Yes, to champagne.

River of Stars debuted in publication week at #1 on the hardcover bestseller lists of both Maclean’s – Canada’s national newsmagazine -and the Canadian Booksellers’ Association. The lists are very different (bestseller lists often are) but River tops both.

It means a lot, personally, and for the publishers, and going forward in all markets.

An author writes his or her books, but needs help, even if self-publishing, in bringing them to the world, or the world to the books. The people at Penguin Canada have collectively done a great deal to make this happen.

Looking ahead, this means that ‘National #1 Bestseller’ can be used in ads, in all press releases, on the next editions. Other markets can do an old variant which is ‘International #1 Bestseller’ and, as my agent in New York said today, ‘people pay attention in this business to a #1.’

So it is all good. I’m still thinking about that moment on publication day when I closed the door here and just paged through the novel, keeping it a story, something shaped over time with a lot of care. I hang on to that sense as much as I can.

But we’ll have a glass of champagne at dinner, and I have a long-booked single malt tasting group later this evening. I’m expecting all the scotch to taste good tonight.

Quiet Sunday, which I can use, to be honest. I just drafted another small essay on request, likely it’ll go online during the coming week. Was naive enough to be startled by just how ‘powerful’ Ars Technica is. That video interview I did in New York went online yesterday and I’m told that a search for my name with a limited time range shows page after page of that and various other sites linking to it. I’m grateful for Cesar Torres who did the review, discussion, and edited the interview. As I said when I wrote about it here, you never know how an interview went until you see it. I do bite my tongue once on the video, laughing, because Cesar asks a ‘nature of the universe’ question about what my books show. Call it my Michael Jordan imitation (basketball fans will get that). The piece is here:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/04/what-were-reading-river-of-stars-by-guy-gavriel-kay/

Spent part of the day at the Ad Astra convention yesterday and read from River again: a longer passage, as there was no interview to follow. The longer scene that seems to work is from chapter eight, in Chunyu (for those who have gotten that far). In the evening, sat in on a concert by Martin and Rebecca Springett, they played ‘Shan’s Theme’ from his River of Stars Suite, among other pieces.

What is the collective noun for a gorup of booksellers? (Go ahead, give it your best shot!). An index of booksellers, a shelf of booksellers, a biblio of booksellers? In any case, I am lunching and chatting tomorrow, escorted by Trish of Penguin, with about 30-35 of them at the head offices of Indigo Books here in Toronto. I like book people, for all the obvious reasons, and I find it interesting to get reports from the front lines. How are the books selling, where are they shelved, who are the buyers? Word of mouth is still a dominant factor, and I have always been generously supported by the people in stores who actually sell the books.

Tuesday, as I mentioned the other day, is a different kind of meeting. I’ll be online from 8-10 EDT at the huge website, reddit, ‘the front page of the internet’. The discussion is called AMA, for Ask Me Anything, and the last one I did there, last year, was a lot of fun. The discussion page goes live on Tuesday morning for questions to be posted, and I show up in the evening with a drink at my elbow and fire away with bad puns, er, cogent, lucid replies. You get there Tuesday by clicking here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy

Thursday evening I am reading and talking and signing for the very fine Words Worth Books in Waterloo. Starts at 7, but not at the store. They’ve booked the Princess Twin theatre on King St, and to defray that they are charging $5 a head, although 2 free tickets are being given for each copy of River purchased. Independent bookstores need to defray these costs when they have to book an external space for a large crowd and Words Worth is a great indie. We like those.

I do something today, every release day, call it a tradition.

It is so easy to get caught up in the ‘process’ as a book nears publication and then appears. An author lucky enough to be in-demand to some degree shifts from being a creator to being a marketing person. The book shifts from being a book towards being ‘the product’.

I get it, it is entirely necessary, but I like to take release day to step back a bit, if only for part of the morning. I bring a coffee and close the study door and after this post is done I’m going to sit and read through parts of River of Stars.

I want to remember the moments when – over three years ago – I was starting to think about a book inspired by the Song Dynasty. Wondering if I could, or should, venture back into Chinese history, a completely different era. Aware of just how much research would be involved, conscious of how hugely different the arc of the Song was, compared to the earlier Tang Dynasty that gave rise to Under Heaven. Beginning to glimpse and be daunted by the nature of that challenge.

