A cover! That’s a cover! Of Things Become Other Things! To be published by Random House! In May! 2025!
OK — I’ve used up my excitement quota for the rest of 2024, but, heck, a public-reveal/unveil of a book cover is as good a thing as any to use it up on.
Hello from Portland, weird Portland (so weird) — it is I, Craig Mod. I am here for XOXO. Speaking on Friday with Jason Kottke. A somewhat surreal experience. Jason and I are buds (we did a little walk together in Thailand last Dec) but when I was twenty (~14,000 years ago), I very much admired his website and what he had built and was building. So to sit on stage together and talk about indie publishing, the open web, books, and more, is something I’m honored to take part in. Maybe see you there? (Or online if things are streaming?)
TBOT — Random House Style
Back to books and covers. We are now 256 days from publication of Things Become Other Things, Random House edition. Here’s that cover again:
We iterated significantly to land on this design. I was more heavily involved than most authors (I saw dozens of comps) and had a hand in driving the direction. It’s nice to see our cover in the context of similar-ish covers (text-over-image):
Here’s a small slice of the Figma board notes and iterations:
I love where we landed. A huge thanks to designer Sachi Chandiramani and art director Greg Mollica for their efforts on this.
Something burning in the distance, seen from the path; a key moment in a key chapter. I’m also relieved that this cover doesn’t scream JAPAN (the blurb text is plenty Japan-centric). It feels like it injects just enough mystery (in image and in “A WALKING MEMOIR” — what in tarnation is a “walkin’ memoir?!”) to (hopefully) get someone to pick this up from a shelf. And is aesthetically pleasing enough for you to want to place it on your table, to hold in your hands on the subway.
Pre-orders
The absolute best place to pre-order TBOT’s Random House edition is from your local bookshop. Go in, tell ’em you’re looking for this book by this guy named Craig Mod. Regale them with your excitement about said book. Whisper to them secrets about walking and Japan. Do you think this is going to be a great book? Say to them, “I think this is going to be a great book!” For the first time in my publishing life, a book I’ve written is available via the mega-distribution network of a major publisher. Let’s lean on this superpower and support, rally behind, and amplify the critical role of local bookshops in publishing.
It is, of course, also available for pre-order in all the usual places:
It may seem crazy to start pre-ordering some eight months before publication. But these pre-orders help. They send a strong signal to bookshops: be on the lookout for this book (making it more likely for them to feature the book / read the book themselves). Pre-orders also activate algorithms on sites like Amazon and B&N making them more likely recommend TBOT to folks shopping for adjacent literature (Japan, travel, memoir, etc.).
You only get one chance to launch a book like this at this scale. My goal is to reach as wide an audience as possible, while simultaneously not annoying you Roden readers. I’ll continue to document the behind-the-scenes process in Nightingalingale1, and will provide monthly updates in a small (I promise) section of this newsletter (“This Month in RH-TBOT Launch Prep!”). I am sure this will be a huge learning process, and I’ll try to share as much as I can along the way. I have a great marketing team at Random House behind this book. That said, if you have any tips or advice: Have you successfully launched a hardcover with a major publisher? What worked well? What fell flat? I’m all ears.
[1]: Nightingalingale is a newsletter I started in September 2021, a SPECIAL PROJECTS members-only newsletter. The reason why I do some things “members only” is simply to limit the reach (not to make them exclusive). There’s a big difference between writing for tens-of-thousands of people (this newsletter) vs hundreds or thousands (my members-only newsletters; they’re all opt-in so readership varies). I’ve published some 260+ Nightingalingale issues thus far. I’m pretty brutally honest in some of them, and the frequency feels out of place for a more general newsletter audience like this. If you want to subscribe, you get a signup link when you join SPECIAL PROJECTS. You get access to the archives of all past Nightingalingale issues as well as my other pop-ups and members-only newsletters (and 120 hours of members-only video chats and board meetings). Memberships are free for “students.” Just reply to this email and I’ll get you a free year of membership.
I’ve been documenting the process of writing, editing, and producing this book over on Nightingalingale, so I lose track of who knows what, but here are the broad facts around this new edition:
Nearly twice the text as my fine art edition published in November 2023. The Random House edition contains far more context about who I am, where I came from, how I ended up in Japan, and why I stayed (I mean, we do have “memoir” on the cover). New chapters, expanded chapters. Also, much more historical information in general, and … new characters!
Over a dozen new photographs; all photographs “redeveloped” in black and white.
Entirely different format: Trade hardcover, printed in black and white; think Sebald’s Rings of Saturn in terms of text-photo vibe than anything I’ve produced before.
Only $31 USD (which is about $69 cheaper than my edition).
I hesitate to even call the fine art edition (SP-TBOT) and the Random House edition (RH-TBOT) the same book. Obviously, they share the same “heart” or “soul” — but are otherwise so very different as objects and experiences. I have put as much energy into revising and expanding this book with editor Molly as I did in the year leading up to publishing my fine art edition with editor Oli. This book wouldn’t have been possible without both of them.
If you liked the fine art edition, I dare say you’ll love this one. They are complimentary. (And also, I suspect, it will prove interesting / instructive to look at them side by side, to see how a book can change, how chapters can evolve for different audiences; I’m not sure how many other books have been published like this; it’s kind of … neat?)
I’ll cap the blathering here for now. I’m planning on announcing pre-order perks in November. They’ll include:
SPECIAL PROJECTS store discount coupons
pre-order-only livestreams
and lots of other goodies
Everyone who pre-orders now will be able to take advantage of those perks later.
For bigger orders:
Folks / book clubs that order 15 or more copies will get an hour Zoom/FaceTime/Google Meet (no Microsoft Teams) call with me.
And folks / events / companies that order 300 or more copies — well, I’ll fly to wherever you are and give a talk. (Email me if you’re interested in making an order like this — Random House will give you a bulk discount via their “premium sales team.” 😎)
I am proud of this edition. So proud. It’s the “fullest” book I’ve ever written. The story and the messages feel more important than ever. I want to get this book into as many hands as possible, to make sure these many years of effort — of all my Kii Peninsula walking and photographing, of working through the text with Oli, and then working through the text once again with Molly, of all the hundreds of generous eyeball hours of close friends and readers who have gone over this manuscript with me a billion times, of all the kind letters and notes you’ve all sent me since the fine art edition was published — reach the maximum number of people. Your pre-orders help make that happen.
Thanks again for all your support. Now to prep for this talk with Jason!
