Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Book Trailer for When Maidens Mourn

I'm not convinced these things do any good sales-wise, but they're fun to make and they seem to cheer my publisher, so here's the new book video for When Maidens Mourn:



And here's the cover copy:

Tales of King Arthur and the Lady of Shalott provide inspiration for this latest gripping installment in the Sebastian St. Cyr mystery series when, just four days wed, the aristocratic investigator and his fiercely independent bride, Hero Jarvis, find themselves caught up in a twisted intrigue of ancient legends and a deadly family curse.

Regency England, August 1812: Sebastian’s plans to escape the heat of London for a honeymoon are shattered when the murdered body of Hero’s good friend, Gabrielle Tennyson, is discovered drifting in a battered boat at the site of a long-vanished castle known as Camlet Moat. A beautiful young antiquarian, Miss Tennyson had recently provoked an uproar with her controversial identification of the island as the location of Camelot. Missing and presumed also dead are Gabrielle’s two young cousins, nine-year-old George and three-year-old Alfred.

Still struggling to define the nature of their new marriage, Sebastian and Hero find themselves occasionally working at cross-purposes as their investigation leads from London’s medieval Inns of Court to its seedy back alleys, and from grand country homes to rural enclaves where ancient Celtic beliefs still hold sway. As he probes deeper, Sebastian also discovers dark secrets at the heart of the Tennyson family, and an enigmatic young French lieutenant with a dangerous, mysterious secret of his own.

Racing to unmask a ruthless killer and unravel the puzzle of the missing children, Sebastian and Hero soon find both their lives and their growing love for each other at risk as their investigation leads to Hero’s father, who is also Sebastian’s long-time nemesis… and to a tall, dark stranger who may hold the key to Sebastian’s own parentage.

24 comments:

Beth said...

And yet, it is months yet until we get to read it. Weep ...

I'm certainly looking forward to the day it comes out.

Beth

Unknown said...

Made me want to read it...so as long as you can get people to look...it works

lx

Barbara Butler McCoy said...

This does waaaay more than whet the appetite. March is how long away, again;0

Anonymous said...

Wow. It is great to read a summary of the plot to come and it makes the anticipation so much higher and harder to contain. Sounds like it will be such a fun read, full of tension. Can't wait to find out about the tall, dark stranger. Father, brother, mother's lover....ahhhh. So many possibilities. Sabena

Essex said...

Love it already. Can hardly wait until March . I was just thinking the other day that time has been flying by as I get older, but when I am waiting in anticipation for something, it just crawls along!

Charles Gramlich said...

You had me at cover copy. Pretty cool, though.

cs harris said...

Beth, I know, it seems a long ways off to me, too. But for some reason "Sales" was unhappy the book wasn't on my website yet, so since I was stuck on hiccup in Who Bells the Cat, I thought I'd take the time to make this.

Liz, that's the hard part, isn't it?

Barbara, sorry!

Sabena, this was a really fun book to write.

Essex, I'm not sure where the last two years have gone.

nana said...

Before finding your blog I even didn't know there was book trailers^^

If I wasn't eager before...
I think I'm going to read this cover copy many times till March :) so captivating & wordy!! I wasn't expecting so much.
Do you write this stuff? Or at least have you your say about it? it's really spoilerish.

I didn't expected too for Sebastian thinking about a honeymoon :) I'm waiting the marital life between hero & Sebastian as much as waiting the mystery. feels like it's going to be fun to read.
& it looks like many things are really happening in this book between all the mystery, hero & Sebastian, Jarvis, Sebastian's past...

Have you a word count limit for each book? By yourself or the publisher. there is always approximatively the same number of pages in the series. (true, I wouldn't say no for longer books :D)

March is so far away *pouts* :)
thanks for the update!!!!

Anonymous said...

Is there ever a possibility for Advanced Readers copies?? Sigh. I do so love these series, and wish it was coming out this november instead!! When will Kat meet her new love? I hope its soon too :)

oldcelt said...

Hi! This is on preorder at the UK Amazon Kindle site.
YAY!!!!!

cs harris said...

Charles, that sounds good!

