Some French Acacia Material - Glimpse Of The Cover?...

Like I've said before, the author is often the last to get a glimpse of anything. You know, I've still never held a copy of the Russian edition of Pride of Carthage, and that was published a couple years ago. (At least I think it was.) The newest incarnation of this dynamic is that I've just learned that French reviewers/bloggers are receiving arcs (advanced reading copies) of Acacia! Lucky for them, I guess, but no such luck for me. My friend Emmanuel at Elbakin.net clued me in, and he sent me a scan of some of the promotional material that came with it... (Tis' clickable.)

Emmanuel assures me that not many books get arcs in France (especially in fantasy), so it's another good sign my publisher, Le Pré aux Clercs, is behind the book. But will the French readership get behind it as well?

By the way, is that a glimpse of the cover I see in the upper left corner? I guess so, but I also know that they were rethinking whatever their early ideas on the cover was, so I won't swear it's going to look anything like that. We'll see..

French Acacia Release Date and Acacia Recommended by... Orson Scott Card - in French?

I've just learned that the release date for the French version of Acacia will be October 16th. I'm really looking forward to that. One can never know how a book is going to do at home or abroad, but so far my French publisher has expressed much enthusiasm for the book. As I understand it, Acacia is the fall book on the list, the one that'll be getting the biggest push. Love that. Here's hoping it works. I'd love to be big in France...

Getting that news put me in "killing a few hours in the French Fantasy blogosphere Mode". Over at Ebalkin.net, I came across a search that turned up an interview with Orson Scott Card. I promptly began scanning, and what do you know? I'm in there! Here's the question and the relevant part of the answer:

Avez-vous des livres à recommander à nos lecteurs, en fantasy ou autre ?

Card : Je ne sais pas exactement ce qui a été traduit, mais il y a de très bons nouveaux romans : The Name of the Wind de Patrick Rothfuss, Acacia de David Anthony Durham, et Mistborn et Elantris de Brandon Sanderson.

Ah! Translation, translation... Babel Fish to the rescue...

Do you have books to recommend to our readers, in fantasy or other?

Card: I do not know exactly what was translated, but there are very good new novels: The Name off the Wind of Patrick Rothfuss, Acacia of David Anthony Durham, and Mistborn and Elantris of Brandon Sanderson.

So, yes, that's a "recommendation". What do you folks think of that? I'll admit to being pleased that such an amazingly popular author (one whose work I have enjoyed) chose to mention my work, but I can't go too far with that positive response before I start to ruminate on the other side of Mr. Card: all that political stuff.

There are some significant and fundamental things that I disagree with him 100% on. There are occasional moments when he thoroughly surprises me by coming to conclusions that I do agree with. And a lot of the time when reading his essays I'm a bit knotted up by his labyrinthine logic - which I'm sure he doesn't feel is labyrinthine at all.

For a basic introduction this article in School Library Journal isn't bad. If you don't know what his politics are you could check out his posts on World Watch - The Ornery American. He is very public in his views (even on Star Wars), and a Google search about his politics provides both his own words and plenty of responses to them. (Check out this essay by John Kessel, for example.) Oh, and the folks at Elbakin.net just sent me a link the the entire OSC interview in English.

But what should any of that mean to me in reference to his recommending my work? They asked him for fantasy recommendations; he mentioned me. Any thing wrong with that?

The Times - You Mean the London Times?

I know I just posted some UK review news about SFX, but apparently last weekend was a doubleheader... I got an email from my British publicist this morning alerting me to "a rather good review" of Acacia in the Times. It was immediately like, "You mean, THE Times?" The answer, I believe, is "Yes, The Times."

I'm the second half of a review that begins with the latest Arthur C. Clarke novel, Firstborn. Rather heady company. The reviewer says some very nice things, including...

"David Anthony Durham has won acclaim for his historical novels, and brings his knowledge of the past and other cultures to create a rich and compelling world on his first foray into fantasy. His skilful storytelling, depth of characterisation, and an ability to unsettle reader expectations is reminiscent of George R.R. Martin, but his is a distinctive new voice."

Wow. I'm all goose pimply... Here's the whole thing.

