Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Draugr, my first book, comes back from the Dead!

Cover of Draugr

Good news! Books can come back from the dead! Today is the official re-release of my first novel Draugr. All three books in the Northern Frights series have been out of print for several years now, so I'm glad to see the first book rise out of the grave and roar to undead life. It has a lovely new "chilling" cover by Derek Mah. It's being released in ebook format only and I am the publisher (I started a company called Dava Enterprises named after my grandmother, because well...everyone should have a company named after their grandmother). At a future date I'll post about all the reasons why I decided to put the book out on my own (like, err, I get a 70% of cover price royalty instead of a 25% of net royalty) and explain some of the process (if you're interested in that sort of thing).

Draugr came out in 1997. It was my first book to be published after writing six unpublished books. So it does hold a dear, frightful place in my heart. But, as part of the publishing process, I had to read the book again. It is an odd experience to read your own writing fourteen years (and fifteen books) later. I decided to keep the text as original as possible and only fixed a few grammatical mistakes and misspelling of Icelandic names (don't get the Vikings mad, that's a general rule of mine). I'm glad that the book still holds up--at gut level it's a very scary book. And that was the point, of course. I must say I'm still proud of the opening line: "Grandpa was going to murder us. Not with an ax. Not with a shovel. But with words." Just click on this link if you want to see the web page I've put up about the book.

I've priced Draugr at $2.99. That may seem amazingly cheap (or expensive depending on your view), but the reality is I make $2.01 on every copy sold. Which is more (per book) than I've made from the sale of any of my hardcover, trade paperback, or paperback books.

Anyway, if you have one of those fancy Kindles, or iPads, or iPod touches or eReaders of any sort I'll now provide links for you (I'm the publisher, I have to sell the book, right...err and get that author to write another one). The rest of the series will be coming out over the next few months.

Kindle link (US & Canada)
Kindle link (UK)
All other eReaders.

Thanks for joining the party!

Art

5 comments:

Catherine Stine said...

Art
This is so cool!!! I think many authors will be going this route for out-of-print books. So, thanks for providing the info and telling us about the experience.

Catherine Stine said...

Oh, and I just bought a copy of your eBook for my kindle!!!

Eve Barbeau said...

Oooh, I love that opening line. Congratulations Art.

@Catherine, is this Draugr available for Kindle? Gotta check that out.

Unknown said...

@ Eve, Thanks! And yep, it's a Kindle book.

Eve Barbeau said...

I just bought it!