More on the Book
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‘Cause I’m still a little too giddy to think about anything else just yet.
Some questions came up in yesterday’s thread. I shall answer them.
Q. Don’t you mean “googol”?
A. Yes, you insufferable pedant.
Q. When will the book be out?
A. At this point, we’re aiming for spring 2009, but that could easily change. (And by change, I mean “take even longer.” It’s definitely not coming out in 2008.)
Q. Will it have the cute little Penguin logo on it?
A: No. We’re actually being published by Perigee Books, an imprint of Penguin. I wasn’t specific yesterday because there were editors at two different imprints who wanted the book, so we got a house bid from Penguin and had to choose between them. Both editors were fucking awesome, but we eventually chose Perigee. And I don’t even know what the Perigee logo is. Update, after a trip to Borders: it’s… a P. Woo hoo. Sorry, everybody.
Q. What’s the book about?
A. It’s a practical guide to liking (if not yet loving) your body at any size. We’ll be talking about specific, concrete things you can do to become more comfortable in/with your body — none of that “light a candle, take a bubble bath, meditate on your inner goddess” shit. (Apologies to those who like those things and/or like books about those things, but they never did jack shit for me, body image-wise.)
Q. What’s it called?
A. This will probably change before publication, but the working title is SCREW INNER BEAUTY: HOW TO LIKE THE BODY YOU’VE GOT.
Q. How are you going to blog AND write a book?
Hey, better women than me have done it with full-time jobs; I don’t think it’ll be a problem. It probably will take me a little while to figure out a new writing routine, and it’s possible my posts will be sparse and/or sucky during that time. BUT. That is the miracle of co-bloggers and a co-author. My posts here might be temporarily sucky, but the blog will remain awesome under the power of Fillyjonk and Sweet Machine. And thanks to The Rotund, I actually only have to write half a book. So it’ll be cool.
Q. Are you going on tour/coming to my town?
A. No clue at this point. If you’re asking, “Is Perigee going to spend gobs of money to send you two all over the country, providing whimsical, book-themed cocktails and delicious canapes at each venue?” then FUCK NO. (Of course, if y’all make this a massive bestseller, that could happen with the next book!) But we’ll do our damnedest to travel as much as possible when the book comes out, and we’d love to meet you.
Q. Will it be published in Canada/the U.K./wherever I live?
A. No clue about that yet, either. Perigee’s got North American rights, so a Canadian edition or distribution there is up to them. Everywhere else in the world is still up for grabs, and there are great people working on selling us wherever they can.
Q. Will you still remember us when you’re famous?
A. Who are you?
thanks kate!
This is so awesome :) That’s all I can think to say. It is awesome like a hundred billion hot dogs.
Oh and if your publisher’s aren’t willing to host glam book parties in all our luverly major metropolitian areas, know that you both are totally welcome to use my backyard for your NYC party, so long as you don’t mind having a hungry beagle at your feet and my old-world Italian neighbors peeking at you over the fence.
“Q. Will you still remember us when you’re famous?
A. Who are you?”
I am Kate Harding, natch! :)
Also, OMGYAY CONGRATS.
Reading this has made my whole day brighter!
Love it! This sounds awesome, we need more books like this in our bookstores and libraries…
I’ll totally try and pull any strings at the 300,000-circulation-plus paper I write for to promote it, even though we rarely do book reviews.
I offer up my one-bedroom apartment for your whimsical, book-themed cocktails and delicious canapes-party, if you decide to come to St. Lou.
Awesome news!
Well, I can offer you accommodations in Phoenix, but I honestly recommend you avoid us from April-October. :) Major congratulations!!!!
And to echo Zoe, I am Kate Harding :)
Congrats again!
And WHERE DO YOU WANT YOUR BOOK PARTY.
I might have a tough time throwing you a party in Chicago, but I can do NYC!
I hope it comes to Canada because otherwise I’m gonna have to do a dash across the border to Seattle to pick up a copy. Or ten, because I imagine I’m going to want to give it out to everyone I know. Congrats!
Many congratulations to the both of you! If you guys end up swinging through Seattle on tour (or actually just north of Seattle), I’d be happy to make some baby donuts for brunch or give you a place to crash. Three big fat cheers! Hip hip hooray!
I am compelled to de-lurk and add my congratulations to the general chorus. This is wonderful news and I anticipate buying many, many copies!
And if you come to Ouagadougou on your book tour, the party is at my house!
I am de-lurking as well in order to offer my warmest congratulations and to say you’ve got a place and an event planner (moi) ready to plan an event here in New Zealand.
I am Kate Harding!!
And if you decide to stop by Columbus, party in my wee apartment!
(How sad is it that I have far more useful connections for proper party-having in NYC than where I actually live?)
I have to say the working title conjures up ALL the right imagery in my head for the book! awesomesauce.
My congratulations to both of you!
I’m just so damn happy you’ve gotten this opportunity, because I know I can trust you and TR to do this right.
none of that “light a candle, take a bubble bath, meditate on your inner goddess” shit.
Hey, I always found that stuff worked great, as long as I could stay in the tub. Yes. Must bring giant bathtub and candles on the bus. Or KH and TR’s book. Hmmm. Tough choice there.
Would you be angry if I hugged you on the hypothetical tour of the US?
none of that “light a candle, take a bubble bath, meditate on your inner goddess” shit.
Me, I like this shit (usually with, like, some wine or a dude or something), but my ironclad belief in my own fabulosity comes from ass-kicking, not lolling around the tub.
