F. Paul Wilson News Blog
THE LATEST
Set for publication February 2008
Exciting news for fans of Repairman Jack!
F. Paul Wilson has contracted to write a trilogy of young adult novels based on Jack. The first, Secret Histories, starts with Jack at fourteen years old. Gauntlet will be publishing a signed limited edition of all three, the first seeing release around February (well before the trade edition is released)
Read for the first time Jack's formative years. You'll meet his mother and father, big sister Kate and his bully of a brother Tom. While aimed for young adults, F. Paul Wilson doesn't write down and the book is as enjoyable for adults as it is for teens. And, as you can see from the above description there's plenty of foreshadowing of events that were to overtake Jack as an adult (i.e. An old woman with a dog … making herself known to Jack when he's just fourteen!)
Both Lettered editions (and only the lettered editions) will contain the complete outline as part of the limited edition. Those ordering each of the lettered edition will have first choice at receiving the same edition (and same letter) of the lettered edition for the entire trilogy if you order in January of each year.
Visit Gauntlet's website for more information and purchasing details.
BLOODLINE trailer
This went live 9/17 on MSN, Yahoo, Google, itunes, AOL, etc. Watch it here.
BESTSELLERS 101
It’s no revelation that making the bestseller lists is important for a book and its author. Bestsellerdom influences where the book is placed in stores. More prominent placement means higher visibility, increasing the likelihood of readers picking it up and checking the flap copy and the blurbs, and perhaps reading the first page or two. If they like what they see—another sale. Which increases the book’s chances of staying on the bestseller list.
A bestselling hardcover can look forward to higher advance orders on its paperback edition (with "Bestseller!" emblazoned across its cover), and the author can anticipate higher advance orders on his next hardcover.
All because his book made the bestseller lists.
(This is not the place to delve into the controversy over how bestseller lists are compiled - a long, complicated story - so let’s just assume that the lists are a true reflection of sales during the week in question and proceed from there.)
But bestsellerdom isn’t determined by total sales. It’s determined by velocity of sales during a given week.
For example: Author X and Author Y each have books released on the same day.
Author X sells 25,000 copies that week and Author Y sells 2,000.
Author X makes the bestseller lists; Author Y does not.
Author X sells 15,000 and 10,000 copies respectively over the next two weeks and remains on the bestseller lists. Author Y sells 2,000 copies in each of those weeks and is nowhere near the lists.
Over the next fifty or so weeks, sales of Author X’s book tail off so that by the end of a year he’s sold a total of 100,000 copies. Author Y’s book has gained a certain amount of word of mouth and sells 2,000 a week for the entire year for a similar total of 100,000 copies.
Both have sold the same number of copies, yet X is now a "Bestselling Author!" and Y is not.
Why?
Velocity.
Author X’s book sold a ton of copies during the first weeks after release. That’s known in the publishing world as velocity. It put Author X on the lists, thereby increasing his paperback orders and future hardcover orders.
So when you buy matters, folks.
What’s the take-away here? Simple: If you plan to buy the new Repairman Jack novel, BLOODLINE, buy it during the first week of release (the official publication date is September 18). Better yet, pre-order it from your favorite bookseller, or:
Order from Amazon | Order from Barnes & Noble
or if you want it signed or inscribed, order from Dark Delicacies in LA. (I will sign them when I come through on tour and Del and Sue will ship them out immediately.)
Each Repairman Jack novel has sold more copies than its predecessor. Jack has been on the paperback bestseller lists in the past, but HARBINGERS was his first time on the hardcover lists.
Let’s do it again.
HARBINGERS
The paperback should be in the racks now.
Order from Amazon | Order from Barnes & Noble
NEW RADIO INTERVIEW
On 8/22 Gard Goldsmith interviewed me on 107.7 FM in Concord, NH:
SOLD OUT
The following titles are sold out:
- "The Peabody-Ozymandias Traveling Circus & Oddity Emporium"
- BLOODLINES: The Gauntlet Press limited edition.
