Bedfellows

Here's the cover art for the second book of the trilogised "Throat" series. The proposed title is "Manageable Unease".

As I mentioned here when Book 1 was released, the hope was for this to have come out back in February, but now it's looking more like October/November. I'm not even going to begin to speculate when Book 3 will be released - as they say, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. Except in this case replace 'God' with 'subsidiary distributor with own, inscrutable marketing agenda'.

“It’s a Christmas Miracle of Closely-Monitored and Regimented International Distribution, Charlie Brown!”

Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba!...Too much?

Fabulous news, something I’ve been keeping under my hat (except to everyone I know in real life, on Twitter, Facebook and a cute bookshop girl I wanted to impress) – I’m effervescent with glee to announce that “Throat” has been officially published in the States! I’m not sure when it’ll start showing up in stores or to what extent, but it already has an Amazon listing and you can all order it just in time for Christmas! Think what a hero you’ll be to the impossible-to-buy-for, indie comic enthusiast in your life; Y’know, the one who only likes completely obscure comics that have no reputation whatsoever, so as to never be accused of following the crowd? I know, I know, I’ve saved your Christmas. You’re welcome.

Woot!

A couple of important points to address, just to make sure everyone’s completely in the loop. To err on the side of caution the entire book won’t be published in one go, instead it’s been cut into three equal parts, effectively ‘trilogising’ it. Fortuitously the book’s three-act structure divides up more or less equally, so each book will be about the same length and stand up individually. At least I hope they will. This way instead of having one massive expensive book published it’ll be three cheaper ones. Which is even better, especially as two of the notable issues potential buyers voiced were the price and the length. So here’s the game plan:
•Book One: Coping Is Coping (November 2012)
•Book Two: Manageable Unease (February 2013)
•Book Three: Nobody’s Waiting (May 2013)
Each of these volumes will have a section of exclusive material, the first of which being a development sketchbook from which I put up excerpts last week. So how’s that for added incentive? The versions of each book that are being distributed to stores are black and white (cheaper and artsier), but after some humming and hah-ing there’s a full-colour alternative exclusive to Amazon. In every other respect it’s the same exact book, just a little pricier for the ink but still pretty cheap. To differentiate between the two when it comes to online listing the B&W cover has the title in black and the colour version in red. Fiendish!

Presenting the world's easiest spot-the-difference...

Unless the first or second volumes completely tank, all three will be out by the spring. Then depending on sales we’ll be looking into putting out the whole book as a kind of ‘Deluxe’ edition, like the original release but with all the extra bits included and maybe even some additional chapters I cut out as a sort of bonus. Like a DVD extra…in book form. I guess. It’s also worth noting that I’m still selling the original, self-published editions of the complete story on Lulu in the meantime.
So there you go, I have a bit of book out in time for the holidays, although you’d probably need to get your orders in pretty sharpish. Don’t forget you can preview the first nine chapters completely free in PDF form and find out more at the website throatbook.com and its Facebook Page.
I'd also like to personally once again thank all those who supported the book as it came together, either through direct feedback, marketing advice or just keeping me going in general. So much love and respect for Luca, Toby, Sam, Karin, Joanna, Jane, Michelle, Alison and Nusha, as well as everyone who has supported it by buying a copy or spreading the word and my ever-brilliant and supportive family for not being too freaked out by it. It's been a strange and unusual little sideline venture and I'm sincerely happy and grateful to see it get this far.
Now to start pimping the living hell out of it...