I’ll remember (I’m remembering now) the earliest reading, correspondence, note-taking,notes to myself, names, character ideas, motifs I wanted to be sure to use … the long quiet of research. Then the recurring, necessary nagging voice, a year or so later, pointing out in my head that research was all very well but …

So, starting to write, feeling my way in to characters and settings and voices. I recall telling my older son that at that early stage I felt like someone entering a forest holding a light that only illuminated a little way ahead. (Is that why Daiyan goes into the forest so early? Probably not: I’ve felt that way with every book. Not enough light, not as smart as I needed to be.)

Then, in every novel, for me, there’s a period, usually about halfway through or a little more, when I am so appallingly tired of the book. Aware I’ve been working on it for what feels forever -brood, write, revise, repeat – and there is still so far to go and it is probably no good, anyhow. I can conjure that feeling up again right now.

But on the flip side, there comes the sensation that emerges towards the end when, despite all the anxiety associated with trying to make the ending work (I feel very good about the ending of River of Stars) I have become aware, even if I don’t want to jinx myself by admitting it, that this particular book will get done and … maybe it is strong, after all.

And so this morning I’ll page through it, rereading some passages, remembering how many times I read and revised them, right through the proofreading stage (I wrote about that in this Journal, how much I rely on the tolerance of the production people!).

Basically, I try to turn it back into a book for part of a morning. Into, if you’ll forgive me, something I wanted to be a work of art, to the best of my own ability, to shape something that might have a chance to last. (I have written about this dream/wish/desire of all artists before, most directly in the Sarantine books.)

But the paradox enters, and it isn’t a bad thing, it is just … part of what is involved. In order to endure, to have a chance at that, a book needs to find readers. Only that way can enough people decide this is really good. And start talking about it, writing about it, thinking about it after closing the last page, giving it a chance at a longer life in a culture that gets rid of things fast.

So we come back to how much depends on the marketing and publicity people, their talent, commitment to the work (sometimes love for it), their ideas, and a writer needs to (or should, to my mind) support them, be part of that team.

After that, it is over to the readers. Which is where today comes in, as we begin.

River of Stars launches this morning. I hope you enjoy it. Actually, to confide, and be really honest, I hope for more than that. I hope it becomes important to you.

Well, someone in a comment to the last post on Reviews wondered if the Washington Post would do one and … clearly he has the power. (My people would like to talk to your people!)

The Washington Post review of River went up late this afternoon (it’ll be in the print paper tomorrow). It is wonderful. Really is. Hugely positive and smart.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/river-of-stars-by-guy-gavriel-kay/2013/04/01/4eaf9692-9186-11e2-bdea-e32ad90da239_story.html

Here’s an additional reason why it is so good (same point applies to the Globe & Mail on Saturday): when major papers review a book right around publication date, that means that if they applaud the book they are doing so while copies are hitting stores and easier to find – with luck, displayed as new arrivals.

A strong review that runs a couple of months late will still be helpful (not just terms of making writers feel good) as it can be used for future editions or helping agents sell into foreign language markets, but a good review that is also timely is … golden. 

It is even a signal of sorts these days. Review space is shrinking in all papers and magazines, but there are still a lot of books appearing, and editors, publicists, authors shrieking variously for coverage. So for the Washington Post, which is a major, major book review source to cover any novel right on its publication date is hugely rewarding.

I’m not going to keep linking to reviews. All of what Elena has called Team River of Stars are doing alerts on Twitter, and the Bright Weavings FB page will have links to some of them. But this one felt worth noting here and making these points about, in part because of the timing.

It set up a good evening-before-official-on-sale day here.

I didn’t have a drink (yet). I celebrated in an even more shockingly decadent authorial way. Something so sybaritic, so flamboyantly self-indulgent I need you all not to tell anyone.

My mother’s chocolate chip cookies. And milk. Of course, milk.

There is an old line, oft-spoken in the book world, about publicists or publishers pulling a fake quote from a bad review. It doesn’t happen much any more, that I know of, though it is still fairly common in the film industry.

I’m talking about where a reviewer wrote, “The awkwardness of the language here is remarkable.” and the book jacket shows: “Remarkable!”

As I say, not too common these days, best I can tell. But there is an art of sorts to pulling short quotes from long reviews and I enjoy watching what publicists do it, and playing the game with them, sometimes. The phrase an author likes most may not be what a publisher judges will appeal most to possible buyers.