Addendum: June 14th. I just realized something that makes me even more chuffed about this review. I was so focused on the London Times side of things that I forgot to pay attention to who the reviewer was. It's Lisa Tuttle, sci-fi/fantasy/horror writer of lots of books! That's cool to me for several reasons. One is that she's an American writer that lives in Scotland. I was once an American writer that lived in Scotland - and I hope to be again eventually. I'd noted that we had that in common a few weeks ago and actually looked her up, making a note to seek her out if we were ever at a convention together. I'd also noted that she was a Campbell Award Winner - something which I don't yet have in common with her but, you know... I think about the pending award thing every now and then. And the third thing - I'd knew that she'd written a book with George RR Martin! The book is Windhaven. It's cool to know that the person comparing me to GRRM actually knows him so well that they've authored a book together.

SFX

The "Earth's Greatest SF and Fantasy Magazine" (that's a quote but I don't doubt it) has given Acacia a rather lovely positive nod. The UK based SFX had nice things to say, including "This could be the arrival of a fantasy classic". But that's not even the best of it...

You can check it out here.

Acacia UK

The UK trade paperback version of Acacia is now officially on sale!

(Just thought I'd mention it...)

A Review For German Readers...

Just in case you've found your way here because of the German edition of Acacia: Macht un Verrat, I thought I'd post a link to an online review I came across recently. I know, this is a little risky considering that I don't speak German, but my online translator makes the review sound pretty good. And the reviewer gave me 9 out of 10 stars! Very nice, and each good foreign review is relief. I mean, hey, I can have my own opinion about the English version. I can't always know how it's held up in translation, though...

Here's the review if you Sprechen Sie Deutsch.

Acacia UK Trade Paper Giveaway!

Hi Folks! I know we just wrapped up a giveaway a few days ago, but I think I'll go ahead and do another one...

The UK edition of Acacia just arrived! I only got two at this preliminary stage, but if you want one it can be yours. Kinda nice cover. Some heft to it. For US folks there's the cool factor of having the foreign edition, one with squiggly pound signs beside the price, etc. And there's the knowledge that you'll be getting one of the two very first copies of this book that I ever saw. One goes on my bookshelf; perhaps its twin goes on yours. (You can have the one on the right...)


The routine is the same as before. Just go over to the Forum and toss your name in the hat. They're are no downsides, and it's not like there are millions of people entering these things. You've actually got a shot at it! Ask Scott, our last winner. I've actually just mailed his book off this morning. So it's on the way, Scott.

On Not Taking It For Granted

Hiya. Yes, the weekend at Big Sur was awesome. Great camping, lovely weather, ocean and river swimming, hiking, the pleasure of my family's company... Good stuff. I would bombard you with photos, but I haven't quite slipped this into being a personal blog that way, so I won't inflict them on you. Perhaps in the future, when we're doing really interesting stuff, then I'll detail it here...

Right now, though, I want to mention something that happened when I got home from the trip. There was a box waiting for me. Inside it: the paperback version of Annibale, the Italian edition of Pride of Carthage. I opened it, plucked one out, looked at it for about four seconds, and then waved it at my wife as she passed by bringing in gear from the car. She said something like, "Cool" (with a Scottish accent, mind you, so it sounds... um... especially cool). And that was it. I shoved the box to the side and went out to help unload.

It was only later - when I noticed the dejected box of books on the floor in my office - that it occurred to me that it remains a special thing to get a new edition of published book. Why was I being so blasé about it? It's another book! It's another example of a collective effort to get my words to readers. It's my work, and the work of translators, editors, publishers, designers and publicists, etc, most of whom live in that lovely Mediterranean country. It's kinda huge, really. If I'd never had another book published I'd be overjoyed at the arrival of this one, with it's dark cover and massive elephant. And since that's true it should also be true that I take a moment and enjoy and be thankful for this one.

So that's what I'm doing here. I'm not taking such things for granted. I'm taking a moment to be pleased. It won't be a long moment, because I've got work to do. I've got another novel to finish. There's stuff pulling on me that won't let me bask in any sense of achievement for too long. That's as it should be. It's humbling. But it also feels important to respect each success - if not for myself then for the other people that were kind enough to share it with me.

So thank you, Piemme! Thank you Italian readers that made the hardback a success. Thank you to the new readers that I hope will pick this version of the book up. Thank you for accepting my fictional take on your history.

And thanks for getting my son interested in reading Italian...

