David David Katzman

12/7/12 A great review appeared in The Chicagoist for A Greater Monster.

Some highlights: “This is a psychedelic-Burroughs-dream and an aggravated-Lewis-Carroll-nightmare, a world in which we must continuously re-adjust our bearings….The brilliance of his imagination aside, we must also consider that this novel is a lot to absorb….Yes, the novel is difficult to read at times. Yes, you will have to read certain passages more than once and often read them in various ways. Of course, your face will start to hurt from the perplexed look you’ll be wearing over the duration of the book. However, you will be refreshed with new characters and situations every few pages–all of which will be other-worldly. You will stumble onto sparks, which will snowball into a catharsis more than once. Most of all, you will be challenged as both a reader and a thinker. If the pros outweigh the cons for you, then David David Katzman might just be your new favorite author.”

This week I launched my third book on Kickstarter. This one is a truly collaborative effort with Jason Pettus, owner and editor-in-chief of the Chicago Center for Literature & Photography (CCLaP) and Mike Wilgus, designer extraordinaire.

I launched A Greater Monster with a Kickstarter project that can still be viewed here: http://kck.st/daviddavid As a reward for all my contributors, I wrote each person a stream-of-consciousness email or a handwritten letter (at higher contribution levels) inspired by their name or a suggestion they wishes to make. I wrote 125 letters, and I spent anywhere from one to four hours on each one. So, roughly 300 hours of work! It was quite a task, but it was enjoyable as well.

I came up with the idea to select the fifty most interesting and unusual letters and publish them as a collection. Jason loved the idea and wanted to release it through CCLaP. What made me so excited about this is that Jason hand binds each hardback edition. All of Jason’s author’s books are beautifully handmade.

Mike was my book designer and cover artist for A Greater Monster. He came onboard to do the amazing cover art and 20 interior illustrations, four in color and 16 in black & white. I’m so happy with how the book came out. And I believe the letters will be entertaining even for those who don’t know me at all.

For my Kickstarter project, we shot a rather amusing video. Please take a look. I would much appreciate shares, Likes, and if you do find it intriguing, your support, of course.

http://bit.ly/KICKLETTERS

Visit http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/daviddavid/the-kickstarter-letters-a-handmade-and-illustrated to watch the entertaining video I created to introduce you to my third book, The Kickstarter Letters.

The Kickstarter Letters is collection of 52 letters I wrote to the supporters of my A Greater Monster Kickstarter project featuring 20 illustrations, a music playlist and a fantastic cover by Mike Wilgus. It’s available as a limited edition, handmade hardback edition–signed and number–and as an ebook. Please visit http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/daviddavid/the-kickstarter-letters-a-handmade-and-illustrated for details. The handmade edition, which will retail for $40 after the project ends, is available for $25.

Shortened URL version, handy for tweeting: http://bit.ly/KICKLETTERS

I was interviewed by Lara Levitan a writer for Newcity, Chicago’s oldest arts weekly newspaper, which appeared in the August 30, 2012 print edition and on the web here. I was also interviewed for Bookcast by Bill Thompson who is a radio journalist currently on the air on a major station in Washington, D.C. He also worked for the Associated Press Radio Network, USA Today SkyRadio, and Voice of America. That interview can be listened to on his website here.

My most exciting news: I was interviewed for the Newcity newspaper. Newcity is Chicago’s only locally owned and operated cultural weekly, and it’s been around for 22 years. The article just went live on the Newcity Lit site. Check it out here!

Some of you may recall I won a literary award for A Greater Monster. Turns out I was a finalist for another one. Isn’t that kind of like winning a bronze medal in the Olympics? You work your ass off, beat like 3025 people, come in third best in the entire world … and no one gives a shit. Eh, bronze? What a shame. Who won gold? But seriously … bronze is still cool. I was one of three finalists in the fantasy category of the 2012 National Indie Excellence Book Awards.

Here are some interesting stats that I read last month in Poets & Writers magazine. Within an article entitled A Day in the Life of a Literary Agency, which was a peek inside the workings of a mid-size literary agency, they revealed that the agency received 100,000 queries per year, which breaks down to slightly more than 200 queries per week for each of their nine agents. And based on the number of writers they pick up in a year, the odds of an author finding representation from them are one in 11,111. By contrast, do you know what the odds are of getting published when you self-publish? One in one.

I have two videos up from my reading tour in New York City. Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here.

Lastly, as always, I urge you to support your local indie bookstore! If you know anyone who might like A Greater Monster, here’s my updated list of bookstores that currently carry it:

Chicago
After-Words Books
The Book Cellar
Chicago Comics
Quimby’s Bookstore
Sandemeyer’s Books
Unabridged Bookstore
57th Street Books

St. Louis
Dunaway Books
Left Bank Books
Pudd’nhead Books
Star Clipper Comics
Subterranean Books

Texas
Book People (Austin)
Domy Books (Houston)

Portland, OR
Reading Frenzy

Toronto
The Beguiling

Bristol UK
Here Gallery

Berlin, Germany
Modern Graphics

Western Australia
Planet Books

You can also ask your favorite bookstore to order it from Last Gasp Distribution.