roisin is rose and I think dubh means dusky or dun coloured.
Peter
Dont know about Hawks etc. Kubrick used to read books of fonts for pleasure. I spend hours procrastinating work seeing how a sentence will look in different fonts. A while ago I read this story on Slate, in which a depressing number of famous authors profess their live of Courier!
http://www.slate.com/id/2166947/
[I forgot the link code again href= < something right?]
hmm i did take it from a song, but not the one everyone thinks. Not the classic one, but "To Youth (My Sweet Roisin Dubh)" by Flogging Molly. of course it means the same thing either way, but i've actually never heard the classic one...
Adrian, you've given me a great idea for next weekend...
Christina
Ah, I see.
I used to be a greeter at the Barnes and Noble on 82 and B/way in NYC. I remember one time we had a famous psychic who came in for a book reading, she got to the second floor and asked me where the events space was. "Shouldn't you already know?" I replied.
She was NOT amused.
No plans that you know of for Italian translations?
I've found an enthusiastic appraisal of your Hemingway piece by a Professor of English though.
again:
[a href="the web address"] the text [/a]
substitute [,] with <,>
Cheers,
Marco
thank you again marco, i'm going to write that down in my journal so i dont forget this time.
DIWMB hasnt been translated into Italian. I mean bizarrely its been translated into Danish, Serbo-Croat and Bulgarian, but not Italian. I mean what gives? I think Italians would love a good story about non Italian gangsters in NYC. No?
And thanks for the blog link. Not sure what the man said but I'll take your word for it that he said nice things.
Hello from France and congratulations for this very nice cover !
I'll read it when translated !
thank you kathel,
hopefully Gallimard will take it and I'll get the same translator.
merci beaucoup
a...
Apropos l'art de la traduction, have I ever pointed you toward my interview with Sian Reynolds, who translated Fred Vargas into English?
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Very interesting interview, Peter. I think translating poetry is almost impossible, I really dont know how anybody does it.
Yep I am the same Nikki. I just moved from Vegas to Chicago (and the Cubbies promptly lost) so I havent started your most wonderful book. But you'll be hearing from me, honest. :)
That DJ is killer. Reminds me of Scott Smith's A Simple Plan. Elegant, bleak and stunning.
Have you seen the documentary Helvetica?
http://www.helveticafilm.com/
just got a lovely package in the mail! Can't wait to start reading it in the morning. Thanks a ton!
oh and ps, lol on the psychic bit.
Nikki
Not so fast on the "wonderful book" ... you havent read it yet. I expect an honest appraisal even if it hurts. (well, fairly honest)
Dan
Thank you for that, I can see what you're saying. Icy, minimalist...Thanks for the docu link. Believe it or not, that is right up my alley. (Yes, I know I'm a geek.)
Christina
So glad it came, if you need me to fill you in on books 1 and 2 first lemme know or pester the library.
Hope you like it,
a....
i've got the first one and i think you said somewhere that it'll make sense even if i haven't read the second one yet, so hopefully i'll be good :)
'course being on the up and up is always nice and if you aren't busy i'd love the abridged version of number two (i promise i will buy it when i get my next paycheck!)
Christina
Ok SPOILER ALERT
in bk 2 Jamie, Ramsay and go back to Altair with Jamie's mum Anna and Ramsay's brother Brian. Wishaway has married Lorca while Jamie has been away. Anna and Brian get kidnapped to Alkhava. Jamie tries to rescue them with Lorca's army but the whole thing is an utter disaster. The army is wiped out, everyone gets slaughtered and Jamie and the gang barely escape with their lives across the Gag Magak glacier. After a lot of hardshipt there they find a crashed alien spaceship that will help them get back to Earth. Lorca betrays Jamie because of Wishaway, selling them out to the baddies. There's another fight, Lorca dies and they all run to the spaceship, just before it takes off the leading baddie General Ksar jumps on board. They pilot the ship back to Earth and crash in the Irish Sea.
hope that helps
definitely helps, muchos gracias.
A guy named David Hinton, who has translated Tang Dynasty poets, offers as coherent an explantion and justification as I can think of for translating poetry. He does lapse occasionally into wince-making bits about making each new poem a distinct act of uncertainty. But he seems to understand so well how Chinese works that his arguments for his own renderings of the poems into English are utterly convincing. I recommend especially his translations of Po Chu-i, who wrote with such great joy about, among other things, drinking.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter
Thats very interesting. This site is fascinatingto me. My own version would be
an ancient pond
a jumping frog
ripples
I forgot to mention that in addition to all that learning, Hinton seems to understand that the translation produces a new poem. One of my favorites is the last two lines of poem Po Chu-i wrote in his old age:
"And now that I'm packed and ready for that distant voyage,/
what does it matter if I linger on a little while longer here?"