Which is all a back door way in to saying that the last few days – and the week ahead – are very much about the earliest responses to River of Stars, pending ‘official’ release on Tuesday. I will confess to a personal awkwardness (‘Remarkable!’) in relaying reviews, here or elsewhere. If they are negative (gods forfend!) why would I post them? If they are positive, even though the nature of the process suggests I broadcast them widely, I feel self-conscious. I’m proud of the novel, and truly delighted (sometimes moved) by an intelligent response to it, but I’m happiest when the publishers do most of the heavy-lifting on getting word out as to reactions. And they do, and will.

At the same time, this Journal is supposed to be about the process of a book coming into the world, and – as the header here suggests – reviews are a big part. So I will say that the early assessments this week online, and this morning’s Globe and Mail (which remains Canada’s pre-eminent books page) have been wonderful.

I am not going to do full links here (forgive me!), I just don’t like it. But you can chase a few down at tor.com, Fantasy Book Critic, blogcritics.org, Fantasy Literature, a website called Beauty in Ruins, and the Globe and Mail website. The Globe review is by the novelist Robert Wiersema, someone whose careful reading through many reviews over the years I greatly admire – which makes a strong review even more rewarding, obviously.

What I will do, after hesitating for awhile (I admit), is show here what has been ‘pulled’ in anticipation from a few of these by the publicists. Quotes like these go out right away to other media, to the sales force (gives them ammunition and motivation to have strong reviews in hand). They also end up in ads, and on later editions of the book – or other books by the author.

How much do reviews matter? Really big, unresolved discussion topic in the industry. One study suggested that the main two elements affecting sales are word-of-mouth (friends recommendations, mainly, but that may be shifting to sites like GoodReads) and book covers. (Covers do matter, it seems.) Price has an impact (that’s why bestsellers stay bestsellers – they are often discounted.) And reviews do for some readers. My instinct (feel free to comment on all this, by the way!) is that a lot of good reviews, 2-3-4 pages of them inside a paperback have a cumulative impact on a possible buyer. A single quote saying ‘Terrific!’ (‘The pleasure I derived from throwing this across the room was terrific.’) may not mean much, unless, perhaps, if written by a superstar figure. The discussion continues, all the time, as publishers try to sort out how to get word of a book out to the world. (Hint: social media is it, these days.)

In any case, here are some quotes that have been circulating among the Team River of Stars (as Elena named them) this week. You can chase the original reviews down and see if you’d have chosen differently.

‘River of Stars is the sort of novel one disappears into, emerging shaken, if not outright changed. A novel of destiny, and the role of individuals within the march of history, it is touched with magic and graced with a keen humanity.’ (Globe and Mail)

‘I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Kay is the greatest fantasist of our generation… I’m still reveling in the post-read trance, but I think even with time this will prove to be among my favorites of his works…’ (Fantasy Book Critic)

‘…graceful, lyrical prose, beautifully drawn characters, moments that stab the heart, a masterful sense of structure and pace, and an overall elegance and skill that denotes a novelist in complete control of his creation.’ (Fantasy Literature)

‘Kay on a bad day remains many times more absorbing than the vast majority of other genre authors, and I dare say River of Stars chronicles him on a great day. This is stunning stuff from one of fantasy fiction’s finest. From one of fiction’s finest, frankly.’ (Tor.com)

‘Kay has the uncanny ability to depict the grand sweep of historical events through the eyes of those living through them…What’s even more amazing is how through his careful rendering of character and environments we are drawn into this history…River Of Stars is an exceptional piece of work.’ (Blogcritics.org)

Honestly, I look at these and feel immensely grateful. After a number of years, each time, I send a novel into the world, and it is deeply rewarding to see it responded to in this way. Too early for another drink, but …

I am willing to accept that I am the only one who laughs at the header. (I have made the joke before, I confess.)

But the feeling is there. You know those scenes in the Roadrunner cartoons where the legs are spinning like mad before the character gets moving? That’s my mental image sometimes these days. So far, no sense that I have run over the edge of the cliff, but then Wile never does know that till he looks down, does he?