Nana, Penguin sends me their attempt at cover copy, then I rewrite it, and then my editor tweaks it. It's the one place I do have quite a bit of input, but not the last word. It's a hard balancing act between revealing the intriguing parts of a story and not giving away too much. I try not to allow anything in the cover copy that doesn't become clear within the first few chapters.

I always aim to write 95,000-100,000 words, although sometimes I come up short (Mermaids) and sometimes I run long (Serpents). Fortunately, my publisher is flexible about length, within reason. It would be horrible to have to artificially cut a story.

Anon, Penguin does make ARCs (brown paper wrapper), but they only print a few and are very, very tight with them. I mean unbelievably so. As for Kat...her story progresses more in Who Bells the Cat.

Oldcelt, thanks!

Susan/DC said...

This gives me something to look forward to during the long, dark winter months. Spring will come, the days will get longer, and Sebastian and Hero will appear along with the crocus and tulips.

Julia said...

Thanks for the cover copy. It will tide me over until March. I love this series! Thank you!

paz said...

Really great trailer! This seems like it involves a lot of work for you! Perhaps you discussed it before in another blog but... I am wondering, however, why are publishing houses so keen on them? Do they actually share with you their data on how they impact marketing and sales? As someone who would no more go to YouTube to buy a book than to buy toothpaste, I am really curious

cs harris said...

Susan, ha!

Julia, thank you!

Paz, the problem with so much publicity/marketing stuff is that no one knows the impact any of it has. I make these trailers on iMovie and actually find them rather fun, in that they exercise a different creative muscle. I know authors who spend from $2,000 up to $20,000 having book videos made, which I personally think is kinda crazy. I spent a couple of hours.

I suspect the book videos' real audience is 1) publishers, since they like authors who "do things" and 2) people who were already planning to buy the book anyway. I've never bought a book based on a video. Here are three posts I did on the subject before: http://csharris.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html

JoAnn said...

March 2012 can't get here soon enough
!

Will Night in Eden, Whispers of Heaven and September Moon be available on Kindle any time soon?

Any chance you will be writing another historical romance in the future?

cs harris said...

JoAnn, I've been squabbling with Random House over electronic rights for YEARS now. I've had Night in Eden back for a while, but I wanted to wait and put them all up at the same time (learning curve). As for another historical romance.... I honestly don't know. Sometimes I think about it. The problem is, everything seems to be vampires and zombies these days, so I'm not sure there would be much of a market for the kind of story I'd write.

Denise said...

Love the series! Can't wait to read it!

Barbara Caridad Ferrer said...

Oh my stars and garters-- what lovely, intriguing, and dare I say, maddening, cover copy! Maddening, only because we have to wait until what? March? I feel like Charlie Brown after Lucy's pulled the football out from under him... again. AUGH! *g*

Seriously cannot wait for this one.

Steve Malley said...

I have a question: Since your publisher, in their far-reaching and infinite wisdom, would rather not sell your ebooks to this half of the world, does that mean *you* might still own the rights to do so?

:)

cs harris said...

Denise, thank you!

Barbara, Sorry!

Steve, I think they have world English rights, which includes ebook rights. But I don't have a clue why they're not selling the ebook overseas. I'll ask my agent to poke them. If one does retain the overseas English rights, I wonder how one goes about making sure that they're only sold overseas?

Steve Malley said...

Well, *if* one were doing it herself, one need only UN-tick the box that says "I have worldwide rights", TICK the "I have rights in" box and select the appropriate option from the pull-down menu.

Then one might find herself making 64% of her cover price in royalties (Assuming one would cut her agent in for checking up on those rights) instead of one's current 17.5%... :)

Steve Malley said...

Hahaha, and one wouldn't need lose a single argument with the art department over inaccurate period dress, misleading covers, etc.

Just saying.... ;)

Jan Power said...

Oh my, my angst level is off the Richter Scale with Sebastian and Hero' growing love at risk! I beg you not to leave them at odds at book's end, my heart cannot take it; those two are my beloved friends!

Jan

PS Thanks to you, I was inspired to read every Heyer book I could get my hands on. Vis a vis your yummy word list, I hope you included some of the gems she gleaned from her research like cawker, clunch and gudgeon.