Reading Defending Jacob on the NY subway (via Underground New York Public Library)
On the subway
My Books
Dispatch from Paris
A cool new advertising campaign for Defending Jacob to run in and around Paris, including the Metro, and train stations all over France. (Courtesy of my French publisher, Michel Lafon.)
Défendre Jacob, the book trailer
Book trailer for the upcoming release of Defending Jacob in France (Défendre Jacob, available October 11 from Éditions Michel Lafon).
Happy 49th
One nice thing about doing an appearance on your birthday: the crowd just may sing “Happy Birthday” to you. This is me conducting the singers at the Duxbury, MA, Public Library last July. It was my 49th birthday. The event was sponsored by the Westwinds Bookshop in Duxbury. (Photo by Julius Prince.)
Picturing Jacob
I have a bit of a strange request: My publisher is looking for photos of Defending Jacob on display in bookstores. I don’t have any, but I said I’d call out the troops.
To sweeten the pot, the best photo will win a signed first edition of any of my three books — your choice.
Either post your photo here on Tumblr or email it to me direct at bill@williamlanday.com. Be sure to let me know what bookstore your photo shows.
Feel free to share this message, forward it, tape it to your forehead, etc. The more submissions, the better.
Thank you!
Bookplates are back
The last bookplate giveaway was so popular, we blew through my supply in just a few weeks. But a new shipment just arrived, and this bookplate is even nicer than the last — beautiful letterpress printing on thick paper. Even better than a plain old signed book. And your showoff friends who read the ebook on their fancy iPads will be sick with envy. (A photo of the full bookplate is here.)
For those of you who missed it the first time around, this is just my way of saying thank you to readers who can’t get to a reading to have their books signed in person. There’s no charge. Just send me your snail mail address and any special inscription you might want (“For Uncle Marvin on his 73rd birthday…”). Reminder: for security reasons, don’t post your mailing address in the comments section. Send it to me in an email (you can use the form here).
Thanks again, everyone.
Defending Jacob on the Today Show
A nice mention for Defending Jacob on this morning’s Today Show. Thank you, Charlaine Harris. (This is just a brief 60-second clip. You can watch the whole segment here.)
Also this week, Amazon included Defending Jacob on its list of the best books of 2012 so far. Not a bad week.
The backlist is back
The success of Defending Jacob — now in its 17th week on the Times bestseller list, at #23 for ebooks, #24 for hardcovers, among the longest runs on either list — has had a nice byproduct: there is renewed interest in my two earlier books, Mission Flats and The Strangler. Both are being reissued in the U.S. today as trade paperbacks (the larger paperback size) with lovely new covers. The new covers, I think, are truer to the books than the original designs. I particularly like the new Mission Flats cover. If you’re interested in buying either book online, the links are here for Mission Flats and here for The Strangler. Better yet, go to your local independent bookstore.
All good news. There seems to be no other kind lately, for which I am very, very grateful. Thank you. Truly, to all the people who have made Defending Jacob such a roaring success — the many hundreds of thousands who have bought it, read it, passed it around, talked it up, discussed it in book clubs, sent me such kind messages — thank you. It’s been a great run and there’s no end in sight, with the paperback edition still to come and (fingers crossed, if we’re lucky, don’t want to jinx anything, but maybe, just maybe…) the movie. Stay tuned.