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[In late July, The New Sins (Los Pecados Nuevos), a new book by David Byrne, will become available. This week we are presenting, in four parts, David Byrne's account of the birth of the book, up through its recent debut at the Valencia Biennal. This is the third part. - - - - PART III: An Ominous Lack Of Information During this time Danielle and I repeatedly requested more information from Valencia. What was their budget for this? Who was their shipper and how long would it take to get there? Had they contacted hotels about placing books in the drawers during the Biennial? There were no answers to any of the above. We sent more messages in desperate tones, but were told the decision-makers were not in at the moment. It was sort of maddening. Despite this ominous lack of information, I decided to continue to work on the book. It was starting to take shape. It also began to get longer. So I edited the text severely, then I asked friends and family to suggest cuts as well, as a longer book would drive it way over the budget estimate we had just sent to Valencia (failing receipt of a budget from them we decided we would just tell them how much it would cost). Kara and Adelle, my wife, both made valuable suggestions of places to cut, so I edited it down once more. I cut the text down to a length that would only raise the budget slightly. Then the M.R. brought in his designed page layouts. Oh shit. They looked beautiful. Perfect. But the lovely little frames he added around the pages and other design elements made the book even longer. And of course he had nice suggestions, such as including a foldout page and a dedication page, both of which further added to the length. I was worried about the cost of the book, given that Valencia had hinted at a fairly frugal overall budget for my project. I had also thought that this book would be printed in Spain, assuming that this would save money for the Biennial. Luckily, McSweeney's was now publishing books! We talked at this point about distributing the book in the United States, in addition to the motel rooms of greater Valencia. It seemed to be a good fit, this book and McSweeney's, and we decided to print a bunch of copies for readers in America. And at this point, having heard only silence from Valencia regarding printing the book, I was informed Oddi, the Icelandic printer of McSweeney's, also printed Bibles, and thus would know all the techniques. So it was agreed: the New Sins, an updated version of elements of the New Testament, to be published in a half-English, half-Spanish edition, would be printed in Iceland. Better yet, I had given an early sample of pages to Walter Donohue at Faber and Faber, in London Towne, while we both went to see an exhibit of Botticelli drawings for Dante's inferno. (I was obviously still doing research*.) Now Faber and Faber, publishers of T.S. Eliot, and McSweeney's, publishers of, well, some writers whose work hasn't yet been the source of popular Broadway musicals, were joined in disseminating this important work. We continued to email and call Valencia, in hopes of receiving some information regarding placement in hotel rooms. We were told to speak to a woman named Sally Jo, who was English, but with what seemed like a Texas name. She told us she was in charge of the placement of the books in hotels. Now we were getting somewhere. I figured, what with the Biennial run by both Spaniards and Italians, they decided they needed some good Anglo-Saxon organizational skills to pull things together, hotel-wise. But somehow, that elusive information we sought from Valencia was always just one step, one meeting, away. The book was already at the publisher in Reykjavik and Danielle was there supervising the color corrections with the printer. I advised her to check out Sigur Ros and meet up with Einar, ex-Sugarcube and head of Bad Taste records. Reykjavik, and Iceland in general, is a fun and extraordinary place, and Danielle can tell you all about it if you ask her.
- - - - TOMORROW: Part IV. If you are a media person and would like to interview Mr. Byrne about his book, email us at byrnebook@mcsweeneys.net. In the subject header, please write BYRNE INTERVIEW. If you are a reviewer or writer about books and would like a review copy of this David Byrne book, email us at julie@mcsweeneys.net.
OTHER McSWEENEY'S STORIES:
Why I Had to Make This Book, Part II By David Byrne Why I Had to Make This Book, Part I By David Byrne Announcing: Neal Pollack's Timothy McSweeney's Festival of Literature, Theater, and Music Some Things That Have Gone Wrong With My Techno-Thriller By J.M. Martinez The Office Party By M. David Hornbuckle |
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