Under the Dome

Before beginning today's entry, just a quick note. Eagle Eyed Marlene comments that TG misspelled the word “judgement” in the entry below. Au contraire, Marlene, you are applying the American spelling (AE) whereas TG has inadvertently slipped into the British spelling (BE). That is because TG spent several years training in England with the Royal Marines in their Special Boat Service (SBS) ((motto” “Not By Strength, By Guile”)) and occasionally applies the BE spelling to certain words. Sorry about that. God, those were the days. TG would really love to talk about that period of his life, but modesty and the Military Secrecy Act (MSA) forbid.

Today, (Sat., Nov. 14^th) the Washington Post gave Stephen King's Under the Dome pretty much a rave review. Publishers Weekly did as well. TG wishes King and his book only the best, but a sigh of relief was heard in these environs when it was clear that there would be no review required from TG. A thousand pages? Spare me.

When TG was a young man, he eagerly awaited each year's new King novel. He and his mates in the Marines would hang around the barracks, oops, sorry, can't talk about that. Suffice it so say that each book, Misery, etc. would get passed from hand to hand among the lads until it became tattered beyond repair. But as TG grew older, there seemed to be less and less time for King, and, really, the books just didn't seem as interesting. Then there came a point when TG would find one in the library, attempt to read it and just couldn't get through to the end. The last attempt was with Cell. After that, TG quit.

Can someone out there give TG a good reason to try again? All other books, books for which TG is paid American dollars to read and review, would have to go on hold, so it's going to have to be a pretty good reason. Oh, how he loved, so many years ago, reading The Stand. Will Under the Dome return him to those days of yesteryear?

And finally, a Stephen King story. About a decade ago, TG, who lives in a small hamlet just outside Washington, DC, was getting his hair cut. In the next chair a woman was asked by the stylist how her son was doing. She replied he was doing very well because he had come up with the money to attend the local college. Where did he get the money? It turns out that he's a very distant relative of Stephen King, who has a special fund set up to pay for the college education of even his farest flung relations. Good for the kid. Good for Stephen King. The man deserves his gazillion dollars.

And here's a recent video of the master speaking at a signing for Under the Dome. And how he keeps from going berserk when he's asked, probably for the millionth time, “Where do you get your inspiration?” I'll never know.

Here's the talk.

The Dome Cover

This week's guest blog, actually it's Thriller Guy's first guest blog, goes to Frank Zubek who is a writer and who keeps TG apprised of all things geeky and cool. Frank chimes in here on the new Stephen King cover, which is really one fabulous piece of art. You may ask why TG didn't upload this new cover? He can't get it to work. Probably part of some vast Stephen King conspiracy. To see it, click on the word "here" in the following...

Allen,

A small, critical suggestion about book covers and selling books, from a Stephen King fan.

Over the past few weeks, Scribner has been slowly unveiling the cover to the new Stephen King novel, Under the Dome, in small chunks. (Front, back cover and then the spine and the text.)

The final cover design can be seen here-

Granted, it’s a striking cover and will definitely stand out from the rest of the few dozen other books that will be on sale November 10. But personally? I don’t see what the big deal is about releasing the cover. After all, this is the new Stephen King novel! A huge one that weighs in at 1,088 pages. His other ‘paperweights’, IT, has 1,152 pages and The Stand, has 1,153 pages, respectively.

The book will sell. In fact, Stephen King’s name on a plain brown wrapper would sell.

To be fair, considering the current state of the economy, I can see the reasoning behind the move. Scribner, no doubt, would like a few hundred thousand people who haven’t yet read a Stephen King novel to try this one out.

Still, if it were me, in addition to the cover, I’d build up the novel over the next five weeks by releasing choice chapter excerpts in five different venues. For example, USA Today, The New York Times, TIME or Newsweek, maybe one of the better literary magazines, and just to spice it up, a small sample through Kindle. That way, the book attracts a much larger demographic of potential new readers than just a small web page on the internet showing off the cover. ( No offense to the marketing folks).

