Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Book Plates and other Fun Stuff

Like all needy writers I have a Google alert out on my writing name and King Rolen's Kin, the name of my trilogy. I woke up this morning to an alert letting me know that some nice person has created a KRK facebook page.

Lovely surprise! Last time I looked 6 people liked it. So, if you've read my KRK trilogy and liked it, drop by.















Back to book plates. I don't know if they help sell books. I signed 500 of my KRK book plates and sent them to my publisher. (There was a sale on 1000 book plates for $80, which seemed pretty reasonable to me). I have a background in graphic art and creating a book plate is fun for me. It was only after I had them printed that I realised I'd forgotten to put my name on them. Sigh ...















Then another of my friends had a book come out. Tansy Rayner Roberts' new series is called The Creature Court. It's s daring mix of romanesque festivals and the roaring 20s, set against a dark threat and shape shifting Creature Lords. Tansy is part of my ROR group so I offered to do a book plate for her, too.
As you can see, I remembered to put the author's name on the book plate this time!















Then another of my writing group had the first book of his Death Works series come out. So I offered to do a bookplate for him. Trent Jamieson's series is about an ordinary guy called Steve, who works for corporate death, helping people's souls pass on. It's fun urban fantasy, set in Brisbane. (Trent's name appears in the web site address this time).


And lastly, because I obviously don't have enough to do with my spare time, when Marianne de Pierres' collection of short stories came out, I offered to do a book plate for her. Glitter Rose ( Think surreal, sensual fantasy crossed with SF) was a small paperback limited edition book, so the book plate's dimensions had to suite the book.

In the past I've done book marks. And I've always created my own business cards with my book covers on them.

Does having a book that has a signed book plate in it make the book special for you?

Do you keep book marks? I guess if you have an e-book reader you don't need one.

8 comments:

C Kelsey said...

I've never had a book with a signed book plate so I'm not sure what it would bring me. I have found that a book that is signed by the author, in and of itself, isn't all that special to me. It's when the author is a friend that the signature takes on true meaning. Luckily, I have a lot of authors who are friends. :-)

I really like bookmarks. I also lose them faster than I can lose a pen. I'm convinced they just walk away from me when I'm not looking.

MataPam said...

Those are beautiful, Roweena. You guys were lucky on your covers, I'm not sure what some other writers might think about a bookplate from one of the covers they hated.

I don't collect signed editions, except from my favorite authors, so a bookplate wouldn't induce me to buy from an unknown writer. But I'd snatch it up from one of "mine."

Chris Large said...

I bougght Rowena's first KRK book in Hobart. They didn't have any of the the first volume so had to order it in.

The guy who runs the shop knows Rowena and most of the ROR writers and remembered he had some signed bookplates so now I have a signed copy. YAY

You'd better sign book 2 when you send it Rowena. I'm gunning for the set now!

Kate Paulk said...

Actually, signed bookplates could work for ebooks, if they're done well enough - they can be framed and hung on walls or set up as a brag display.

Where do you organize these? I should set something like this for Impaler, along with bookmarks and the like.

Rowena Cory Daniells said...

Chris, I save interesting cards from people and use them as bookmarks.

Rowena Cory Daniells said...

Matapam,

I love beautiful things. Can't help it, I'm wired that way.

I figure the bookplate adds to the feel of the book as an object d'art.

Rowena Cory Daniells said...

LOL, Chris, you'll need to email me with your address or I won't be able to send anything!

Rowena Cory Daniells said...

Kate, I Googled stickers.

And I found a company that was having a sale 1000 stickers for $80.

You can get matte, or shiny. I figured shiny would be too hard to write on.