Ketchup

Nobody ever tells me anything… but what a brain-croggling surprise today! We received excellent news in this afternoon's mail. The postman brought several copies of Plague Year in Spanish, from European publisher Minotauro. Originally my agents were informed that Minotauro would be releasing the book in trade paperback, which was exciting enough for a guy who’s being published in mass market paperback in his home country. Instead, La Plaga is a gorgeous hard cover with textured embossing for the title. It has sweet cover art, a full color author photo on the inside flap, plus maps and freaky biohazard warning symbols…

La Plaga is Minotauro’s number one title for September 2008, even ahead of reprints by Ray Bradbury and J.R.R. Tolkien.

But it gets better.

Check out this web site they’ve put together:
http://www.scyla.com/laplaga/

Not only are there three original book trailers made at their expense (my favorite two are now posted on my site as well), they’ve also created a series of blog entries by Ruth Goldman, the fictional nanotech researcher who is one of the novel’s main characters. In addition to this wildly cool insanity, their site offers additional blogs, a nanotechnology video and related biotech links, a Facebook fan group to join, and contests with cash prizes up to 100 Euros, including a competition for the best theme-related photos submitted by readers.

But it still gets better.

(insert drooley-faced shock and glee here)

Enclosed with each copy of La Plaga is a glossy full-color bookmark with stark white mountaintops on a black background, portions of the cover art, and the book’s tagline (loosely translated) in scary, broken letters: “Will a vaccination cause the end of humankind?”

There is also yet another contest promoted on the back on the bookmark. You can find the same contest on the web site, too…

Get this. If you correctly answer several questions about La Plaga, you will be entered in a raffle drawing. The grand prize is an all-expenses-paid, seven days, six nights vacation to Aspen, Colorado, where you will be safe from the machine plague!

!!!!! Holy flaming dead monkeys on a shish kabob !!!!!

I’ve never even heard of such a thing as a promotional tie-in for a book, and all I can say is that I hope I’m not excluded from entering, because I’ve never skied in Aspen and I do know the answers to the contest. ;>

I don’t believe Minotauro has much distribution in North America — their markets are in the predominantly Spanish-speaking world, of course — but La Plaga is readily available all over the Internet. If you know anyone who’s fluent in Spanish, make them your friend now. Go! Go and read! This may be your only chance of reaching 3,024 meters before it’s too late!

Labels: contests, La Plaga, Minotauro, promotion campaign, Spanish edition Plague Year