First edition, first printing

The first run of the first edition of The Einstein Girl was printed in the middle of last week. I received two copies yesterday, and I could have sworn that they were still warm off the presses (or maybe that was because the mail had been wheeled around on a trolley all morning in the blazing sun..). I always thought the design was strong, but somehow the on-screen jpg images never did it justice. In the flesh the book is beautiful and expensive-looking. I really do think Harvill Secker have done a terrific job.

At the same time, work has already begun on the cover of the B format ('mass market') edition, which comes out next year. Vintage have used the same central image as the Harvill edition, but their overall design and colour scheme is radically different. Where the Harvill cover is seductive and beautiful, the Vintage cover is bold and arresting. The different approaches are skilfully tailored to two different markets, as well, of course, as two different formats. I like them both - in my personal experience, a first.

The other bit of news is the sale of Korean language rights to the distinguished Sallim Publishing Company. Sallim, like a number of its competitors, is based in the famous Paju Book City - a futuristic development north of Soeul, entirely devoted to companies and other entities in the publishing industry (see photograph, above): in other words, a kind of post-modern Bloomsbury without the soot or the parking problems.