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Category: publishing

Drawing My Way

The most unexpected delight of writing The Book of Dog was the way I one day began to draw the story as I wrote it.

You must understand, I’ve never drawn anything. I felt very silly. Because these are silly drawings.

But I loved these drawings! I have a big pile of them now, enough for every sentence I wrote practically.

 

Honestly a big part of the reason I decided to self-publish was because I didn’t want anyone telling me “Ok, we want to offer you a book contract, but these silly drawings simply have to go.”

I didn’t want to have to make that choice in my life.

Buy The Book of Dog by Lark Benobi

My AUDIOBOOK

My audiobook has been sent out for distribution today. It should start appearing on audiobook sites in 10-20 days. My book as narrated by Bernadette Dunne is my favorite version of The Book of Dog, which is a weird admission for someone who has written an illustrated book.

Sadly there isn’t a single chapter that WordPress can manage unless I compress the MP3 file until it is a tinny replica of its former self…but here is one chapter I like, which happens to be chapter 30.

Publication Date is coming fast–to celebrate I’m giving the ebook away for free!

Hi everyone. The publication date for THE BOOK OF DOG is three weeks away and until then I am offering a free ebook to anyone who asks, here:

http://larkbenobi.com/the-book-of-dog…

I also have extra paperback ARCs and one-off prints of the novel where I was experimenting with cover design. The interiors of these books are identical or have just very minor typos that have since been corrected. If you review books on Goodreads or Amazon, use the contact form above to request a one-of-a-kind, pre-publication paperback copy of THE BOOK OF DOG~I’ll even sign it!  I will draw an extra picture! I’m excited to share this story with you and I hope to hear from you soon.

Robert Repino

Robert Repino, author of the extraordinary novel Mort(e), did me the great favor of reading The Book of Dog by Lark Benobi, and the even greater favor of providing a quote for my book jacket. Here it is:

“Playful and surreal, heartwarming and heartbreaking, Lark Benobi’s The Book of Dog delivers a story of determination and love in a time of despair. Rather than merely raising a middle finger toward the age of Trump, Benobi prefers to slam it with her fist.”

I’ve noticed on Goodreads that there is a lot of speculation among readers about jacket quotes and how they come about. For sure, sometimes blurbs come about when an editor or agent asks authors on their lists to blurb one another. But I’d like to just say that asking an author you admire to read your still-unpublished book is usually a very personal ask. It’s one author to another author. It’s two people who have never met. It’s somebody with an unpublished book reaching out to an established author whose work she admires, and saying something like: “Excuse me, I think you’ll like my book, will you read it and see?”  And if, in spite of all good sense, that author you’ve asked to read your book replies: ‘yes, I’ll read your book,’ and later, ‘yes, I want to say something nice and on the record about your book,’ then that author is giving a tremendous, open-hearted gift, of both time and reputation. Thank you Robert.

my book cover journey

Here are the cover design blunders and successes for The Book of Dog, from last to first. I was learning Adobe InDesign along the way. Some of these covers are terrible. I really knew nothing in the beginning either about design or about the software. Some of the covers, I learned, looked good on the screen, but not on paper. The first cover, of Stella and Mary Mbwembwe riding together in a car, did not survive the transition from screen to page.

For this last one I went back to my crafty roots, the same as I had done with the first cover, a cover that I had made from sharpies and post-it notes and cut-out letters from magazines. For this last one I cut some dogs out from black construction paper, in the style of the interior drawings. I laid them out on the scanner glass and covered them with tissue paper for the backing. It made me so happy. Just as I was setting up the scan, my cat walked across the scanner glass. She had been outside in the weeds and she and left seeds and dirt on the glass and I just left it there because it seemed appropriate to the book’s theme, to have some help from my animal.

thinking about changing my cover

it’s the most glorious thing about starting your own small press–that you can repackage any time you want. I was feeling PINK today. Also I found a pair of Fiskar shears in a drawer.

my kirkus review

Kirkus is usually one of the first publications to review upcoming books, and my review just came out yesterday, and I’m relieved I got a good read from the reviewer for THE BOOK OF DOG, vs. needing to give myself a pep talk today. Click on the book cover to read the review on the Kirkus site:

Two things about the review made me especially happy. First they did a really great job of summarizing my peripatetic plot. Second, in the “Similar Books Suggested by our Critics” column, they suggested my novel is similar to Mort(e) by Robert Repino, which is an amazing book that you should read right now if you haven’t already.