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With book two coming soon, I made a trailer for the ARLO FINCH series. More details, including international editions and upcoming tour stuff here: johnaugust.com/arlo-finch

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Win an advanced copy of LAKE OF THE MOON

Want to be one of the first people to read ARLO FINCH IN THE LAKE OF THE MOON? @mackidsbooks is running a sweepstakes for a chance to win an ARC of book two, a hardcover of book one, and this survival kit worthy of a trip into the Long Woods. Enter here: https://bit.ly/2OpVjgx

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The French cover for Arlo Finch is by Levente Szabó, whom I’ve had a talent crush on for years. If you’ve already read the first book, you’ll recognize the Night Mare, but the title might be a surprise. It translates to “Arlo Finch: The Mystery of the Long Woods.” French publishers change English titles all the time -- they did it for Harry Potter too. Rest assured, it’s the same story. The translation by Leslie Damant-Jeandel is ::kisses fingers:: magnifique. It comes out September 12th in France and other French-speaking countries from Milan.

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Book two has a cover! Once again by the great Vivienne To. I’m so excited to have people reading this book and learning what’s actually happening in this moment of the story.

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Hi John, I love your transparency and willingness to help satisfy the curious! According to your earlier post, Book 2 would likely be coming out in February 2019 a year after Book 1 comes out. Are you working on that now? Or might it not get written or released if Book 1 doesn't do as well as anticipated? How disruptive has this/will this be to your screenwriting career?

Yup, book two, Arlo Finch in the Lake of the Moon will come out February 2019, with the third book scheduled for February 2020. 

Lake of the Moon (or LotM) is already written. It’s about 80 thousand words, roughly a third longer than Valley of Fire. 

Right now, LotM is in copy-editing. I’ll get it back soon and go through it word-by-word just as I did for VoF. There will likely be three rounds of copy-editing, then it’s basically locked so they can print the advance copies (ARCs). 

In talking with other authors, I’ve learned the ARCs are both more and less important for the second book in a series. Obviously, no one is going to pick up the ARC if they haven’t read the first book; it’s not how you introduce the series or the author. But for some folks who might have been nervous to commit after book one, reading book two can give them confidence that the series really knows where it’s going. So they’ll be more likely to recommend the series to others when the paperback comes out (also February 2019).

I’ll be able to post the cover art for LotM soon. It’s great.

In terms of my screenwriting, writing the books has consumed a bunch of time that I would have otherwise used for writing movies. A writer only has so many hours a day and words in the brain. Usually I write three screenplays per year, but I’ll likely be writing only one feature this year while working on book three.

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Indie Bookstore Day

On Saturday, April 28th, I’ll be at Chevalier’s Books on Larchmont from 3 to 5pm as part of Indie Bookstore Day.

Come say hi and have me sign your copy of Arlo Finch. I can also recommend a few other great books for you to try.

https://www.chevaliersbooks.com/indie-bookstore-day-4-28

Chevalier’s Books

126 N Larchmont Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90004

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Hey john. How many of the five stickered copies have been found so far, and where? Can do you a post or map for them? Or post the link to it if you have already?

Some background:

In January 2018, I visited the printing plant in Harrisonburg, Virginia to see Arlo Finch being printed. While there, I put stickers in five of the hardcover copies that said to please email me because I have something special to send you.

Two of the copies were found almost immediately after the book came out.

The first was by a 12-year-old girl in Mechanicsburg, PA. Her copy came in her OwlCrate Jr. box.

The second was by a Launch listener in Seattle, who found it in a public library copy.

I sent both of these readers really nice Arlo Finch water bottles. 

As of April 25, 2018 these are the only two stickers that have been found. (Or at least, these are the only two readers who have emailed me. It’s entirely possible others have found them and chosen not to email for whatever reason.)

So where are the other stickered books? I have no idea. The books were placed randomly in boxes, so it’s possible they’re on a bookstore shelf, or Amazon, or a stack of books on someone’s nightstand waiting to be read.

I really want folks to find these books!

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Amazing Arlo art from Joseph Moore. His Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/BfC9lhqlV0G/?taken-by=joe12south

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Hi, I'm from Black Pine Circle. I read your book and it's amazing! I just wanted to say, thank you for writing it.

Thank you for telling me! You were my very first school visit. I really liked meeting you and your classmates.

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Are there any lesson plans for teachers associated with Arlo Finch?

Not specific lesson plans, but the back of the hardcover book has a discussion guide that can be really useful for shaping classroom discussion.

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Have you ever thought about writing the Ranger's field book or Culman's bestiary? I know I would definitely buy it!

