Category: Publishing

I received the galley pages for The Coldest War this weekend.   It’s starting to look like an actual book!

This is an exciting stage because this is the first place where I get to see the pages more-or-less as they’ll appear in the final physical hardcover, complete with elements of book design.  It’s really fun to see a book at this point in the process.  This is where, for me, it begins to feel more real—this is the point where it becomes easier for me to imagine the big pile of words as an actual book written not by me but by an actual writer.

I’ll get back to the usual inane ramblings about the price of helium and the smell of Gene Simmons after this.

But, in the meantime, there have been some exciting developments, so I wanted to give another update on the Milkweed books.

…are finished.

Which is just an annoying way for me to mention that the copyedited manuscript for The Coldest War has been turned in.  So the publication process continues to move forward.  Hooray!

Yesterday, I received the pretty-close-but-not-quite-final cover art for the mass market paperback edition of Bitter Seeds and the hardcover/ebook edition of The Coldest War. 

At long last!  I’ve been waiting a long time for this!  Felt like I’d been waiting forever to see the new package.  (I learned about the repackaging in August of last year; I wrote a long blog post about it here.   All of the information in that post about the original cover art, bookseller reaction to it, and the decision to revamp the marketing approach is still relevant.  The projected publication dates in that post, however, are no longer up to date, as has also been chronicled in excruciating detail.)

It was worth the wait.  WELL worth the wait.

Below the cut, feast your eyes on major awesomeness from the superb Chris McGrath.

A nice surprise that came clear out of the blue today:  I’ve seen the new covers for the mass market paperback edition of Bitter Seeds and the hardcover/ebook edition of The Coldest War.

It’s too early to unveil them yet.  But I will say this: Wowsers!

I just can’t wait to have framed prints hanging in my house.  Can’t.  Wait.  They’re gorgeous.  Absolutely gorgeous.   And, when seen together, they’re clearly part of the same series– that elusive “package” has finally materialized!  And it is good.  It is very good.