David David Katzman

A Greater Monster was named as one of the Top 10 Books of 2012 by Common Ills Blog as voted by members.

“… Beth championed it near weekly in her column for the gina and krista round-robin. It is a jigsaw of writing and you find yourself falling down the rabbit hole. ‘A book to ponder and to read for the sheer life on the page,’ Beth observed.

It was also called one of “10 books every Chicagoan needs to read right now” and highlighted on Refinery29.com.

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.

I was a Finalist in the Fantasy genre category of the 2012 Indie Excellence Awards for A Greater Monster.