A digital PDF version of A Greater Monster is now available for purchase on the Novels page.
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.”
A great deal has happened in the span of the past 24 hours. My book tour in New York City has been finalized, and I won a book award!
First, the award. A Greater Monster, has won a Gold Medal as an “Outstanding Book of the Year” in the 2012 Independent Publisher Book Awards. So say the awards: “These medalists were chosen from our regular entries for having the courage and creativity necessary to take chances, break new ground, and bring about change, not only to the world of publishing, but to our society.”
Phew, that’s long-winded but very flattering. There were only 10 winners in different categories out of 4000 entries.
Now, onto the tour. I’m joining several other authors who have been published by the Chicago Coalition of Literature and Photography (CCLAP) on a four day reading event in New York City from May 31st – June 3rd. All shows take place from 7 to 9 pm, with performances generally starting around 8:00.
I’ll be reading at the following venues: On THURSDAY, MAY 31ST, at the lower Manhattan performance space Le Poisson Rouge. [lepoissonrouge.com]
On FRIDAY, JUNE 1ST, at a Brooklyn bookstore Book Thug Nation. [bookthugnation.com]
On SATURDAY, JUNE 2ND, at the Brooklyn experimental performance space Vaudeville Park in conjunction with New York jazz band Battle Of The Camel. [vaudevillepark.org]
And on SUNDAY, JUNE 3RD, for the largest showcase of the tour, at revered lower Manhattan “lit bar” KGB. [kgbbar.com]
The Brooklyn events were graciously organized and sponsored by the arts-and-entertainment website Brooklyn Spaces [brooklyn-spaces.com] and Oriana Leckert.
Get more details, including the other authors being featured at CCLAP or on the Facebook event page.
My last bit of news is that, at last, I have a book distributor. Bookstores can order my book from the fabulous Last Gasp who produce and distribute many gorgeous art books from the likes of Mark Ryden, Todd Schorr, Camille Rose Garcia, and many more.
Last Gasp
777 Florida Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
phone 415.824.6636
fax 415.824.1836
Email: Kristine at lastgasp dot com
Just posted: Goodreads Giveaway for A Greater Monster. You can enter for it here.
AGM is currently available
… in Chicago: The Book Cellar, Unabridged Bookstore, After-Words Books, Quimby’s, Sandemeyer’s Books, Chicago Comics, and 57th Street Books (just added)
… in St. Louis: Dunaway Books, Subterranean Books, Pudd’nhead Books, Star Clipper Comics, and Left Bank Books (just added)
… in Austin, TX: Book People
And of course on Amazon: http://amzn.to/greatermonster
Other news: I’ve submitted my book to the distributor who carried Death by Zamboni, so I’m hoping they will agree to carry it, in which case bookstores can order it directly from them. Coming up in June, I’ll be on a mini-book tour in New York City with several readings. More on that closer to the date.
Had a great reading at After-Words Books the first night of the AWP convention. Over twenty folks showed up on a blustery cold evening. Had a great time.
Dear Friends,
After nearly eight years of labor, I’m proud to inform you that my second novel is now available for purchase. You can find it on Amazon here. And on Goodreads, of course, here: [book:A Greater Monster|12480602]. It is also available in Chicago at Quimby’s Bookstore, Unabridged Bookstore, Chicago Comics and Sandemeyer’s Books. At some point in the next couple weeks I hope to make it available via PayPal on this site, if you would like a signed copy.
My book release party was a great success! There were about 45 people in attendance, and the crowd was quite engrossed in my reading. Eight people actually showed up as we were closing down! Drinks were imbibed, and good times were had by all. A few snaps here:
In the meantime, I’ve been hard at work on my Kickstarter project rewards. You can still watch my amusing video (about the book. I pre-sold 120 copies through this project and all the pre-orders have finally been mailed out. I’m also halfway through writing stream-of-consciousness letters and emails that were included in the rewards. It’s quite fun but also a bit exhausting to write 125 emails and letters and keep the inspiration going.
On top of that, I’ve been trying to make the rounds to the bookstores in Chicago. Sadly, there are so few independent new bookstores left. There are numerous used bookstores, but they won’t carry any new books even on consignment.
I’m still working on landing a national distributor for the book as well. Was turned down by Small Press United, which was my first shot. They sent a form letter rejection without explanation. C’est la vie. The point of having a distributor, for those who don’t know, is to provide bookstores a way to order your book when a customer requests it. It will show up as available in their system. Ingram is the top distributor, but they are hard to break into. Some of the smaller distributors will network with Ingram. Createspace through Amazon supposedly gets you into the system—but then you need to accept the quality of the job they do and the large cut they take with each print-on-demand book.
A good distributor will also notify bookstore buyers that your book exists via some sort of catalog update or a sales call in an effort to get some orders. (Createspace doesn’t do that as far as I know.)
Next steps are to visit more bookstores in Chicago and begin sending out review copies and interview requests to bloggers. As well as finish all my Kickstarter rewards. I’m a busy boy.