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Romanians in the Valley
Two recent pieces of news from Snowbooks towers, with our eyes now firmly fixed on next year's exciting list:
The Valley is the second novel from Snowbooks by J.D. Landis, the acclaimed author of the bestselling Longing. Set in the very real, but now vanished, location of Swift River Valley in Massachusetts, which was flooded to make a reservoir in the 1930s, this stunning gothic novel tells of the events following the young, imaginative Sarianna's arrival in the home of Reverend Jeremy Treat, a man of deep and rich faith trying to hold together a scattering congregation.
The Valley has just gone off to print, and to celebrate the lead up to publication on January 2nd, we've launched a special, dedicated website, where you can read an extract from the book, an interview with the author, and find out more about the extraordinary background to this tale. It's all right here.
Our second piece of news is the release of the cover for Bruce Benderson's memoir The Romanian, due for publication in May. Already published in France to great acclaim, where it became the first book by a non-French author to win the prestigious Prix de Flore, and shortly to be published by Penguin in the US, Snowbooks is proud to be publishing this landmark work by a truly extraordinary writer. Check out the preview here, and come back soon for more info.
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Adept(e)
We had a big parcel on Monday from City Editions, the French publisher of Adept, our best-selling thriller. And what did it contain, but ten beautiful copies of the French edition!
"Un best-seller haletant qui a reçu un formidable accueil public et critique en Grande-Bretagne."
Adept has now been sold to German, France, Serbia & Montenegro, Greece, Romania Italy and Bulgaria, as well as into talking book and large print format in this country, so look forward to seeing a host of other covers appearing here soon.
One of the best bits about foreign editions is undoubtedly finding out what other people need explaining, as in this footnote:
(2) Célèbre série télévisée comique diffusée à la fin des années 1970 par la BBC, se déroulant dans un hôtel dirigé par un gérant tyrannique et farfelu (John Cleese, des Monty Python).
Can you guess what it is yet?
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I'm every woman...
Ooh, I might win a prize. I'm one of three finalists in my age group for the Everywoman prize. If I win, I get an urn, which I will photograph for you to see on this very weblog - so watch this space for exciting updates.
Go here for an article in the Mail on Sunday.
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Maple Academy
There has been a flurry of letters this last week from hopeful would-be proofreaders. This happens about four times a year, in correlation, I'm guessing, with the end of a distance-learning proofreading course from one Maple Academy. They appear to have Snowbooks' details on a mailing list, and although I've asked to be removed they still appear to be telling their graduates to ask us for a role.
One of the things that makes working at Snowbooks enjoyable is that we keep everything in-house, including proofreading. It's a waste of your time and effort to ask us if we need a freelance proofreader. (It's my own personal opinion that signing up for a distance-learning course in proofreading is not the best use of anyone's time or money.)
I'm sorry that we don't have any opportunities available. If you're thinking of going on a proofreading course, I'd strongly suggest talking to some previous graduates to hear their opinion of its usefulness.
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New Hosts
Somebody keeps forgetting to backup the blog entries. I won't name names (because mine would be at the top of the list), but whoever keeps forgetting to make backups is responsible for our past posts going missing. Everybody likes a fresh start, right?
We finally switched hosting companies, following recurring downtimes due to the lackadaisical approach our old guys seemed to take regarding problem-fixin'. The site should be back on its feet now -- possibly improved (did you notice the tweaked design?), but a few blog entries short of its former glory.
At any rate, these are the successes I'm currently focusing on:
A.A. Milne's The Sunny Side is featured and on promotion at Borders, Books Etc, and Waterstone's. It might be the famous name that's pushing it along, but I like to think it's the illustration on the front cover. Whoever did that deserves a bonus.
I've finished proof reading Plotting for Beginners. I would say 'editing,' but when a manuscript's so clever that all you can change are the commas, it seems a bit cheaty to consider it anything more than proofing. Hooray for books that are being published by Snowbooks.
On a semi-personal-life note, I won an Adana Letter Press on eBay, along with a huge lot of accessories. I'd love to give our proofs (which are printed and bound here in our office, by our very hands) custom printed covers on coloured card. It seems novel and a bit 'let's hear it for antiquated technology!' at the moment, but I'm sure to go overboard and fill the office with letterpressed goods. I need to find an old tray of wingbats with a snowflake. Then we'll be made.
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