Reading Deutsch

The German copies of Acacia just arrived in the mail! I'm very pleased, and a bit aghast at how big the thing is in German. It's like Moby Dick sized... I hadn't quite expected that sort of heft. But it's lovely. The cover image works wonderfully, and it has nice inside flaps, even though it's a trade paperback. Even has the map of the Known World inside. That's quite cool because, of course, everything has been translated in to German. The League Platforms become Schwimmende Plattformen Der Gilde. The Gray Slopes are Die Grauen Hauge. Palishdock is Weisshafen, and Methalian Rim is Methalischer Rand. I like this. Makes it feel like the book has grown up, left home to travel and returned with a foreign fiancee. One wonders where the children will call home?...

My son, Sage, snatched the book up and promptly began reading. He's big into reading now, especially since he's begun Harry Potter. (Word by word, baby. It's no picnic, but he's getting it done.) He took a break from that and really seemed to get into Acacia Macht und Verrat. We reminded him that it was in German, but he didn't seem put off by that. He's homeschooled, you know, and not easily daunted by things like language barriers...

Having said that, much later in his reading, he did admit: "Man, this is hard to read."

Pride of Carthage, Russian Style

What's that cover to the left, you ask? Believe it or not, it's the Russian edition of Pride of Carthage! I've just "discovered" it, after a good deal of searching.

I know, why do I need to discover it or search for it? I'm the author, right? I should be getting care-packages directly from Moscow, yes? It doesn't really go that way, though.

My Russian publiser, Eksmo, bought the book years ago, but I never really knew what happened with it. Doubleday got paid. They paid a bit less to ICM. ICM paid bit less to me. (THAT'S the way it goes.) And that's about it. Every now and then I'd do a Google search, but I could never find a sign of it. Until now...

The crazy thing is that I can barely tell it's mine. Seems like my name, in Russian, is Дэвид Энтони Дарем. And Pride of Carthage is Гордость Карфагена. Now, can you see why I had trouble tracking it down? (Oh, that and the fact that I'd been spelling their name wrong for the last two years...)

Here's a site that has it.

And here's another one.

I Ribelli Mondo Oscuro

You know I'm a sucker for new covers. Love gettin em. Got one today. My Italian publisher, Piemme, has sent me what they've come up with for the first volume of Acacia. I do mean first, since they've actually broken the book in half. They'll be doing the first Acacia in two parts, ending this one at page 307 in the English hardback version. (It'll be longer than that in Italian, though.)

The title translates as The Dark World Rebels. I don't entirely get that, but it's not my language or my country, so I defer. I won't defer on the abbreviation of my name, however, but that can be fixed...

Anyway, what do you think?

Attack of the Covers!

I woke up this morning to two emails from far, far away, both bearing covers for my... um... Well, just for me to look at, cause it's not like I have much say in such matters.

The first was one you may have already seen a version of. It the Transworld UK cover for Acacia, specifically for the hardback collectors' edition. The image is pretty much the same as before, although I do notice they spiffied up Corinn's dress a bit. It's less a burlap sack and more a silky red now. I prefer it. (Okay, so maybe I do have some influence on things after all.)I like the way they call me a "bestselling author". It's true, you know, really it is!

The second is a first glimpse from my Swedish publisher, Norstedts. Wow, now that's a different take on things! They make it look like I wrote a novel about marauding hordes of sword-weilding uber-men slogging across a frozen tundra with giant woolly rhinoceros beasts... Well... yeah, I guess I did, didn't I? That's part of it, at least. Anyway, here's what they've come up with for Akacien!

Comments are welcome...

(By the way, does anybody know what Hotet Nran Norr means? I tried to translate it online and got "hotel stamp north". I'm thinking that's not right. Then got "the threat fran north", which sounds a bit closer. So is it Acacia: The Threat From The North?)

Oh, and I don't think I ever put up the finished full jacket for the German edition. Here it is...

A little bit more on last year...

Very pleased to learn (thanks, Larry) that Acacia has made Greg L. Johnson's editors list: The SF Site: Best of 2007. I'm in the mix with titles by Ian McDonald, Kim Stanley Robinson, Richard Morgan, Nalo Hopkinson, and Kay Kenyon - among others. It's a lovely list.

And I've received some love from the other side of Atlantic. On the French site, Elbakin.net, Gillossen has included Acacia as one of last year's top titles: Le Top 10 Fantasy 2007 Pour Elbakin.net. (This is for the English edition, by the way. The French one isn't out yet.) The review of the book is HERE, if you read French.

Thank you both.

