Here are the front and back covers. (Forgive the lousy Treo camera pics and the even lousier attempts to brighten up the lousy Treo camera pics in Photoshop.)

The mass market edition of Infoquake is being published by Solaris Books, the folks who also recently published my story “Mathralon” in The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two.

And they’ve done a bang-up job of it too — this thing looks sharp. Not only is the cover art by Stephan Martiniere crisp and stunning, but Infoquake might be one of the few books that will catch just as much attention when the spine’s facing out as the cover. It’s hard to tell from the pics above, but you can read the title on the spine from across the room. Plus the book has a nice weight and thickness to it, and it tickles my vanity by opening with several pages of rave quotes from authors and reviewers. (Not as many pages of rave quotes as the mass market of Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind, but one can’t set the bar too high.)

Those who have read Infoquake in the (equally stunning) Pyr trade paperback version might be interested to know that I’ve made 155 changes to the text for this edition as well. But lest I be accused of breaking my own rules for ethical self-promotion, I should point out that they are entirely minor changes. For instance, one of the most substantial changes I made was to alter this somewhat nonsensical sentence…

It became less comforting still when Natch realized that several of the dartguns pointed at him were actually multi disruptors.

to this much clearer version…

It became less comforting still when Natch spotted a few multi disruptors in the group.

Much better, don’t you think? For the edification of all those future students of literature who I predict will one day be obsessively studying my works in classes taught by stuffy university professors, here is the actual Excel spreadsheet I sent to Solaris detailing my changes for the mass market edition. Really, it’s not that interesting. I’m guessing that two-thirds of the changes are me rethinking the use of italics for emphasis in character dialogue. So, “We can’t just let people die!” became “We can’t just let people die!”

(And if you future stuffy university professors are having trouble thinking up a name for the course, might I suggest “Edelquake: Decontextualizing the Metaphorical Implications of Jump 225 in a Hyperrational Postmodern Society”?)

My only regret is that it didn’t occur to me to change the Acknowledgments section in the back of the book to thank the guys at Solaris for all their hard work. So, to George Mann, Christian Dunn, and Mark Newton, I will now put on my proper British bowler hat and tip it on your direction.

The mass market of Infoquake won’t hit the stores for some weeks yet, but have I mentioned that you can pre-order a copy on Amazon? Oh yeah, I just did.

What is there to say about this cover that isn’t implied by “holy fuck!!!!”? It complements the MultiReal cover incredibly well. You’ve got the buildings curving at exactly the opposite angle, you’ve got a color scheme that provides a nice contrast, and you’ve got the same circular mechanical whatchamacallits that are present in the other painting.

When you enlarge the pic, you can see all kinds of groovy stuff here too. I love the way those pink light rays or whatever they are frame the illustration. The holographic image to Jara’s left is, I think, the same one that appears to Natch’s left on the MultiReal cover.

Once again the illustration doesn’t quite match up with the vision I had in mind. I never provide a detailed description of hoverbirds in the books, but I’m pretty confident I never implied they were supposed to look like the cover of Led Zeppelin’s first album. And if that’s Jara standing there, she doesn’t have the mass of curly dark hair and Sephardic features I described in the book. (Nor could I ever picture her wearing a slinky dress and a flower in her hair.)

But once again, I just don’t care. Jara’s posture captures her attitude perfectly, and the world outside her window feels more like the world of Infoquake than an actual photograph from the year 359 YOR would.

I noticed a few slight differences in the covers of Infoquake and MultiReal, and I’m not sure if they’re intentional or simply oversights, because not everybody’s as obsessive-compulsive as me. The title type for MultiReal is transparent while here it’s white. There are also slight font sizing, spacing, and leading differences throughout. If they’re intentional differences because of the different demands of trade paperback and mass market paperback publishing, heck, that’s just fine with me. And if they’re unintentional… well, rest assured that the same maniacal and pointless attention to insignificant detail I’m exhibiting here also goes into my novels.

One last note: as far as I’m aware, Pyr will still be using the old black-and-blue Infoquake cover with the curved building on their trade paperback edition, and they have no plans to recover it. Which I’m perfectly okay with, because I really dig that cover too and would hate to see it disappear from the shelves altogether. But I’m sure if the Infoquake mass market zips to the top of the Amazon sales charts and Oprah finally returns my calls, Pyr might be moved to reconsider. (Oprah, if you’re reading this, that’s a hint.)

Feel free to leave digital burnt offerings on the altar of Martiniere in the comments below.

• I’ll have two new books on the shelves in Summer 2008: Solaris’ mass-market paperback of Infoquake, and Pyr’s trade paperback of MultiReal. (The trade paper of Infoquake will still be available as well, natch.)
• There will be a new look for the Jump 225 series, with matching covers across the series. I’ve heard some very encouraging news about what these new covers are going to look like, but I can’t tell you yet.
• Solaris’ distribution deal with Simon & Schuster in the U.S. should put copies of Infoquake and MultiReal in just about every bookstore across the country. Which means I’ll no longer hear that complaint I’ve heard a hundred times now: “I went out to buy your book today, but I can’t seem to find it in any of the stores.”
• Solaris has also optioned mass-market paperback editions of MultiReal and Geosynchron, which means there’s a good chance I’ll see mass-market versions of these books in the stores as well.

Extreme thanks go to George Mann and Christian Dunn of Solaris, who were just the coolest guys at Readercon this year. Thanks also to Lou Anders of Pyr, who is automatically the coolest guy in any room he enters that Keith Richards isn’t already in.

More when I catch my breath.