Sunday, May 06, 2007

Imaginary Biographies: Misreading the Lives of the Poets

My second book, Imaginary Biographies: Misreading the Lives of the Poets is out in the UK (it will be out in the US in 6 weeks). It is a 60 quid library harcover; obviously I do not expect any person to pay 60 quid (120 US dollars) for the book, but I would appreciate it if you would go to a library you can get to, college or otherwise, and request that they order it; that is what they have budgets for, and believe it or not this is a normal price for a book like this. If you are in the UK, take the information below down, and go to the reception desk of your library; tell them you want them to order one, or two, in case someone wants to read it more than once. I will put up an American counterpart to this post in a few weeks.

The book, by the way, is awesome.

* Title: Imaginary Biographies: Misreading the Lives of the Poets
* Author: Geoff Klock
* Hardcover: 288 pages
* Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
* Language English
* ISBN-10: 0826428029
* ISBN-13: 978-0826428028

8 comments:

Cthululaw said...

Geoff:

Congratulations on the new book. Do you know when/if it will be out in tradepaperback? I have no idea what the average time from hardcover to paperback is for academic books, or if the hardcover needs to hit certain sales. I much, much, much prefer tradepaperbacks in format and price, but I'll buy the hardcover if I have to.

Geoff Klock said...

it is going to be a long wait for the trade, if there is a trade at all (it depends on the sales of the hardcover). Just have your library get it and read that copy.

Cthululaw said...

Geoff:

Thanks for the warning. I'll find my local library and ask them to get it, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to buy it as well. Libraries generally don't appreciate it when you mark up their books (although I got a book in my undergrad library signed by Harlan Ellison, which I don't think they'll mind if they ever realize it), and I can't stand not owning a book I'm working with (or trying to).

Do you know if it will actually be around $120 US cover price?

I read the blurb on Amazon UK. The book sounds ambitious and I really hope you pulled it off.

Geoff Klock said...

It would be wrong of me, and a little bit illegal, to suggest that you have your library order it and then photo copy it at 77% size to fit two pages of the book on one photocopy sheet. When I was reading for my doctoral thesis, I never did that because it would have been wrong.

Cthululaw said...

LOL. I appreciate the suggestion. I had a friend in high school that didn't photocopy a rare, expensive, and old copy of a work on explosives at the Univ. of MI library.

Regardless, I'm either too neurotic, lazy, or moral to acquire the book without paying for it. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure some kind of licensing fee can be paid to the publisher for photocopy rights (but that might only apply to limited sections of the text).

Assuming I can swing $120ish for something fun, its better to spend it on a good book than most other things. If the book isn't good, then I can start my own blog and pull a chapter by chapter, mean critique of it, ala your take on Morrison's X-men. ;) (sans gratuitous footnotes of course, cause I swear most academic books and papers in the liberal arts get published based more on having the right names and titles in their notes than the strength of their arguments)

Unknown said...

Congratulations on the new book, Geoff! As soon as you get the U.S. info, I'll try to get my local public library to order it. My wife works there, so she should be able to make sure it gets ordered, I hope.

Tara Dairman said...

Congratulations, Geoff! I'm happy to put in a request at the Weehawken Library when the book comes out stateside.

Starrlett said...

Congrats!!! Aren't you glad that librarians read your blog? I've requested it to be ordered, and we'll be receiving it either this summer or in September.

And now I share some librarian blog hilarity I read yesterday (why, I think they're talking about *me*!):
http://libetiquette.blogspot.com/2007/04/graphic-novels-embracing.html