Maybe Not Sooo Much of a Fixation...

I think my fixation with Amazon.de has already started to wear off. I'm not convinced I'll glean much useful information from it. Actually, I've noticed that some things have changed already. They had the pub date as January before, but now it's changed to February. That makes more sense, as that's what it says on the Blanvalet catalog. Anyway, I won't let it be the time killer it might have become.

What's quite cool, though, is that the interaction I've had with TD because of that last post has lead me to some interesting information about the German edition. Now, I can't confirm that this is a definite (just because numbers rarely are in publishing), but it looks like Blanvalet has announced a 50,000 print run of Acacia! Awesome. That's only happened once before, with the Italian paperback of Pride of Carthage. They've got my US publisher beat by a goodly bit! What's that mean, I wonder?

Anyway, when I looked for the catalog that TD directed me to I didn't find it initially. First, I found one that features Acacia. It's a lovely catalog, especially as the cover art is from my book! It doesn't say Acacia on the cover, but it's my image. And then at the very end of the catalog there's a full page spread on the book. Very nice. If you'd like to see the catalog you can click BLANVALET. I think that'll bring up the pdf...

But then I finally located the other catalog. It's HERE.

New Fixation

As of yesterday I got a new fixation. This is not a good thing, but it's hard to resist...

The German version of Acacia has just gone on sale! I'm very pleased. I've been looking forward to this one for a long time, which may be part of why I'm inclined to pay more attention than usual. In the past, I never had much of an idea how the foreign editions were selling because I couldn't access the figures on line. (And, no, my foreign publishers aren't constantly sending me figures. My US publishers aren't constantly sending me figures, for that matter...) So it was just something that sort of happened out there in the unknown. (I did follow Pride of Carthage in the UK, but that's different. Same language and stuff, you know.)

Okay, but now there's Amazon.de, the German Amazon.com. Oh, curse it! In the past 24 hours I've become just as fixated on it as I once was on the US version! There's good news and bad news because of this. The good news is that the book is selling. It's jumped around from 1k to 3k to 6k and back again. That would be quite good on the US site, although I've no idea what that means in actual sales in Germany. But in general terms it's still pretty good. It certainly means that people are buying the thing. (Magic, that...)

The bad things, though... Well, mainly this new distraction is just that: a distraction. It's so, so easy to skive off writing just to check Amazon.de. You know, the figure changes every hour. I may check it five times during an hour, but, by god, that number is gonna change and I'll be there to spot it when it does!

This is not a healthy way to be. I'll work on it.

The other bummer is that... well, these people that speak another language (one that I can't read) can post reviews of my book. And what's happened? Well, some numbnuts gave me a two starred review! I've got no idea what his issues are, and I'm not bothered by them, actually. But the two stars just don't look good. (And I'm all about appearances.) So far there's only 1 Kundenrezension, which is why those two stars shine like a beacon alerting all of Germany to the tepid lameness of my novel...

Ah, so be it... It's not everyone that can say some German reader doesn't like their novel, right? By that accounting I'm a lucky guy. Plus, I've found that badly reviewed books often do surprisingly well... Am I on my way to German bestsellerdom? Time will tell... Oh, and if you'd like to see my German incarnation click here: AMAZON.DE!

Old Country, New Cover

I often get asked how much control I have over various aspects of publishing my works. Some of it - the writing, for example - I have exclusive control over. But a whole lot of the other stuff is entirely out of my hands. People often seem surprised by just how much of it is out of my hands, but I don't think I'm alone in this.

Cover art is one of those areas. I don't design it. Don't hire the artists that draw it, take the photos, choose the layout, etc. Don't sit in on the meetings where they kick around ideas. Don't have a clue about most of the marketing statistics they consult as they make decisions. I do know that a lot of thought goes into the choosing. At a publisher like Doubleday, no cover is chosen by any one person or created without the consultation of many. It's arguable whether or not the factors that influence the decisions are the right ones, but this is a business, and you know what that means...

What is my role like, then? Well... with Gabriel's Story I was presented with the cover. "Here it is. Cool, huh?" That was that.

With Walk Through Darkness it was more like, "Here it is," followed shortly thereafter by, "Um, well, no, that's not it after all," and then, "Here it really is, or, well, maybe not quite that..." until eventually about the third or fourth version that I saw was announced as the cover. (By the way, the four versions I show here all came and went as options. None of them were used. I think they had more options made up also, ones that I never saw.)