While I do understand the point of the big cover unveiling (attracting new readers), fans of King, while they may like the new cover, get Stephen King, to read Stephen King. I think (as a fan), that it would make more sense to release a five week teaser (with five different, exciting chapters) that will get everyone excited about November 10^th, which is the release date of the novel. But that’s me.

If you are interested in an excerpt, 15 pages worth can be found in the back of the new paperback edition of his latest short story collection, Just After Sunset. There is one other excerpt scheduled in an upcoming issue of Entertainment Weekly as well. But that hardly strikes me as an exciting build up to November 10. Though I could be wrong since there is still a full month left and all the campaign plans have yet to be released ( I have timed this cover critique with the date of the cover reveal).

While a great looking cover has been known to help sell a book, times have changed and the need to attract paying customers is more important than ever. While releasing 50 pages (over a five week period) to sell a 1,088 page novel VS. showing off one cover might not be a good marketing plan (for whatever reason), it would sure get ME interested in buying the book.

Especially if I had never bought a Stephen King book before now.

But that’s just my opinion. I do hope the book sells out since over the long term, it will help bookstores in these tough times.

Frank Zubek

Beneath the Covers

A pal of mine, Frank, trolls the more obscure byways of the Interweb, keeping Thriller Guy (TG) appraised of matters concerning graphic novels, horror books, science fiction and comics. This week he takes the Guest Seat with interesting information concerning a topic that is dear to every author's heart: the cover that will appear on their soon-to-be published book. While some of the Big Guys get cover approval rights written into their contracts, it has been TG's experience that agents don't like to fight about this clause (publishers don't want it in a contract) preferring to expend their powers on money matters. Look for another blog on this topic in the future as I'm sure that many authors have interesting stories, but for the moment, here's Frank:

Allen, I wonder if I could comment a bit on book covers, in particular the cover for the upcoming Stephen King novel, UNDER THE DOME. (The picture to the above and right is the cover for the Australian edition.)

What’s that you ask? King has a new book coming out? (See how distracted you’ve become these days?) Yes, it’s due out November 10. Of course, a new Stephen King book is always big news. But that’s not the biggest news. The biggest news is about the cover FOR the book!

It seems that the publisher, Scribner, has invested in a CGI (computer generated imagery) enhanced image for the DOME cover that is due to be released “in stages” in a four part campaign. The dates of each “element” of the special book cover are as follows: September 21, September 25, September 28, with the full reveal of the special cover on October 5, “when the world will see that everything is UNDER THE DOME.”

The official roll-out of the “reveal campaign” wasn’t due until September 21, but a popular (and unofficial) King web page “leaked” the story last week. Here's the story and where to look for constant weekly updates about the book (and all King news).

In addition to that….

Stephen King himself is planning a signing/reading tour of which details can be found here on his official bulletin board.

There are no doubt, hundreds of people already planning four to six hour drives to have the chance to attend some of these functions.

But wait, there’s more !

Look for an excerpt from the book in an upcoming issue of Entertainment Weekly (probably in October).

For collector’s, there will be a signed limited edition (available starting Sept 19/ 9 A.M. EDT).

As for me? I hate to be a wet blanket, but while it sounds like fun, I’m just interested in the book itself. A fancy cover seems to be just a lot of bells and whistles. It’s the story that people are buying, not the cover. Especially a Stephen King book. But then, while Scribner no doubt has their reasons for such extravagance, I do wonder just how much the cover is contributing to the street price of $ 35.00, when the average retail price of most hard covers, as we all know, has climbed to around $ 27.00. That’s a lot of money for something that is basically read just once. But then, this is Stephen King.

Should books be judged by their covers? Time will tell.

Finally, for anyone interested in the complete history of book covers, you can check this link.

Thanks for this information, Frank. I did some lurking at the several King sites Frank mentions above and am amazed at the enthusiasm these fans have for his work and his life. This has been noted many times by others, and it's not like I was unaware of it, but seeing it in action is instructive. And certainly King is not alone in engendering this sort of passion in readers. I'd like to keep in touch with this fan world, and intend to add continuing updates as the date of the release of the King book approaches. I'd be interested in hearing comments from these fans, and in comments from others about this sort of fan loyalty.

Here's the cover for the German edition.