The Invisible Orientation

[swankivy]

Hi all! Some of you may remember that I announced a book deal last year. Well, things are moving along pretty well and I thought I'd stop by and update y'all on the status.

The book's title has been changed to THE INVISIBLE ORIENTATION: An Introduction to AsexualityIt will come out September 2, 2014 from Skyhorse Publishing/Carrel Books

Comments

[swankivy]

I had actually zip to do with the cover. I didn't know anyone was even working on it until I saw it on the Internet and I was not consulted. Yay publishing?

So I don't know if they had anything in particular in mind with the texture there. I did see one person say they liked how it drew the eyes to the subtitle.

I am not a visual person at all so I really had no interest in giving input on the cover design--I'm not a graphic designer so probably most of what I would say would be silly and amateurish. I just told my editor when she asked what I would NOT want to see--you know, anything that suggested sadness or loneliness, anything that pictured unsatisfied people in bed, anything that included pictures of amoebas or sexless doll crotches or whatever, and anything that conveyed innocence. This is fine by those terms, though I did have a couple people say "it looks like a Bible/it looks like an inspirational self-help book." (Definitely don't want to suggest a connection to inspirational/spiritual books, as it's already a problematic misconception in our community that asexuality is correlated with religious celibacy.)

[swankivy]

Some people might be a little put off by any triangle imagery since some people feel it's appropriative, but yeah, I don't think they were going for symbolic. That said, I think at least some of the people at my publisher have some clue what's going on; shortly after making an offer, the editor said it would be great if we could release it in September so it would be available for Asexual Awareness Week, and I hadn't said anything about AAW in my materials, so she was paying attention. :)

[swankivy]

I kinda doubt I'll have a party. I dunno what I'll be doing in all honesty. My publisher isn't a huge publisher and isn't likely to organize any actual events for me (though I will have a publicist trying to get the book some press), but if they give me a push in that direction it's possible something will happen. If left in my hands entirely I wouldn't have a release party.