With Pride of Carthage it was back to, "Here it is," and then with Acacia there was an earlier option that they loved, until they decided they didn't love it afterall and produced another version. That one I rather liked, although it got tinkered with a bit from my favorite version to become the final cover.

Nowhere in here have you heard me say I vetoed - or was asked if I wanted to veto - one of the options. That's just the reality of it. On occasion there's been some tinkering with the images in reaction to my queries. Things like shading the man's hand a bit on the paperback cover of Walk Through Darkness, but that's about the extent of my influence. My publishers trusts me to write what's in my books; designing what goes on the outside of them is another matter.

Personally, I concede that I have very little understanding of cover-fu. I just don't get what makes one work - if "working" can be defined as appealing to the most people possible. A cover that I love will get slammed or ignored. One that I hate will smile its way on to bestseller lists. It's enough to make me doubt my convictions on such things. Truth is, my tastes differ from the masses, and yet it's the masses I want to buy my stuff... All of this leads me to generally have faith that my editors and their hardworking minions should be trusted.

Which leads me to the most recent entry in the parade of covers... All hail a new life for Acacia, with a new face to go with it! This one is Transworld's cover for my UK edition, which comes out in May. What do I think? Well, you know, I'm inclined to say that's not important. I'm not the one we need to sell the book to...

The better question is - what do you think?

Ooohh... Aaahh... (That's what it does to me, at least) The complete German Bookjacket!

Just got this from my editor, Urban Hofstetter at Blanvalet. I know I've posted the front image before, but here's what the whole thing is going to look like. Sweet...

I know it's smallish, but just click on it to see it at full-size!

Check Me Out - I speak French!

After Sylvain directed me to the elbakin.net website and forums I ended up poking around enough to find a lengthy interview I did - in French!

For example, I was asked "J'ai noté que le titre de la série est The war with Mein, Acacia est donc le premier d'une plus large série?"

Nice question, I thought. Great to be able to elaborate. So I said, "Oui. Pour le moment, je suis sur une intrigue qui porte sur deux livres supplémentaires. Je ne voudrai pas trop en dire – sur ce qui se passe dans ce livre ou le prochain – mais je dirai que les deux prochains livres impliquent des luttes beaucoup plus vastes qui mettent en cause bien plus de pays. C'est à propos du conflit entre le Monde connu et les Autres terres."

I was then asked, "Votre précédent livre était du domaine historique. Qu'est-ce qui vous a amené à la fantasy?"

I always enjoy this question, so I quickly replied, "Je pensais à Acacia depuis 8 ans avant de l'écrire. Et ceci seulement en ce qui concerne le scénario et les conflits du roman. Mon amour de la fantasy remonte bien plus loin. J'ai appris à aimer lire grâce à la fantasy. Je n'étais pas un très bon lecteur lorsque j'étais jeune. C'était dur pour moi, mais lorsque j'ai commencé à lire de la fantasy j'ai découvert des mondes, des personnages et des histoires si merveilleuses que j'avais plus qu'envie de m'y frayer un chemin. Je dois beaucoup à C. S. Lewis, Lloyd Alexander, Ursula LeGuin, et, bien sûr, à Tolkien..." And on and on. I just couldn't shut up!

You can see the entire interview HERE. How interesting it is to be part of wired world... (Thanks to Jay Tomio and FantasyBookSpot for the original interview.)

Vive la France!

I'm absolutely thrilled to be able to say that for the first time I'm going to be published in French! Considering that I wrote my first published novel, Gabriel's Story, while living in France, I've been waiting anxiously ever since to see when one of my novels would make an appearance in that wonderful country. Now, finally, the wait is over.

Actually, the wait is doubly over because it looks like both Acacia 1 and Acacia 2 have been snapped up. (Again, no, I haven't entirely written that second volume yet, but it's coming. It's coming!)

So, my French publisher is to be Hors Collections, part of Le Pre Aux Clercs. The cover images here are from a few of the folks they already publish: Guy Gavriel Kay, Stephen R. Donaldson and Naomi Novik. Good company to be in, huh?

I don't have an exact pub date yet, but it looks like they're planning on unleashing it on the French populace in 2008. Really, I couldn't be happier about it. Sounds like the publisher feels very good about the book, really likes it and has great plans for how to promote it. I'm also chuffed that Le Pre Aux Clercs wasn't the only publisher going after it! Good to feel wanted.