LOVE the title.
Zoe, you are made of win. Even when Kate’s so famous she won’t remember names like Rachel or Meowser or Wellroundedtype2, she’ll sure as hell remember “Kate Harding”.
Okay, so there will be a full sized bath with jets. Will there be a wet bar on the hypothetical tour bus, and if so, may I be your driver? I promise to find a DD if I’ve had more than a few cocktails.
OMG if Fillyjonk does an NYC party I could almost certainly go! That would be all kinds of awesome.
I sometimes think I’m the only woman who doesn’t give two shits about bubble baths and finds them incredibly boring lol. And I bought a soaking tub specially for that purpose – thought if it were big enough I’d like them more. Nope. Still no. Besides I always get my damn book wet or something. Gah.
Fantastic and fabulous! Great title and great press! You’ve got friends and few mardi gras beads in New Orleans if you ever make it to the Big Easy/ Crescent City/Tawdry Lady/ the City that Care forgot.
NYC party! NYC party! (Also, it is extremely likely that I work insanely close to your publishers and, if I’m right about this, then you should know that there’s one hell of a serious hot chocolate place on the corner. My treat, any time.)
OMG please PLEASE have a party in NYC! then i can come too!
anniemcphee – ur in NYC too? AND you love the russian animators? okay now we MUST be best friends :)
Congrats, ladies!
“… the working title is SCREW INNER BEAUTY: HOW TO LIKE THE BODY YOU’VE GOT.”
And if you can manage to edit that working title so it doesn’t include a glaring grammatical error, I’ll even be able to buy the book without wincing painfully. ;)
Uh…what glaring grammatical error?
“SCREW INNER BEAUTY”? Every time I think you can’t get any more awesome, you prove me wrong.
“…THE BODY YOU’VE GOT”
Corrected would be “…THE BODY YOU HAVE”
Sorry, it’s the teacher in me!
I am so looking forward to buying this book, ya’ll.
OH! and if you come to the DC area, crash at my place and I’ll do my best to get a book review in the local (HUGE) paper and the local (small) paper as well as a signing set up at my local “megabookstore”. (They don’t do enough of those, anyway!) BUT NO PROMISES!
Beckduer, I’m a former copyeditor and all-around pedant, and “you’ve got” doesn’t sound off to me… Perhaps it’s a regionalism?
I think it ends a sentence in a preposition. Doesn’t it?
I may be off. (OK, I know I’m “off”, but I might also be wrong on this one.)
I’ll admit, it’s been many years since I taught, and I know American English is a “living language”, so it changes over time.
“Got” is a verb, and ending a sentence with a preposition is just fine.
Nope, not a preposition: “you’ve got” is a contraction of “you have got,” which is a proper verb phrase (present perfect tense, I think). Now, IIRC “have got” is an Americanism, but it’s properly constructed.
And lauredhel is right, the preposition thing (though accepted by many style guides) is really a myth; apparently that “rule” was pulled out of thin air by Dryden in a petty moment. (Curse you, Dryden!)
Ditto to everything lauredhel and Sweet Machine said — and beyond that, we deliberately chose “You’ve Got” over “You Have” because it better conveys the colloquial voice of the book.
Marianne and I both have loads of editorial experience, as does our agent, who went over the proposal very carefully. You can trust that if there’s a grammatical “mistake” somewhere as obvious as the title, it’s on purpose.
There’s a niche for a pedantic cover band, singing things like “You’re the one whom I want”.
Or “She has a ticket to ride, and she doesn’t care.”
BWAH, Miss Prism! (And props to you for busting me on misspelling “googol.”)
I’m thinking The Pedants could also have hits with “There Is No Mountain High Enough” and “It doesn’t mean a thing if you haven’t that swing.” Perhaps “It is not what you do, it is the way that you do it” as well.
Also, The Pedants version of “Always Something There to Remind Me” would go, “I was born to love YOU/and I will never be free/you’ll always be a part of me,” because the “born to love her” thing has driven me FUCKING INSANE since I was 8 years old.
HA! I’ll be in that theoretical band! Featuring Bill Withers’:
“There is No Sunshine (When She’s Gone)”
Yeah, if someone is going to mangle English in a song, I demand they go all the way. Hence the deathless lyric from Charles Wright and Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band’s “Express Yourself”:
It’s not what you look like
When you’re doing what you’re doing
It’s what you’re doing when you’re doing
What you look like you’re doing.
I don’t think I’ll ever stop cackling every time I hear that.
Ok, ok. I stand corrected.
BUT… I maintain that I’m still looking forward to the book, so, you know, that hasn’t changed.
Suzanne, I am totally dying imagining that version.
MissPrism, I will totally volunteer to be lead or backup pedant, whatever is most needed. We will of course cover “(I cannot get any) Satisfaction,” “Cannot Buy Love (for Me),” and “It Is Not Me, Baby.”
Or anything from the Intellectualize Rap back catalog.
Oh, and don’t forget our re-do of the Isley Brothers:
It is your thing
Do what you want to do
I cannot advise you
As to whom you should sock it.
As to whom you should sock it
Meowser wins.
OK, I have to share a stupid preposition joke. Two women are seated next to each other on an airplane.
Woman1: “Where are you from?”
Woman2:”Where I come from, we do not end sentences in prepositions.”
Woman1: “OK. So, where are you from, bitch?”
I LOVE the working title. And I think it sounds better with “you’ve got” than “you have.”