VIRGIN
Order from Amazon | Order
from Barnes & Noble
The limited edition hardcover is almost sold out, but the good folks at Borderlands Press have decided to make the novel available to the non-collector at a fraction of the hardcover price. It's now in trade paperback.
About the book: In the mid 1990s I wrote a novel about the discovery of the body of the Virgin Mary. As I did with vampire lore in MIDNIGHT MASS, I began with the premise that all the Catholic lore about Mary is true except for one thing: She wasn't assumed body and soul into heaven; instead, her body was hidden away in Israel's Negev Desert. The guardian of her remains gets careless over the millennia and, while he's busy elsewhere, the body is discovered and spirited away. This sets in motion a chain of cataclysmic events that reverberates around the world. I had a ball with it, putting all my Catholic background (even though I'm a recovering Catholic, you never forget) into play. I sent it out under my wife's maiden name (Mary Elizabeth Murphy) and gave it a blurb under my own. Even dedicated it to myself: "To my husband, without whom this book would not have been possible."
FALL TOUR - 2007
See Where I'll Be
THE TERY
This novel had its start in 1971 as a novelette called "He Shall
Be Jon." I expanded it to novella length for 1978 publication as "The
Tery" in BINARY STARS #2. Unfortunately the accompanying Steve Fabian
illustrations were muddy messes due to the printing process. I fleshed
it out to novel length for the 1990 Baen version.
Last year I did extensive revisions. So here you have the definitive text in hardcover for the first time, with bright, crisp reproductions Fabian's original art, plus new art by Steve Fabian and Courtney Skinner.
You can order the Limited Edition or the super duper Silver Edition from the Overlook Connection.
Order Limited Edition | Order Limited Edition
SEX SLAVES OF THE DRAGON TONG
My homage to pulp fiction - a fun Yellow Peril story with the most
lurid title I could think of - is now available from the acclaimed audio
series, DARK VOICES. It's read by yours truly and features wonderful
background music and f/x by Robert Schaller. The CD comes with a chapbook
of the story.
I inserted a number of cameo appearances by famous characters; if you can't identify them you are banned for life from reading anything else I write.
DO-GOODER
Do-Gooder has been published.
REPAIRMAN JACK MOVIE NEWS
Historical note: Years ago I sold film rights to THE TOMB to Beacon Films/Touchstone Pictures. The idea has been to title the film "Repairman Jack" and turn our guy into a franchise character. The project has spent 11 years in development hell, chewing up 6 writers who’ve churned out reams of scripts. This section contains all updates on the Repairman Jack movie project
DECEMBER 2007
Nothing happens in Hollywood during December, especially with the writers on strike.
NOVEMBER 2007
11/6 - email from head of Beacon production saying we probably won't make much progress on a director until after the first of the year.
OCTOBER 2007
NOTHING new to report on the film. Been on the road so much I've talked to no one in Hollywood this month.
SEPTEMBER 2007
I've been so busy writing that I've had next to no contact with Beacon other than to hear they're going to wait till they have a director to announce the star. But someone with excellent sources scooped everybody. BK Akitas learned that it’s going to be Ryan Reynolds and posted it on the website's =Forum= for all to see.
AUGUST 2007
8/28: Suzann says they've decided to wait until after Labor Day. You might have already read the article by now. If it's out and you haven't, go to the NEWS page on the website and (I hope) you'll find it there.
8/16: Suzann tells me they're debating whether or not to hold off on the article until after Labor Day. Seems everybody who's anybody in Hollywood is out of town during August.
8/7: A call from Suzann Ellis, head of production at Beacon. They're planning an announcement in the trades that they've finally found their Repairman Jack - and they're gonna name him. They need some puffery from me on sales figures and popularity, etc. I send them what I can. They're not sure when the article will appear.
JUNE 2007
6/25: Spoke to the head of production at Beacon. They had a meeting with a hot German director last week that they like a lot. They’re going to meet again. Meanwhile, he’s not the only director in their sights.
6/7: Spoke to Beacon today. The star-director-studio package is still being pieced together. Still can’t name names but it continues to move forward.