And this just when I was starting to think things were slowing down... Oh, by the way, this isn't the news I can't talk about yet. I should probably stop talking about not being able to talk about that and stick to the things I can talk about...

Wonder what the cover will look like?...

Babel...

Every now and then I remember that Pride of Carthage lives out in the world in various translations. I get to wondering what people in those foreign countries think of it, so I go a looking online. Thing is, of course, I'm a typical American in that I don't speak any second language that well. I find pages and pages in Polish, Swedish, Italian, etc... but I can't read a word of it - other than my name as it pops up. What to do?

Babel Fish Translations! Or any of the many online translation machines out there. Figuring it's worth a try, I culled some chunks of review text in various languages and gave these linguistic machines a try. Here are a few examples of what I got for my efforts...

A chunk of text originally in Polish regarding Duma Kartaginy...

As we observe most slight details of (particularities of) events how (as) on great screens by microscope. And Rome, on fields Kannów and Zamy. Intimate contrast with this picturesque fresco, portraits to details (particularities) rich Hannibala and family, allies and enemies. We learn psychological portraits excellently zarysowane wodzów and slaves, priests and plunderers of corpses, beautiful (fine) women and vacant nobilów. We are witness of triumphs and disasters, determination and weakness, love and hate of people forming contemporary history.

Okay, now that I recognize as a bit of jacket copy. Not exactly a review. Makes me wonder, though, if the original Polish really did put extra emphasis on the beautiful (fine!) women? Maybe they sexed it up a bit...

Okay, here's one that was originally in Swedish, regarding Hannibal Karthagos Stolthet...

Can I type that the book is good only in order to it might myself that nörda away to the library after maps over ancient Iberien? Both Antiquity's fabler and means time even riddarromaner was of course in highest degree note renown spirit and I requires that such a book that has something to learn out can is considered that "better” than it that provides purely nonsense. If I count with the interest that Durham's book arouses at me, I must acknowledge that it is really good.

Hmmm. I think there's a compliment in there, although my reading of that is that what he liked most about the book was that it sent him out the library to do some real research. I can live with that, I guess.

And from the Italian about Annibale...

Lofty. In premising that I have read it in language originates them English, I think that this text merits without doubt a place of first relief in Mount Olympus of contemporary historical novels... Nicholas Guild, Allan Massie, Gore Vidal (giuliano) I interlace brilliant of history parallels that ruotano around to that great condottiero that was Hannibal I fresco of the ancient world with palpitanti personages. Never banal, never retorico, always deep and winning. The novel makes from inspired contour the historical events that have contraddistinto the tragic one rivalita' between two piu' high power of the Mediterranean. One chicca for the lovers of the ancient history, absolutely not to lose. One reading for all.

Okay, this one had some lovely bits to sink my teeth into. Mount Olympus of contemporary historical novels? Nice! Makes me want to shout, "One reading for all!"

I mucked about for a bit longer and pulled up a lot of completely garbled stuff. I think it's fair to say we have a ways to go in perfecting computerized translations. That said, once Acacia starts appearing the around world I'll be back at the Babel Fish again, regardless. Sometimes, one does come across some gems. Like this one originally written on somebody's blog in Spanish...

The thing is that, approximately 3 months ago, I began to read a called book "Anibal, the pride of Carthage" of Anthony David Durham and like the afternoons them step a little put in blogs, and sharpening details of the guideline, cost much to finish to me reading it. Not because it was not entertained, but that but that nothing by lack of time. I must say that at the end of the book, you complete pages have a so enviciante rate, that those 100 or 200 pages, I could not loosen them. In fact a day was walking and I had to stop under a little tree to finish to me reading.

Awesome. I love that. Somewhere out there in the Spanish speaking world a guy had to sit down under a little tree to enjoy the final chapters of my book. As the author, what more could I ask for?

Or, was that translated right?...

A Mexican Bestseller?

Nobody ever tells me anything...

Okay, that's not true. My wife tells me things. La Gringa tells me things. The good people that write in here tell me things. So, more specifically... Nobody ever tells me when I make international bestseller lists!

I've got to find these things out myself every time. I've just discovered, belatedly, that the Spanish Language Pride of Carthage (Aníbal, el orgullo de Cartago) made a cheeky, short-lived appearance on the Associated Press' Mexican Bestseller list. Thing is, it happened a few weeks ago, and the list is dated for the 10 of August. Proof here.

