eBOOK SPECIAL EDITION

Being of the opinion that the eBook revolution sweeping thru the publishing world is a Good Thing and that in future books will need to be written to accommodate the abilities of eBooks I was delighted that Quercus were up for giving me a shot at showing what an eBook really can do.

I had written the Demi-Monde so that it would be a submersive experience but unfortunately this is  impossible to communicate in print but with eBooks ... the sky is as high as your imagination. The one thing I didn't want is for these features to look tacked on, to be an afterthought. They had to add to the suspension of disbelied by the reader.

Quercus obviously feel the same way so Nelli, Nigel and I went to Quercus on Friday to meet with their new eBook Technician, a chap named Nick Barreto and his boss Iain Millar.

Good meeting.

What has been decided is that there will be a ‘Special Edition’ of the DM Winter eBook, which will take full advantage of all the features available on eBooks to create something unique in the fantasy/SF canon, with a tentative launch date around that of ‘The Demi-Monde: Spring’ hardback (27th December 2011). The extra features to be include are, inter alia:

 

1. Deleted chapters (totalling about 20,000 words) including

• A scene in the White House introducing all the major players in the ForthRight;
• A scene showing how Vanka Maykov fell foul of General Skobelev;
• A scene showing how Trixie Dashwood met Dabrowski;
• An extended scene at Dashwood Manor.

 2. 'Woodcut’ pictures illustrating five key incidents in the book. These in the style of the ones used in ‘The Strand’ to illustrate the Sherlock Holmes stories. Ideas we're thinking about include:

• The hounders tracking down Norma;
• The battle of the barges;
• Ella dancing in front of the hounfo;
• Terror Incognita seen from the balloon;
• Atop ExterSteine.

3. A whole bunch of appendices to include:

• The cigar cards of the main characters;
• Illustration of how the hounfo trick was done;
• ParaDigm’s ‘Product Description Manual’;
• The existing Glossary; this hyperlinked to the first use of the term in the book proper.

4. Other extras including a forward by moi (giving me a chance to explain the use of camelCased words and other idiosyncrasies of the DM) and some easter eggs which (natch) we're keeping quiet about.

It's all terrifically exciting!