Charming Monsters

Lsat week I was in New York for Book Expo America, a great experience I need to blog about as soon as I dig out from under the workload that accumulated during my trip! The best comics-related programming at the show was definitely the Hottest Graphic Novels of 2012 buzz panel, moderated by John Hogan from Graphicnovelreporter.com. Linda Yau has a good write-up at the Lincoln Heights Literary Society, and The Beat provides a list of featured titles with cover images and ordering details.

Good Comics for Kids interviews Scott Robins and Snow Wildsmith about their new book, A Parent’s Guide to the Best Kids Comics. Scott and Snow were kind enough to send me a review copy, since a couple of UDON’s Manga for Kids titles are featured in the book – it’s a fantastic resource for anyone looking to gain more insight into the exciting kid’s comic market, and I can’t wait to write up a proper review (see above re: workload, ugh).

And on a creator note, Faith Erin Hicks posted a charming one-page comic about her process for developing a new book. It’s sweet, funny, and instantly recognizable to anyone who has tackled a larger creative project!

Janet Reid points out something about BEA that I was reluctant to mention: the HarperCollins booth had no books. They had e-Galleys, which I snagged, and they were handing out books during signing sessions (which I kept missing out on due to meetings), but the legendary stacks of advance copies from past BEAs were gone.

From a publisher perspective, I’m not sure that’s an entirely bad thing. The ARCs we printed for the Manga for Kids line were pricey – more expensive than the final print run books – and you want to be sure that investment winds up in the hands of people whose (hopeful) support will make a difference in sales down the line. Most of our initial press coverage came from PDF review copies, which were available weeks before the ARCs even; although with a visual medium like manga, the final print quality of the books does make a difference to reader enjoyment, and that’s not something you can capture in an e-galley.

That said, she’s absolutely right about the lack of appeal with the postcard-style e-gallerys HarperCollins was handing out. I haven’t downloaded a single one yet, not even RAMPANT, the new Diana Peterfreund novel about killer unicorns which is on my fall must-read list.

I think it would make more sense to offer e-galleys with some sample pages, an inexpensive ashcan booklet of 20-odd pages that would provide a writing taste and, hopefully, interest the reader enough that they have to go download the e-galley to read the rest. People like to know what they’re getting into before they download a file, I suspect, and if the book is solid, then the first chapter or two would tip the balance from “I’ll download it eventually” to “I have to read the rest of this right now“.