I have! 

Here’s the thing I’m wrestling with: As long as the Field Book and Culman’s Bestiary are imaginary things, anything can be in them. If I need a certain creature, I can just say it’s in the Bestiary. If I need a specific Ranger patch, well, it’s in the Field Book. 

So I don’t think I’d want to create “official” versions of either one until the books are all finished and out in the world. Then, if it seems like something that would be worthwhile to make, I’d do it.

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Hi John, Congrats on the upcoming books. I was curious. What would happen if the first book doesn't go well? Or, does the publisher have metics that makes them think is guaranteed to sell well?

I’ve talked to a few other authors whose series didn’t sell well. In almost every case, the writers wrote all the books under their contract (three in my case). 

But yes, it would have to be frustrating, both for the author and the publisher. 

There’s not a lot you can do if a book just refuses to catch fire. Yes, you can change artwork or try to reposition it in the market. But some things are just kismet. George RR Martin’s early books weren’t hits at the time. Who knows why?

Macmillan doesn’t have any magic crystal ball to let them know whether Arlo will be a hit or not. They’re really happy with the book and pushing it hard, and early response seems to be very positive. But you never know. So I’m trying to keep realistic expectations, and I think they are as well. Success isn’t a binary condition.

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Hey John, congrats, book looks great! Just wondering - were you able to work on projects simultaneously while writing Arlo? And how long did it take to reach a solid draft for someone to read? I'm a new, agented screenwriter in the UK (but v early career). Developing a fantasy story that I had planned for a spec script, but beginning to think it might want life as a novel first. I'm considering Nano Wrimo, but if I can't work on other stuff simultaneously , might be a career mistake! Best,

I wrote the first six chapters of Arlo Finch in November 2015, for NaNoWriMo. I fully intended to write the entire book, but quickly realized that just wasn’t going to be feasible. Not only did I have other writing work to get back to, but I really didn’t have enough fortitude to hit the 1677-word target each day -- nor had I done the sort of slow thinking necessary to figure certain plot elements.

We sold the book off those chapters, and an outline for the rest of the book. That’s not common for a first-time novelist; in most cases, you’d finish the whole book first. 

I was able to turn back to Arlo in June 2016. I wrote really intensely that whole summer, and delivered the book to my editor on October 2, 2016. Altogether I’d say it was five months of intense work to get to that first draft. We went through a lot of edits over the subsequent months, but all of the basic story points (and chapters) stayed what they were.

I didn’t need to divide my time between the book and features that much. I could hand in an edit, then work on a rewrite for a script, then get the next notes back from my editor. But that’s mostly luck it worked out that way.

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Mockup

Now that the inside of the book is finished, we’re making the last decisions about the text and layout for the jacket. One of the images the publisher sent through this week was the first time I saw the book mocked up as a hardcover.

I’m so used to seeing the paperback advance reader copies that it’s jarring to remember that the book that comes out in February is actually hardcover.

And to say it again: this is a mockup. The actual book will probably look slightly different.

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...

I sent an advanced copy of Arlo to a friend for her son to read. She emailed back this morning:

It’s cool to have an actual book kids can read.

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Arlo at Comic-Con

Spotted at #SDCC - ARLO FINCH by @johnaugust! (I may have had to elbow several cosplayers aside to get this photo.) pic.twitter.com/eICmM9eIKz

— Eugene Son (@eugeneson) July 24, 2017

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Hi John. Could you explain to me how the publishing schedule works for books like this? I was surprised to see there are advance reader copies of the book eight months before it's published - I didn't think they'd be *that* much in advance!

I’m learning all this too.

In publishing, advance reader copies (also called galleys) serve a few important functions.

Obviously, they’re crucial for reviewers -- both at major publications and blogs -- so that the book can have reviews right at launch.

They’re also sent to influential people in a given field. For example, a publisher might want Slate’s Dana Stevens to look at new book on film history, in hopes that she’ll mention it on a podcast.

But ARCs have another important audience: booksellers and librarians who need to get a sense of which books they’ll want to stock or feature. For middle-grade fiction, school librarians are an especially important group, since they can help students and teachers find new books.

So when possible, you want to get the book into their hands early so they plenty of time to read and (hopefully) love it.

This is especially important because I’m a first-time author. I’m not coming into this with a built-in readership, so the only way someone’s going to know about my writing is to read the book. 

Arlo Finch isn’t especially long -- about 70,000 words, the length of an early Harry Potter -- but that’s still a fair amount for a busy person to read. A few extra weeks helps.