Basically, have been running at the desk for days now, since New York trip (which was its own run-run). There are times in the writing process when it is intense and draining, and also when editing to a deadline, but this is different,

The pre-release phase for a novel, with marketing and promotion well underway, and the launch and then touring to come (and be planned) is a different kind of energy. Some love it, some loathe and avoid it. I ‘get’ why this is important, why it is part of a writer’s job, working with publishers who have invested in him or her. I try to make it as much fun as I can, for me, for readers. That may include bad puns. (Have you checked out the first few entries in the #riverofstars 50 Shades contest on Twitter? Have you entered?)

Reviews have started to arrive, too. There are some authors who say they don’t read their reviews. I am never sure if I believe them. Part of why most of us do what we do is to share our creativity and our thoughts with others, and a sense of how and if that is taking place seems a part of that process. Otherwise, why publish? (Well, yes, to pay the rent or mortgage, but…)

I do understand the writers who have a spouse or friend read the reviews first and only pass on the good ones (I know people who do that) … the process of writing a book can be so difficult, so lengthy, so exposed, that to have someone be glib and uncomprehending in a throwaway paragraph can be a horrific feeling. It isn’t just the thin-skinned who can be afraid of that.

I am really, really pleased by the early responses to River of Stars, some comments leave me feeling profoundly rewarded. It can go the other way, of course. The great Richard Ford (and his wife) put bullets through a book by Alice Hoffman when that novelist gave him a bad review – then sent the book to her. Google the story. This is from Gawker: “Well my wife shot it first,” says Ford, rather proudly. “She took the book out into the back yard, and shot it. But people make such a big deal out of it – shooting a book – it’s not like I shot her.” Enough to make someone give up reviewing. And, with respect to a very fine writer, shooting a book is kind of a big deal.

A wise writer friend once commented that the very best reviews are ‘intelligent good ones’ and the worst are ‘intelligent bad ones’ because the unintelligent bad can be dismissed and the unintelligent good don’t nourish. There’s more to the process than nourishing creativity, of course. What remains uncertain is how much reviews matter these days. Or even what counts as a review? A short bit on Goodreads or Amazon? Those can actually be places for some really thoughtful writing. There are, for example, two long pieces on Goodreads I was sent to, about Tigana, that are as generous and perceptive as anything written anywhere. And major papers can run rushed, lazy commentary. The venue may make a difference as to impact, but doesn’t automatically imply quality.

It is all kind of interesting actually, another aspect of the cyber-age and how we are all adapting to it.

I gave an essay, “On Rereading” to io9.com and the discussion in various places was smart. A few interviews came online this week, too, including a fun/funny one on tor.com. There are more in the pipeline. One of the running in place things has been doing so many conversations with people (some of them really sharp) while just sitting here. As I said, running in place.

Books are getting into stores now. On-sale date is officially Tuesday, which is when online pre-orders will ship. Worldwide launch event in Toronto is Thursday.

So there is a Publication Date, and publishers talk about a Release Date and an On-Sale Date and a Shipping Date. It gets blurred, and I admit to being amused when people in the business a long time look harried when you ask them when a book will actually be available.

Publication day for River of Stars is April 2 in Canada and the States and for the e-book in the UK. (Physical books in UK are July, but they’ll be in Australia well before that, which is unusual … this is all about Australia’s laws requiring physical books to be in their territory within 6 weeks of appearance anywhere else. The UK is designing its own cover for later, but I gather they’ll use the blue North American one for Australia, New Zealand…)

But ‘publication date’ has always been a bit of a fiction. With exceptions like the later Harry Potter titles, books are usually on sale in stores some days before that date, depending on proximity to the warehouses. The underlying idea is that a pub date (not to be confused with authors celebrating over many, many beers) is the day when books may be safely expected to be fully distributed across a territory (Canada, the U.S.).

That, traditionally, is the first day that reviews were supposed to appear. The rule is mostly on a courtesy basis, but almost all newspapers and other media respected it. (Again, Harry Potter level ‘events’ are more formal, with embargoes of sales and reviews enforced by large men and threats of kneecapping.)

The idea is that someone reading (or listening) to a review of a book should be able to go, well, buy the book. The fear is distraction and forgetfulness. If it can’t be found for another week or two, the impulse to get it might disappear.

In the internet society some different rules have evolved, as I’ve discussed here before. And pre-orders online, often at major discounts, have become a big part of the bookselling process for major books, too. For example, Canada has already reprinted River before release (always good news) based partly on pre-orders.

