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Neil Gaiman looks set to be one of the busiest authors of 2013, with a host of book publications, a radio play and a “Doctor Who” episode in the works.
Bloomsbury, which is publishing Gaiman’s children’s novel Fortunately, the Milk (17th September, £10.99) and Headline, publisher of his adult novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane (18th June, £16.99), have teamed up on social application the Gaiman Almanac (gaimanalmanac.com), which groups all of the author’s UK appearances, as well as publication dates, pre-order dates and radio/ television appearances, in one place (the BBC Radio 4 production of Neverwhere ended last week).
Headline m.d. Jane Morpeth said of the almanac: “Fans can keep track of all his forthcoming projects and appearances, and it will be constantly updated with bonus features and exclusive material. Although it’s our project, we’ve worked with Bloomsbury and Harper US to gather the material.”
Headline is also publishing a free e-book short story by Gaiman called How to Talk to Girls at Parties, which includes the prologue of The Ocean… “in order to try and encourage pre-orders”, Morpeth said. "These days it’s all about preorders for that first publication!”
Headline will also publish Gaiman’s non-fiction title Make Good Art (14th May), a transcript of his commencement speech delivered to the Philadelphia University of the Arts, which has had more than half a million views on Vimeo. Its publication comes two days after Gaiman’s second “Doctor Who” episode, “The Last Cyberman”, airs on BBC1, which Morpeth said would “bring Gaiman to a whole new generation of fans . . . there is nobody else like Neil who does so many different things which still all have his unique voice.”
June brings three Gaiman titles, with Bloomsbury’s Unnatural Creatures, a collection of short stories about creatures from myths and legends, and Instructions, a picture book with Charles Vess, both out on 13th June. The Ocean…, also June, will have several editions, including “a super-deluxe edition, the details of which haven’t quite been finalised yet, which is very exclusive for his fans,” Morpeth said. There will also be an illustrated edition of The Ocean… by Dave McKean, who has worked with Gaiman on several projects before. “This is the first book we’ve published with Neil in the digital world—Neil’s fans love beautiful objects,” Morpeth said, adding that Gaiman’s next book would be a sequel to his 2001 novel American Gods.
Rebecca McNally, publishing director at Bloomsbury Children’s Books, said: “Neil is completely unavoidable this year, and our mission is to make Neil a household name.”
Chris Riddell has designed the jacket for Fortunately, the Milk, as well as inside illustrations and a collectable pull-out poster. “The book will have a QR code linking to videos of Chris illustrating—we are linking to digital as far as we possibly can.”
The film rights to The Ocean… have been bought by Focus Features, with “Atonement” and “Anna Karenina” director Joe Wright to direct. HBO is also producing a six-season series of Gaiman’s American Gods.