There’s now a Kindle edition of THE SOWER
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Publishers Weekly: Scribd Author’s Hardcover Debuts on ‘Chronicle’ Bestseller List
Saturday, September 19, 2009
By Bridget Kinsella — Publishers Weekly, 9/15/2009 7:54:00 AM
Just a little over a week after The Sower by Kemble Scott was published in a limited hardcover edition by San Francisco independent publisher Numina Press and distributed exclusively to Bay Area independent booksellers, it debuted on Sunday in the fifth spot on the San Francisco Chronicle bestseller list.
The Sower has had one of the most unorthodox publishing trajectories in these changing publishing times. Since Scott uploaded the e-book edition of his second novel on scribd.com in May, three publishers of various sizes approached him about doing a print edition. At the same time, Praveen Madan, co-owner of The Booksmith in San Francisco contacted Scott about doing an e-book event in the store. Together, Praveen and Scott examined the author’s print book offers and hatched the plan to launch the hardcover edition of The Sower with Numina Press in Marin County and distribute its first printing exclusively to Bay Area independent booksellers.
New York Times: Scribd’s E-Book Store Jump-Starts The Sower’s to Mainstream Success
Friday, September 11, 2009
By Anthony Ha
Scribd has been saying it wants to shake up bookselling — and now it’s starting to look like the document-sharing startup might succeed.
THE SOWER hits The San Francisco Chronicle Bestsellers List
Friday, September 11, 2009
Essay: House in Vermont – Tackling a touchy subject in my new novel THE SOWER
Friday, September 11, 2009
Book publishing is famously subjective, and authors who survive learn to have thick skins. But no matter how tanned your literary hide is, when a “no thanks” letter arrives, you’re still a little wounded.
Then comes an uncontrollable urge to read between the lines. What did the rejection letter really mean? I’ve heard some whoppers from writers over the years, including vast conspiracy theories that describe the New York publishing houses and literary agencies as hatcheries for evil agendas of all kinds.
I tried to avoid falling prey to this drama with my latest novel, The Sower. It’s just out in hardcover, so why in the world would I waste energy revisiting this book’s journey? But then someone said three little words to me the other day.
House in Vermont.
It’s code gay men in New York City use these days. When gossiping about someone they’ll ask, “Do you think he has a house in Vermont?”
House In Vermont.
HIV.
The first time a friend in Manhattan was asked this question, he responded, “No, I’m pretty sure he has a cottage in The Hamptons.” The phrase was repeated with each of the words spoken as individual sentences until the meaning became clear.
The main character in The Sower has a House in Vermont. At least he does at the beginning of the novel. He’s infected by a manmade supervirus that turns out to be a cure for all diseases – a germ that kills other germs. He soon discovers the only way to pass it to others is via sex. When word gets out, he becomes the most wanted man on the planet, with large forces conspiring to make sure he never sows this miraculous seed. The idea of sex as a means for “good” is too threatening to some people’s values.
When I finished writing this parable I began the process of getting it published. I’m no Stephen King, but my first novel was a bestseller and national award finalist. I sold that book on my own, so a friend who’s a publishing insider connected me with a long list of New York literary agents he thought would represent me.
All of those agents were gay men.
And they all refused to look at even one page of The Sower once they heard the premise.
From Scribd Store to Hardcover Publishing Deal
Friday, September 4, 2009
For most authors, it takes years to publish a book; for bestselling author Kemble Scott, it took six weeks.
In May, Scott made history by becoming the first author to publish a novel through the Scribd Store, a decision that attracted widespread media coverage, reviewer acclaim, and a significant Scribd readership. In June, publisher Yanina Gotsulsky downloaded the entire novel from Scribd, read it, and decided she wanted to publish it. By mid-July, Scott had a contract with Numina Press and the book was on its way to a first printing.
In an industry where most books move from contract to hardback over the course of 1-2 years, “The Sower” once again made history by jumping from the Scribd Store to bookshelves in mere weeks. This publishing speed is particularly fitting if you consider why Scott decided to publish on Scribd in the first place. In addition to the generous 80/20 revenue split, Scribd’s real-time revision feature allowed Scott to keep his book current by updating topical references like swine flu and Susan Boyle with the click of a mouse.
SF Weekly: Required Reading for the Fall
Friday, September 4, 2009
HUM525: Hitting the Books
Your required reading for the fall semester.
By Jonathan Kiefer
The Sower
By Kemble Scott (Numina Press, 232 pages, $23.95)
Originally published as an e-book on Scribd and just released in hardcover, the romping new thriller from the Lambda Literary Award finalist and best-selling author of SoMa is described by Scott as The Da Vinci Code meets Sex and the City. (Or, as the author David Henry Sterry more elaborately put it, “The Da Vinci Code as seen through the twisted eyes of John Waters and transcribed by the Marquis de Sade.”)
It involves a narcissistic San Francisco swinger who finds himself to be the only known carrier of a manmade supervirus that cures every disease — and can be transmitted only through sex. This has the dubious effect of turning our hero into a culture warrior’s wet dream.
East Bay Express on The Sower
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Power Tool
In Kemble Scott’s new novel, sex with a certain guy can cure everything.
By Anneli Rufus
September 2, 2009
He’s hot. He’s at home in San Francisco’s steamiest sexual landscapes. In some ways, Bill Soileau has it made. But the weird bug with which he becomes infected while working in faraway Armenia turns out to be a man-made supervirus that is capable, or so Bill is told, of curing every illness in the world. The catch — or is it? — is that for healing to happen, the virus must be transferred via sex. Bill’s the only carrier.
So, soon enough, everyone wants a piece of him.
Kemble Scott considers his new novel, The Sower — whose title alludes to the Bible’s Parable of the Sower, because Bill broadcasts seed — Sex and the City crossed with The Da Vinci Code. Politics, religion, science, and the passions of a plugged-in, paranoid society merge in a fantasy set not in the future but in an alternative but recognizable version of the present day.
Once word spreads about Bill’s remarkable ability, “he becomes the most wanted man on the planet,” explains Scott, an Emmy Award-winning former TV newswriter and producer whose 2007 debut novel, SoMa, was a Lambda Literary Award finalist. And suddenly, “the idea of sex as something ‘good’ turns out to be very threatening to many powerful people and institutions.”
The Examiner chimes in on the hardcover launch of The Sower
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Sowing a new route to publication
by Lauren Walter
In decidedly atypical fashion, author Kemble Scott’s new book, The Sower, hit the print market this week. Of course, eSavvy people might know that The Sower was the book first offered for sale as a Scribd.com, and it’s been available for purchase there at a bargain price of $2.00 per digital copy.
Scott, a graduate of Long Island’s own Adelphi University, eschewed the traditional publishing channels and built on the outside the box marketing tools he used with his first novel, SoMa. For SoMa, Scott created black and white videos that showcased locations touched upon in his book. He is believed to be the first author to post a book video on YouTube.
His second book, The Sower, is an edgy, satirical thriller in which a gay man is infected with a virus that cures all other viruses. The only way he can share the cure is through sex, a concept that raises all sorts of interesting moral dilemmas in an alternative version of the present day.
Read the full article
Hardcover book launch at The Booksmith
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Wearing paisley. Hey, it’s Haight Ashbury!