Stacia Kane
08-09-2007, 01:47 PM
(This is reprinted with permission from the Juno books blog.)
http://juno-books.com/blog/?p=208
AMBERLIGHT, by Australian author Sylvia Kelso, is a beautifully written fantasy set in a fabulous city with an unusual matriarchal society built around the women’s control of a unique mineral called qherrique. The city’s social structure is often the reverse of what we would consider “typical.” And, if you were into labels, you might call it a “feminist fantasy.” The novel is written in a poetic style that Lois Bujold has likened to opera. I find it quite accessible, although it might take a paragraph or two to adapt to its rhythms. Yes, it is more challenging than, say, a Harry Potter book, but it is not James Joyce’s Ulysses either.
We have AMBERLIGHT slated for mass market publication.
Unfortunately one of our major sales channels has declined to order Amberlight almost entirely. We don’t know why. As the first three chapters were made available for advance reading, we might surmise they found the book to be stylistically difficult or perhaps did not care for its feminist slant. Whatever their reasons, we believe very strongly in this book. We also hope we might be able to convince the sales channel it was mistaken in it. Our plan is to solicit “blurbs” from sources that can’t be ignored, get the book reviewed in major venues and, generally, stip upsome buzz. To this end, we are now doing a hardcover edition and will be doing ARCs of it. Time is short. Amberlight is due out in December 2007.
So, we are spreading the word. If you have an idea that might help us get the buzz going, let us know. If you are an established writer who feels s/he might get behind this book and blurb it, let us know. If you happen to know writers with extremely high profiles — contact them and see if they would be interested in seeing an ARC. We are pretty sure we know most of the fantasy reviewers to approach, but you may know literary fiction reviewers we don’t. We will have the ARCs ready the first week of September and an emailable PDF sooner than that.
We aren’t asking anyone to vouch for Amberlight unless they sincerely feel it is worthwhile. We can’t supply everyone with an ARC. Those are reserved for bona fide reviewers and book-buzz mavens. But you can download the first three chapters here [URL to come]. We also have a limited number of printed “samplers” — bundled with samples chapters from BLOOD MAGIC — we can mail out. (First come, first serve.)
We feel that a book like Amberlight needs to be available not only in a hardcover edition, but in a low-cost mass market edition so that people feel they can risk their $6.99 on a book that is somewhat different and out of the ordinary.
But then, that’s what we intend to do with Juno Books: publish fiction that is beyond the ordinary.
http://juno-books.com/blog/?p=208
AMBERLIGHT, by Australian author Sylvia Kelso, is a beautifully written fantasy set in a fabulous city with an unusual matriarchal society built around the women’s control of a unique mineral called qherrique. The city’s social structure is often the reverse of what we would consider “typical.” And, if you were into labels, you might call it a “feminist fantasy.” The novel is written in a poetic style that Lois Bujold has likened to opera. I find it quite accessible, although it might take a paragraph or two to adapt to its rhythms. Yes, it is more challenging than, say, a Harry Potter book, but it is not James Joyce’s Ulysses either.
We have AMBERLIGHT slated for mass market publication.
Unfortunately one of our major sales channels has declined to order Amberlight almost entirely. We don’t know why. As the first three chapters were made available for advance reading, we might surmise they found the book to be stylistically difficult or perhaps did not care for its feminist slant. Whatever their reasons, we believe very strongly in this book. We also hope we might be able to convince the sales channel it was mistaken in it. Our plan is to solicit “blurbs” from sources that can’t be ignored, get the book reviewed in major venues and, generally, stip upsome buzz. To this end, we are now doing a hardcover edition and will be doing ARCs of it. Time is short. Amberlight is due out in December 2007.
So, we are spreading the word. If you have an idea that might help us get the buzz going, let us know. If you are an established writer who feels s/he might get behind this book and blurb it, let us know. If you happen to know writers with extremely high profiles — contact them and see if they would be interested in seeing an ARC. We are pretty sure we know most of the fantasy reviewers to approach, but you may know literary fiction reviewers we don’t. We will have the ARCs ready the first week of September and an emailable PDF sooner than that.
We aren’t asking anyone to vouch for Amberlight unless they sincerely feel it is worthwhile. We can’t supply everyone with an ARC. Those are reserved for bona fide reviewers and book-buzz mavens. But you can download the first three chapters here [URL to come]. We also have a limited number of printed “samplers” — bundled with samples chapters from BLOOD MAGIC — we can mail out. (First come, first serve.)
We feel that a book like Amberlight needs to be available not only in a hardcover edition, but in a low-cost mass market edition so that people feel they can risk their $6.99 on a book that is somewhat different and out of the ordinary.
But then, that’s what we intend to do with Juno Books: publish fiction that is beyond the ordinary.