[UA] Godwalking Greg and his Personally Ransomed Brain

[Saul]

What about general fiction publishers? If it's original enough and written
well
enough it could maybe sell as one of those quirky bizarro novels that pop up
from time to time. Although they probably rarely involve such a combination
of fantastical elements. But you never know.

I can't understand why even niche titles aren't easy to get published in
America. The entirity of the Australian book market probably sells less
units than some of the smaller niches in the US market. A couple of the most
successful Aussie authors of recent years (Cecilia Dart-Thorton (fantasy)
and Matthew Reilly (military thrillers)) broke through first in the US
market by releasing parts of their work online and gathering a fanbase over
there.

Greg's already got a bit of a fanbase (us)-- if he could just spread
the word a bit futher, maybe by setting up a site devoted to the novel,
releasing a bit of it on there; people who read it and enjoy it could pass
the URL around etc. It's possible it could become a cult thing, and weird
cult things can become 'surprise successes'-- just look at Fight Club or
Donnie Darko. You never know how many fans you can get until you expose your
work to the world, and fiction is a much better means of doing that than
rpgs, since most people don't even know what an rpg *is*, or think its
something on a computer where you kill monsters and go up levels (any of you
guys come across Progress Quest? You really must play it:
www.progressquest.com). And yeah, films are much better still at showing
what you have to the masses, but you're much more likely to get a film made
if you have a great novel to base it on. And to me UA has 'cult film'
written all over it.

I dunno, maybe I'm an idealist, but I think the world needs UA ;)  The only
reason I've only been into it for a year is that I've only known about it
that long. It's something that I'd always been looking for, I just didn't
know it yet-- I'm sure there'd be others out there who'd feel the same way.

As for covers-- why is it that hardbacks in the US have such nice covers,
while paperbacks always look like crap? British and Aussie paperbacks have
really nice covers in general, though some are definitely much better than
others. A good cover is certainly a must if you want to sell books.
Something intriguing and dark would suit a UA novel. Not too blatently
violent, just weird.

Saul

"Unknown Armies -- A Roleplaying Game of Power and Weird Hairiness"



----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Cooper
To: The Unknown Armies RPG Mailing List
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2004 10:06 PM
Subject: Re: [UA] Godwalking Greg and his Personally Ransomed Brain



--- Saul <gorbag at swiftdsl.com.au> wrote:
> And have you sent it to every mainstream/horror
> publisher under the sun, and been rejected by them
> all?

It might suffer from the same hassles that plagued Tim
Powers with Declare - UA is too cross-genre, it's
target audience is too small - it is both cri-fi,
horror, and urban fantasy.

Of course, nobody will know unless Greg tries this
avenue.

Then again, if the book was sent straight to paperback
with out the oversized/hardcover prints, the price
will be much more accessible to the curious reader.

The one thing Godwalker does have in spades, so much
that it's dripping like honey from a beehive fed on
speed... is the Title.

Just for the curious, books are sold on a catchy
title, then an exquisite cover, then the blurbs, and
then the descriptive prose.

Godwalker will attract attention with it's title. If
the cover is cool and eyecatching and a decent
stylistic image of the book (and its theme) the book
is 90% sold. This is sold to average people who read
the author's name and say Greg Stole Who's Zee?

This was all graphic design and marketting from over
ten years ago.

Cheers,

Chris.

=====
The little bird that is the song in my heart
is too tired to be carried
by its battered wings.

It falls, crashes...
... and is still in its bone cage...

Dead Inside from Atomic Sock Monkey press.


                                      www.atomicsockmonkey.com

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