Bookdeath Scheduled for March 2010
(Bookdeath cover by John Coulthart.)
Good news–I’ve sold the sequel to Booklife, Bookdeath, to Tachyon Publications. Jacob Weisman at Tachyon wanted to make sure we had pretty much every group covered, so this volume will focus on advice that’s more or less the opposite of what’s covered in Booklife. Also, instead of having an optimistic outlook, Bookdeath will have a pessimistic outlook more in keeping with the reality of our current situation.
“I just felt like for every person out there who wants to buy a book about life-related things, there’s got to be another person who wants to buy a book about death-related things. And the book industry. Besides, if you hate Booklife, you just go out and buy Bookdeath. That’s just a win-lose-win situation, really.” That’s the way Weisman put it to me in a phone call. (Booklife is pictured below.)
Jill Roberts at Tachy is also excited, telling me, “*&$@#@!!”
Chapters will include:
- How to Disconnect from the Internet Forever Leaving a Huge Hole in the Lives of Everyone Who Never Really Cared About You
- Why Envy is a Great Thing if You Turn It Into Hatred
- The Best Way to Use Your Self-Pity as a Blanket
- How to Disembowel a Reviewer in Ten Seconds
- Five Easy Steps to a Prolonged Flame War that Destroys Your Galaxy
- The Benefits of Audience Baiting with Hair Spray and a Match
- How to Use Personal Information About Your Enemies in Your Fiction
- Why Death is Sometimes the Best Way to Avoid Being Remaindered
In related news, Jacob’s also bought two new anthologies, to be edited by Ann and me: New Weird II: Bring the Pain and Steamy Cyberpunk: Feeling Slightly Naughty.
March 31, 2009 at 10:46 pm
XD
March 31, 2009 at 11:03 pm
You know, I might actually buy it, although the anthologies sound even more fun. If you build it, they will come, particularly today.
March 31, 2009 at 11:14 pm
Hah, Jeff, I didn’t know you lived in the Atlantic time zone!
March 31, 2009 at 11:45 pm
Ha! So Squidpunk’s been pushed back until 2011, then? :P
April 1, 2009 at 12:48 am
Happy April Fools Day!
April 1, 2009 at 2:07 am
Hehe, I like it. Too much optimism in the world, methinks ;o)
April 1, 2009 at 5:24 am
Finally! A place to send my loser friends who say they’ve “always wanted to write but just haven’t had the time.”
April 1, 2009 at 6:25 am
[...] Jeff VanderMeer writes a guide for dead writers [...]
April 1, 2009 at 7:41 am
You sure Gabe Chouinard didn’t ghost write this one for you?
April 1, 2009 at 8:35 am
That’s it. I’m chucking my computer out the window and never posting on another blog, ever again. Oh, in due time, the void I leave behind will instill great remorse in the denizens of the blogging community and great waves of shock throughout the publishing industry. “If Bill would only give us another chance,” they will lament bitterly. “We can never forgive ourselves for not embracing his vision!”
But it will be too late.
April 1, 2009 at 8:45 am
p.s. That book cover makes me think Flowers of Evil.
But that’s it. No more.
April 1, 2009 at 10:00 am
Only 1 day for us fools? That’s silly.
April 1, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Alright, you’ve all convinced me to come back into the fold. It’s all water under one ear and out the other bridge.
April 1, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Brilliant!
April 1, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Priceless. So what’s the third book in the trilogy?
April 1, 2009 at 6:08 pm
The After (Book)Life maybe? About how you can prepare for readers to rediscover your work years after you’ve snuffed it and can’t do anything about being misread or misappropriated.
April 1, 2009 at 8:53 pm
I suggest VanderMeer’s Inferno next, in which our author awakes to find himself in a dark wood. When he meets ancient poet Vivian Darkbloom he’s led on a long journey into the heart of literary Hell.
April 2, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Make sure it’s also an ebook. :-p
April 9, 2009 at 4:26 am
[...] VanderMeer sold his newest book, Bookdeath, including chapters like: “How to Use Personal Information About Your Enemies in Your [...]