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Re:blog
He says he didn't knew you but he soon would have remedied that;you have literature in your blood and a rare gift of storytelling; you're a literature fetishist (all the author name droppings , or maybe the part where you compare Hemingway's loo with Faulkner's); your piece has the structure of a Mahler symphony and reaches a somber and poignant conclusion with the description of child prostitution in Habana Vieja.
Pretty over the top,really.
I should point him to the posts where you show your questionable propension for puns.
And re: Sans serif and puns,I'm sure you knew this already
Ciao
Marco
Marco
cheers for that. I've never been compared with Mahler before. Of course its not true, but still I'm flattered.
Ha, ha, yeah my fondness for puns is my downfall, I'll admit it.
Slainte for that
Marco
I just clicked your map. Brilliant! For my sins that is my sense of humour.
cheers
Peter
Lovely stuff. Echoing Frederick the Great I've heard people say over the years, "well you wouldnt want to live forever, how would you fill your time?" I'd fill it learning Chinese and Japanese. I think that could be quite rewarding.
Marco
What do you do for a living? You're a pretty rare bird on the blogosphere.
Are you familiar with the career of that scholar/diplomat/translator/collector/crime writer Robert Van Gulik?
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter
Never read him but know of him. Dutch guy interned by the Japanese or something right?
Wait a minute, lemme see what google says...
Ah, very interesting fellow. Not interned. I'll check those out.
The introductions and afterwords to Van Gulik's Judge Dee stories can be as intersting as the stories themselves. He has much to say about the alterations he made to traditional Chinese storytelling when he wrote his own Judge Dee stories. (The original story, which he translated, was an eighteenth-century story based in turn on much earlier plays that in turn had been based on the real Judge Dee, a Tang Dynasty figure.)
Damn, and I forgot to mention my own foray into haiku, composed in the time-honored fashion in a spontaneous exchange of poetry after a Quizzo match at an Irish pub:
A gin and tonic
Another pint of Guinness
What was the question?
==============
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I'll check out the Judge Dee. I wonder if St Kilda Library has them. I'll see.
The drunken haiku, surely man's greatest achievement, much better than the drunken rugby song.
Rare Bird? Hope you intended it as a compliment.
I used to work in a social cooperative,an entity which probably doesn't exist outside Italy and provides health, social or educational services.
My cooperative covers a wide range of areas: I mainly teached Italian to immigrants ,children and adults ,but I also helped in many other things.
And since the cooperative was born from a community organization,we did also take part in/organize a lot of activies on purely volunteer basis.
I've relocated to my hometown a few months ago due to problems in the family;while things are now more or less back to normal,I'm still helping out my parents with a few things,and don't know when,or even if,I'll be back to my previous occupation.
At the moment I'm working as a technical translator,which means I work from home,but also that I pass an unhealty number of hours in front of the computer.
This is also the reason why I began exploring the blogosphere;I trickled down to your blog,as well as others, from Mr. Rozovsky's.
I turn to foreign blogs often in part b/c I read a lot in English and in part for escapism,since the current state of affairs in Italy makes me want to bang my head against the wall.
Repeatedly.
I have what probably is the equivalent of a Masters Degree in English and German,and speak a few other languages.
I like crime,sci-fi and some "mainstream" (for lack of a better term) fiction -after swinging between periods of serial monogamy I've accepted the polyamoric nature of my literary tastes.
I've been known to use for my lessons translations of,for instance,Thomas Disch "Descending" or Ibrahim al-Koni "Nazif al-hagiar".
I'm gay and pretty far to the left (you'd probably consider me anti-American) two things that make me a rare bird indeed in a country which has never been so close to fascism since,well, Fascism.
Ciao,
Marco
Marco
Yeah "rare bird" is a compliment. I've got to admit that if I lived in contemporary Italy I'd be pretty far to the left too. (I'm not though, but not a right wing nut either. I'm a boring centrist who can see the merit in all positions - yawn, yawn)
Your English is flawless I'm not surprised you're a translator, I actually thought you were a Brit living in Italy or something.
I suspect will never agree about the merits of Thomas Pynchon but thats a good thing. TP gets an easy run from his dedicated fans, good to have him taken down a peg. And much as I like Cormac McCarthy someone from the left should really write an article about "The Fascist Art of Cormac McCarthy"
Anyway good to hear from you,
Adrian...
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