Cool. It seems like it was a one week blip, though. That got me wondering just how many books I might have sold in that week. Thought about it. Got no clue. Won't know anything about it for, oh... like nine months or so. For the record, it takes forever for the whole accounting of sales to get back to the lowly author. One must be patient. Still, I wondered. So I looked up Mexican book sales online...

Maybe shouldn't have done that. I came across this report on the subject by Senator Alfredo Ling Altamirano. Among other things, he said...

"The demand for books is directly related to the economic development of countries, if we consider book consumption per inhabitant. Annually, in the USA it is 89 U$S, in Germany 102 U$S, in Austria 95 U$S and Denmark 92 U$S. If, as the National Chamber of Mexican Publishing Industry (CANIEM) shows, Mexicans read 2.8 volumes per year, consumption per capita would be 8 U$S, which is pathetic. In Mexico 12 new books are produced daily. In the world, 4 thousand books are published daily. This means that Mexicans read little. In 1997, out of 93 million Mexicans, around 79 million had not been to a library in the previous year."

Oh. I see. So I won't be placing an order for that new Prius after all...

It's funny being an international bestseller. Feels a lot like not being an international bestseller, which, perhaps, is why nobody on the team has yet to draw my attention to it...

Acacia's UK Deal!

I'm back from the beach - where the boogie-boarding was awesome, the raccoons were wee troublesome buggers, the seals barked late into the night and some questionable (but very nice) folks showed up at our campsite in the middle of the night. But that's personal stuff, not of interest to the general public...

I will say that I'm very pleased to announce that we've finally wrapped up a contract for the British publication of Acacia. It was a long process this time. I believe things opened up enough that we had discussions with a number of publishers, especially as this fantasy series is a departure from Pride of Carthage, the only novel of mine previously published in the UK.

Funny thing is that at the end of it all my Pride of Carthage publisher is the one we're going with. Transworld has signed on for Acacia 1 and 2! (Um... There's an extra bit of pressure to get that second book done.) Transworld has a diverse list with titles in many different genres. I'm happy to say that they also have quite a strong fantasy/sci-fi list that includes books by Steven Erikson, Christopher Paolini, Mary Doria Russell, David Gemell, Anne McCaffrey, David Eddings, Laura K Hamilton and Terry Prachett. And me!

What will the reaction be over there? What will the cover look like? No idea, but I'm glad to have the opportunity to find out.

The Coast, and Poland

I'm about to head off with the family on another camping trip - to the coast this time. We've got a lovely primitive site booked that overlooks a sweep of coastline and dunes and hiking and biking trails. It'll be awesome.


Small bit of news for today is that Acacia has made the grade in Poland. It's going to be published by MAG JACEK RODEK in Polish. I don't know much about this publisher, but I do understand they're strong in fantasy. I'm very happy about it, and it makes my second Polish book, after Duma Kartaginy!

Okay, off to play in the surf!

The Russian Vibe

Two bits of news for today. First off is that we've just sold the Russian rights to Acacia! It didn't go to Eksmo, my Pride of Carthage publisher, but to new one for me: Recliff Holdings Ltd, the imprint for foreign authors at AST-Press. They are the Russian publisher for John Twelve Hawks' Fourth Realm series and Stephen King's Salem's Lot and The Shining. They also have a number of other bestselling American fiction authors on their list, including fantasy writers like Terry Brooks!

That info all comes from the foreign rights agent that handled it. Personally, I couldn't find much info on AST online. I did come across this article: A Publishing Revolution, though, which mentions the company. It also makes Russian publishing seem like quite a troubled but developing market. Glad to be part of it...

The second thing is that I got a mini-review in the July issue of Vibe! (I doubt that link will actually get you to anything about the book, but that's their main page.) So I'm in Vibe? That's pretty unexpected. Here's what they said:

“ACACIA: Betrayal. Revenge. Redemption. Magic. Durham delivers the stuff that epic tales are made of (with a multiracial cast of characters) in the first of his mythic war trilogy about four siblings’ quest to avenge their father’s death and reclaim his empire.”

Okay. Yeah, that's my book. And this makes at least the second time I'm sharing print space with 50 Cent! I don't think I've ever been mentioned with Bart Simpson, but one can dream...

Swedish deal for Acacia!

