The Deixis Press Weekly - Issue #22
A super busy week at the press, now that I’m well and the children are back at school–and just in time, because Some Rise By Sin is out next week!
Monday, 6 September
This week and last I’ve started some Twitter/Facebook marketing for Some Rise By Sin, led by my amazing publicist Hannah. I can finally see that I have had a number of pre-orders (naturally I’d always like that number to be bigger regardless of what it is at any given moment, but it’s gratifying to see that it is non-zero!) and I hope that a few more start rolling in over the next week too.
I think I’ve also solved the Amazon-cancelling-preorders problem–or, at least, it seems to be a problem that is so rare that it can be swept under the carpet for now?
Tuesday, 7 September
I’m delighted to say that the wonderful narrator for Some Rise By Sin is also going to narrate The Workshop of Filthy Creation. David Lane Pusey has an incredible range and also a real knack for figuring out how to represent characters with voice. As I said last week, audiobooks were not something I thought about a lot before I needed to be involved in creating them, but my eyes are wide open now.
What’s really interesting to me is the number of people who totally ignored my voice instructions. You can specify that you want a voice that is smooth, gravelly, refined, older, younger, etc.; you can also specify whether you want a cockney accent, BBC English, American of all sorts, etc. too. So if I’m looking for a middle-aged cockney who’s a little rough around the edges, why would someone who sounds like a college boy from Idaho audition? Well, god bless them for trying, is all I can say.
Wednesday, 8 September
I’ve been typesetting Adam Saint‘s tremendous book, The Transfer Problem, over the past few days, and I’ve just finished putting it together on the page. Here’s what I’ve written about it before:
The Transfer Problem is a technothriller following Ethan, an introverted banker with a traumatic past, who falls in love with Anna, an enigmatic scientist with whom he shares an academic interest in the philosophy of existence and consciousness. But with the reappearance of of Ethan’s rogue brother Robert—a hacker who is forbidden from using technology—the hypothetical turns all too real: Robert convinces Ethan to let Anna transfer a conscious mind into Ethan’s trading algorithms.
But when Anna’s experiment goes well—too well, in fact, with world-altering consequences—Ethan finds himself on the run, searching for answers to Anna’s mysterious past and looking desperately for a way to give humanity its future back,
The Transfer Problem asks what it means to exist, to be real, and to be human, but it also asks and even bigger question: how far would you go to avenge yourself? With nail-biting action and smart, technical themes, it will appeal to those who loved Dark Matter by Blake Crouch and The Circle by Dave Eggers.
I’m looking at Spring 2022 for this one. You’ll love it!
Thursday, 9 September
The big news for me today is that I have finally sorted out the launch party (which will launch Some Rise By Sin and The Workshop of Filthy Creation, as well as the press itself).
In work news, the major stuff for me is the boring stuff for you: that’s right, it’s paid work time. I’ve got a manuscript assessment on the go and a couple of other proofreading projects waiting in the wings. I like funding the press this way, but it doesn’t make for very interesting newsletters.
Friday, 10 September
The day started off brilliantly with an excellent writeup of Some Rise By Sin from Jackie Law over at neverimitate. I love her final paragraph:
The tale told provides a strong depiction of an historical period focusing on the paucity of lives being lived day by day rather than on aristocratic marriage machinations, politics or national affairs. Although not always a comfortable read this is due to the realism. As well as offering a strong story featuring goings on many may not have been aware of, it is a timely reminder that if an underclass exists without redress to legal protection, they will seek to survive by whatever means they feel necessary. For those who derided the pomp and inaccuracies of escapist Bridgerton – set in a similar time period – this antithesis may be right up their street.
Then I saw that Edinburgh Magazine today features Siôn on the homepage and that the accompanying article is “trending,” which warms the cockles of my heart.
I’m hoping for a few more bits and pieces like this over the next week, so let me know if you spot any in the wild yourself.
Now I’m going to finish some freelance stuff, make a quick trip to the post office, and then have a very relaxing weekend. I hope you do too (the last part, anyway).
Yours,
Angel