A New Face for My Friend The Enemy

The fantastic team at Chicken House has been busy spreading the word about My Friend The Enemy and receiving a great response, which is very exciting! The book now has the backing of some big booksellers and clubs which will give a dash of that elusive support we authors crave for our books.

Anyway, one of the results of this is that there have been a few tweaks to the cover design. It still has similar imagery but the tone has been changed slightly.

The downside is that my good friend Graeme has just printed a pile of promotional postcards for me . . . but, y’know what? I think it’ll make the postcards more special. They’ll be a kind of limited edition. Which is good, right?

The upside is that it still looks great and it’ll really stand out – which is important.

‘Never judge a book by the cover’ is what we’re supposed to believe, but life doesn’t work that way. A cover has to appeal to the reader; it has to draw the eye, capture the imagination, tell the reader something about what they might expect to find between those beautifully printed covers. And that, I think, is what this new design does just as well as the previous design. Maybe even better.

So, here it is . . . .

 Oh, and there’s still a little while until publication date – 4th July – but if you mooch on over to Goodreads, you can enter  the giveaway and, you never know, you might win a signed copy.

That’s all.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

My Friend the Enemy

by Dan Smith

Giveaway ends July 04, 2013.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

The Child Thief in Paperback!

Today’s the day  The Child Thief makes it’s paperback foray into the world.

Happy paperback publication day!

Next month it’ll be published in the USA where it’s been getting some great attention. It was picked as one of Publisher’s Weekly’s Top Ten Best Summer Books 2013 (Mystery and Thriller section) and picked up a great review in the publication.

There’s also another snip of news about The Child Thief that I’m itching to tell you, but will have to wait just a little while longer.

In the meantime, I’ve put a signed copy of The Child Thief up as a giveaway on Goodreads, so if you’re registered you can enter to win. If you’re not registered, well, it’s free and easy so whattayawaitinfer?

That’s all!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Child Thief

by Dan Smith

Giveaway ends July 04, 2013.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Chickens in Manchester!

Chicken House came north yesterday. Well, I say ‘north’, but Manchester’s not north really, is it? For those of us who live in Newcastle, anything on the wrong south side of the river is  . . . well, south. And anyone who watches Game of Thrones knows that north = honest, tough and honourable, while south = well, if you watch it, you’ll know what south means.

Anyway, the event was a huge success – as Chicken House events always are. The room was filled with librarians and booksellers and bloggers, as well as an excellent collection of authors including Melvin Burgess, David Massey, Sam Hepburn, Fletcher Moss and Stuart Hill. Oh, and I also had the chance to meet fellow ‘Allsorts-er’ the lovely Kate Ormand, who had bravely come along and thrown herself into a room full of people she didn’t know – which must have been terribly daunting. Annie Everall from Authors Aloud was there too, and even the Book Witch came along (there are more details and photos of the event on her blog). Cat and hat were left at home though, and the witch came by train rather than broomstick, so I’m not convinced she was really a witch at all.

Oh, and making our way from one venue to another, I was lucky enough to have Melvin Burgess on hand to lug a box of My Friend The Enemy proofs for me. It was a warm day and saved me from developing an unsightly glow.

 

Over there, Burgess, put them over there!

 

That’s all.

 

 

Related articles

• Chicken House at Cornerhouse (bookwitch.wordpress.com)
• The hit, By Melvin Burgess (independent.co.uk)
• Melvin Burgess’s bucket list (guardian.co.uk)
• Melvin Burgess: my favourite children’s books (telegraph.co.uk)

What Happens To Lonely Page Proofs?

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you might have seen that I’ve just received the book proof of my new novel Red Winter. If not, well . . .  here it is!

This is a proof, so it’s not the finished book that will sit on the shelf – this is the one that goes out to booksellers and reviewers to get everything moving on the run up to publication. I’m very pleased with the way it’s looking. The cover design does a great job of promising what lies on the pages within and it’s always nice to have a few quotes on the back. So, it’s all taking shape and there’s not long to wait now; it’ll be out in hardback in July

In the meantime, I’ve had my head down for the past few months as I’ve been writing/re-writing/editing a novel for younger readers, which is now finished (as if they’re ever finished!) and is winging it over to my brutally critical agent. I’m really pleased with the way it’s turned out and I think it’ll be a great follow up to my first novel for children – My Friend The Enemy – which will also be out in July.

July is going to be a good month!

Oh, yeah, and isn’t this just the strangest thing? I boxed away the page proofs for My Friend The Enemy, and then there was all this ruckus in the box – strange noises, music – as if there was something going on in there and . . . well, I’ll let you see for yourself.

That’s all