Sweden rules. I'll probably elaborate on this post soon, but the basic info is that Norstedts, my Swedish publisher for Pride of Carthage, is sticking with me for Acacia. Awesome. I love these folks!

Blanvalet Rocks!

Okay, I know I should do an Elf Fantasy Fair post, and I will. Thing is, I got home to a wonderful email from my new German editor, Urban Hofstetter. He's clearly got some big plans for Acacia: Macht und Verrat (Power and Betrayal), and I'm thrilled by the things he said. Made me blush, really. Nothing I can repeat here, BUT I do want to show you all the German cover. I love it. Kinda stunned by it. What do you think?

How do you say Acacia in Italian?

I'm not sure, but I'll be finding out soon. Piemme, the Italian publisher of Pride of Carthage, has decided to stick with me for Acacia also. They'll be publishing it in hardback, in a two volume set. I guess the length of an Italian translation is such that the two volume thing seems necessary. Fine with me. I'm not sure where they're going to cut it, though...

With the German edition, that makes two translations for Acacia. Still hoping that's just the start.

Leoes de Cartago!

Here's a look at the Portuguese cover for Pride of Carthage, which is published by Editora Bertrand. There's something familiar about that image, but it works for me.

Those Italians...

Those Italians are being very good to me. News just in today is that my Italian hardback publisher, Piemme, has just negotiated a separate contract to publish a paperback edition. I love this news, especially as Piemme knows exactly how Annibale performed, and they still think there's more life in it. Their going out with a first printing of 45,000 copies! That would be plenty even in the US, but for them to do that in Italy means they're quite confident the market for the book is there. Groovy.

Katrineholms-Kuriren

A swedish journalist named Niclas Karlsson was kind enough to alert me to a review he wrote of the Swedish version of Pride of Carthage (Hannibal Karthagos stolthet). It's published in Katrineholms-Kuriren. Of course, I can't read a word of it, but I'm hoping that he had kind things to say. You could check it out at the above link and if you know any Swedish fill me in on the details...

It includes an illustration of Hannibal. I think it's quite good.

Hannibal Karthagos stolthet

Always a treat to out of the blue get a box of books that I appear to have written except for the fact that I can't read a word of them because they're in some foreign language. I'm not kidding, either; I have so little to do with the foreign editions that it's always a surprise when I actually get my hands on one.

The latest is the Swedish edition, published by Norstedts. It came at a good time for me, also. I'd just had a conversation with a white librarian here in Colorado Springs. She was very nice, but as soon as she found out I was an author she began to bemoan how black people in the city don't use the library enough. She was clearly saying that it was too bad that my people weren't readers, and assuming that my career and fortunes must be suffering for it.

Now, I certainly wish that African-Americans were reading more and reading better, but what bothered me about this interaction was that she assumed - without any knowledge of what my books were about - that my work would only be of interest to black readers. That assumption, unfortunately, is made all too often in publishing. Without a doubt, I want as many black readers as I can get. I want them to know that I'm writing for them, both when I'm writing novels about African-Americans and when I'm writing about the ancient Mediterranean or about a completely imagined world. But I'm also writing for a world audience, and fervently hope that it's possible to have both.

Getting this book from Sweden seems to suggest it is possible. Not a whole lot of black folks there, right? Or in Poland. Or Russia...

Germany wants Acacia

I'm thrilled to be able to announce that a German publisher, Blanvalet, will be translating and publishing Acacia. I had nothing to do with the negotiations, but there was interest from a few Germany companies. Blanvalet beat the others with the right sort of offer. There's money involved, of course, but it also sounds like Blanvalet will be able to place the book beside other titles/authors on their list. They publish George R.R. Martin, Isaac Asimov, Christopher Paolini, Terry Goodkind, for example. Acacia is somewhat different than any of these author's works, but on the other hand there are similarities also. Makes me very happy that a publisher actively working with top epic-fantasy seems to think Acacia will have a place in the genre also.

Of course, now I'm wondering if this might be the start of something good. It is early days yet, with the US publication still 8 months away. Perhaps they'll be some other offers... I'm hoping.

Duma Kartaginy - Polish Pride of Carthage

Just saw this for the first time...


Works for me. What do you think?

Well, it's not quite officially ended...

Anibal was off the Chilean bestseller chart last week, but it climbed back on this week. Hanging on in the #8 spot!

Los 10 libros más vendidos en las Américas - 18 Aug