I had lunch today with my publisher/editor. I gather from Nicole that books will ship late next week, which means they should start appearing in bookstores a few days after. I suspect the same timing will apply in the States. We know they are in the warehouses.

I have a copy of each country’s edition. (Identical, except for the logos, the quote on the front and the shading of the map on the endpapers. Oh, and the Americans used an embossed effect for the title and my name, and the Canadians have them flat. I didn’t even notice at first.)

I’ve spoken to younger writers often (everyone seems to be a younger writer these days) about how many stages there are for a book, but there’s no question that one of the biggest is actually seeing them on sale somewhere, and then spotting someone reading a copy.

When I started out, for years I never saw anyone reading one of my books in public. Friends would report sightings of Readers in the Wild: on subways, streetcars, in waiting rooms, a maternity ward (!) … but I never saw one. Took the wrong streetcars? I was convinced, I said, that my kind friends and family and publishers were sheltering me from the grim, dark truth that no one, ever, anywhere actually read me.

I am a little more confident now. Saw someone on a plane, once…

Here’s Penguin’s formal electronic invitation for the April 4th event in Toronto. (is formal electronic an oxymoron?)

Note ‘formal’ means the invitation, in any case, not what people are expected to wear!

I suppose all eBay veterans will have called this, but the auction of the first book of River of Stars picked up very strongly in the last hour or so, shot way past our previous high for one of these, and ended up at $1025 CDN this afternoon. May I say ‘wow’?

I’m really pleased, obviously, both because people wanted it so much as a collectible, and because the fundamentally empowering nature of literacy and education is something I really do feel strongly about and the Love of Reading charity from Indigo taps into that.

Hope everyone who bid, everyone who followed and supported or relayed info, will take a couple of thumbs-up from me. My sincere congratulations and thanks to the high bidder – I don’t know the name tonight, and sometimes winners prefer anonymity. Penguin will be in touch and find out any details they want to share, and if they want the book personalized to them from me, or just signed.

Also, I was in touch today with the splendid Nicole Winstanley, President of Penguin Canada, my editor and friend, and she was absolutely on-board with the idea of myself and Penguin getting together to match the winning bid, so the donation will be over $2000 for the book.

I’m not especially sentimental about these matters, but I do like the idea that the launch, the celebration, of a new novel can mean good things in a wider way. Today’s auction did that.

You know how runners in a long race save a sprint for the final kick? That’s how today felt, as if the bell for the last lap just went off.

There’s no formal reason why so much hit today, but a blizzard of things happened all at once. Late yesterday Penguin/NAL in New York learned that River was getting a starred review in Library Journal next week. We had to wait for confirmation that it was all right to report this before publication, and offer a quote. That came this morning. Starred reviews are really important, over and above being really nice. They play a big role in library orders. With budgets obviously limited, librarians will often take cues from LJ as to what the big or best books are in a given season and those are the ones they order.

The quote clip? I’m sure the PR/marketing people will ‘pull’ their own, but this sounds awfully good to me:

“Kay’s historical fantasy … portrays a world of changing traditions, casual cruelty, and strict codes of honor and respect… A powerful and complex tale told with simplicity and elegance.”

If I’m betting, I’ll wager that on the paperbacks next year just the last line will be used … shorter is better there, usually.

Just after that exchange, I heard from my New York editor that she’d received their first copies of the book this morning, it looked gorgeous, and she was having a first one rushed on to me. (I’ll get a box or two in due course.) Then my Toronto editor tweeted she’d just received her first book and it ‘made her day’. She also sent over a bottle of single malt (Ardbeg, which happens to be really, really good). And then one of my UK editors reported that their ARCs had arrived on her desk (remember, UK is coming out later, in July).

Meanwhile publicists in New York and Toronto reported in emails through the day of interviews firmed up and pitches being made to major media (these may or may not hit, obviously, but people are working hard here). And then my agency confirmed that details of our recent agreements in France (for Under Heaven) and Macedonia (for the Sarantine Mosaic) were both now being announced.

As I said, it felt like a lot was picking up, all at once. It is misleading, of course, as there can be – there will be – utterly quiet, uneventful days (weeks!) ahead, but from first morning emails until now it has felt like a high-octane day.

Well, with the caveat that an idiot referee made a complete hash of a wonderfully dramatic, high stakes game at Old Trafford between Man U and Real Madrid today. Hate when the officials take over – and destroy – a game.