MAY 2007
5/2: Email from Barry Rosenbush that we have a new HWMNBNUPOD (He Who Must Not Be Named Under Pain Of Death). Beacon’s choice for Jack (HWMNBNUPOD) read the script and wants to play Jack. I still cannot utter his name until he’s signed.
APRIL 2007
4/23: Barry says the script should be going to the prospective star this week.
4/13: An email from Barry Rosenbush telling me who they’re getting ready to go after to play Jack. He then swears me to secrecy. (I’m not being coy here – I’d love to tell you – but this is how the game is played out there.)
4/6: Barry and I have a longish talk. The next step is up to Beacon: whether to put together a director-cast package and take it to a studio, or partner up with a studio first and then put things together. They’ll be approaching "nothing but A-list actors and directors."
4/5: I get a copy of the script in .pdf. Only a few of the changes I wanted have been made, and a thing or two I liked have been cut. But it’s all minor, so I’m shutting my yap. The important thing is that everyone has signed off on the script. No more putzing around with it. That very big step is behind us.
4/3: Barry Rosenbush sent me a copy of the script tweak in Final Draft format, but my Final Draft program won’t open it. Very frustrating.
MARCH 2007
3/28: Chris emailed to say he finished all the notes and the fixed-up script is going into the studio today.
3/13: Called Army Bernstein. He’s happy with the script and happy that I’m happy with the script. With all this abounding happiness, it’s time to move. The question now (as I understand it) is whether to put together a director-cast package and take it to a studio, or partner up with a studio first and then put things together. But the first step will be for Chris to incorporate my notes and Army’s into the script before it gets shown around.
3/7: Sent in 5 pages of nits (mostly nuances and gun stuff) and how I think they can be fixed.
3/6: Barry Rosenbush (who’s in Utah filming "High School Musical 2") asked me to go through it and pick every nit I could find, so that’s what I did.
3/3: I read the script while in Baltimore and I LOVE it. It’s the Jack we know and (I assume) love, folks.
3/2: With the subject line "Repaired Man Jack," Chris Morgan sent me the latest script as I was leaving for Horrorfind.
FEBRUARY 2007
2/28: Word from Chris that the completed script will go in at the end of this week (that means March 2).
2/14: A call from Barry Rosenbush about the latest meeting with Beacon. Everyone is on board with Chris’s changes. They expect his rewrite in early March.
2/8: Email from Chris asking for suggestions for "characters or items to inject for the fans. I told him we need:
- A lady with a dog in the background.
- A large-framed bearded old guy with a cane in the background
- Food stains on Abe, an Entenmann's box on the counter.
- Abe's blue parakeet Parabellum.
- Overflowing, stacked shelves at Abe's. Must feel claustrophobic.
- Dead ferns in Julio's front window.
- "Neat stuff" in Jack's apartment along with the old oak furniture.
- The Semmerling.
(Some of these might be more trouble than they’re worth, but worth a try)
2/5: Here’s a partial list of what screenwriter Chris Morgan intends to do in his revision. (I’ve edited out references that will be meaningless unless you’ve read the previous script.)
1) A Character pass on Jack – Jack will be tweaked throughout the script in most scenes. He isn't the local hero everyone in the neighborhood knows and loves in this draft. Jack will be more morally-ambiguous and "invisible" all around and dirty up some of his actions and his views. And toward that end:
2) A new really fun, vicious intro for Jack that will also serve to introduce the idea of Gia earlier into the script...and will also pay-off in an amusing scene later in the story.
3) A character pass on Kusum – make Kusum less of a diabolical, moustache-twirler, and make him conflicted about the path he has chosen to obtain revenge. Jack and he will have far more in common than before, which makes their struggle more interesting.
4) layer elements from the books into the story – all background, subtle stuff, but meaningful for the core audience of fans.
5) clarify the Rakoshi myth;
6) rewrite the finale: In the final action set piece, it's just a cargo ship.
7) detail how Jack gets the necklace at the end of the script, rather than it just appearing in his hands.
8) smooth out some of the more jarring scene transitions in the script to give it a better flow.
Army Bernstein wanted to know if these were okay with me. I said absolutely. Let’s do it. =Now=.