In this edition of Redwall Collectors Community, we'll be reviewing the Advance Reading Copy or ARC (also referred to as an "advance uncorrected galley" or "uncorrected proof") for The Rogue Crew, the last published novel from Brian Jacques.
As The Rogue Crew was published posthumously, it provides an intriguing look at the initial marketing plan for the book, as well as some copy that sadly had to be altered after Jacques' passing in February 2011.
First, let's take a look at the timeline of events surrounding the announcement and release details of The Rogue Crew. Jacques was almost always a year or so ahead in his writing.
- November 1, 2008: Brian Jacques tells Book Fest 2008 attendees that he's writing The Rogue Crew, an otter-themed book.
- May 5, 2009: Brian Jacques mentions he's 267 pages into writing the novel on 87.7 KVfm.
- June 2009: Brian Jacques tells a Redwall fan he is halfway through writing the novel.
- April 2010: The book's title, The Rogue Crew, is first revealed on the Library of Congress.
- June 2010: The first summary for The Rogue Crew is released, via Redwall.org.
- November 4, 2010: The Redwall Wiki exclusively reveals the book's cover artwork.
- November 10, 2010: Another summary, the book page count, the book's official cover, and a 2011 tour are all announced by Penguin.
- December 2010: May 3, 2011, and Dallas, TX, are unveiled as a Brian Jacques 2011 tour date/stop.
- February 2011: Brian Jacques passes away.
- May 3, 2011: The Rogue Crew is published.
Now let's check out the back of The Rogue Crew ARC to see what Penguin anticipated.
- Online consumer advertising
- National media campaign
- Two-week national author tour
- Promote on TheRedwallExperience.com
- Feature series on DestinationElsewhere.ning.com
- Major series feature at all national school & library conventions
- Floor display
Quite a few of these are revealing, and provide some new information. We've emboldened the interesting bullet points.
First, Brian Jacques' U.S. tour promoting the book was to be for two weeks. This aligns with his U.S. tour that he had embarked on in 2008 (a tour we attended), which occurred from October 16 - November 1. However, worth noting, he was in the U.S. for approximately one month in 2007 (October 13 - November 18) and 2006 (September 23 - October 21, also a tour we attended)
In regards to "promotion" over at The Redwall Experience, a publisher website for the Redwall series, we don't recall this happening. There was an update to the website indicating that The Rogue Crew was published and on sale, however there were no new additions or games like there were for The Sable Quean in 2010.
Before this article, we had no idea what ning.com was. A deep dive found that the DestinationElsewhere.ning.com subdomain text was actually intended to be destination-elsewhere.ning.com. Ning is a service that lets people and businesses create their own social networks, and Penguin created several communities for teenagers/young readers at the time. Destination Elsewhere was described thusly:
"Step into another world with these young adult fantasy and science fiction titles that test the boundaries of reality. Let them push you to the limits of imagination...and beyond."
Again, we looked as hard as we could...but we could not find any indication that the Redwall series or The Rogue Crew was in fact featured here. It's possible, but unclear.
So now it's time to see a copy adjustment that was made inside.
This is Brian Jacques' biography from inside The Rogue Crew ARC. Worth noting, this is the exact same biography that was used in The Sable Quean jacket flap, except the "Dr." prefix is now used, a reference to his Honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of Liverpool, awarded in 2005.
However, observe the present tense in the text. "Dr. Brian Jacques is..." It's an indication these ARCs were assembled prior to the events of early February 2011. And they were distributed later that month.
And for comparison, here is the biography that was published in The Rogue Crew. It's now past tense. "Dr. Brian Jacques was..." And a sentence has been excised completely: "He has also formed a recording company that performs full-cast versions of his novels." does not appear in the final published bio.
Thanks for taking a trip down memory lane with us today.
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