Homeland and Pirate Cinema nominated at The Kitschies

Titan Books are all beaming today as we've heard that a whopping TWO of our titles have been nominated for this year's Inky Tentacle award for cover art at The Kitschies: Cory Doctorow's Homeland and Pirate Cinema. Because they were so lovely as a set and a style, the judges made the decision to treat the two covers as a series entry, and they were reviewed as a pair.

Amazing15, the superlative designers behind the cover treatments have modestly shied away from 'OMG WE ROCK!' (they do!):

We're hugely honoured to be nominated for our cover designs on Cory Doctorow's fantastic books at this year's Inky Tentacles. With the dramatic rise in eBook sales, physical book cover design could easily be seen as being now 'less important' than it once was, but really the opposite is true. In a marketplace which is so crowded and takes so many different forms, it's imperative that your book is as eye catching as possible and all of this year's nominees are testament to that. We're lucky that, working closely with an innovative publisher like Titan, we've been able to produce some interesting work for interesting books and we're very flattered to be considered for this award.

Of course, the wonderful Cory is delighted, as you can well imagine:

I am so pleased with my Titan covers; they're gorgeous, subtle and creative. Most importantly, each one is a miniature poster that perfectly captures the themes, spirit and feeling of the books -- exactly what I've always wanted from my covers.

And so to the covers in question: 

 

Two years after the events of Little Brother and Marcus has new problems to deal with: California's economy has collapsed, taking his parents’ jobs and his university tuition with it. On his return from the Burning Man festival with his girlfriend Ange, Marcus lands a job as webmaster for a muckraking politician who promises reform. Things are never simple, though: old frenemies from his Xnet days come out of exile with amazing tales of political corruption, powerful billionaires bent on "austerity" at any cost, a subprime bubble built on student debt, and a Homeland Security Industrial Complex that isn't about to let anyone get in its way. Marcus is now a mole in the political establishment, embroiled in lethal political intrigue and the sharp end of class warfare, American style.

 

Trent McCauley is sixteen, brilliant, and obsessed with one thing: making movies on his computer by reassembling footage from popular films he downloads from the net. In the dystopian near-future Britain where Trent is growing up, this is more illegal than ever; the punishment for being caught three times is that your entire household’s access to the internet is cut off for a year, with no appeal.

Trent's too clever for that too happen. Except it does, and it nearly destroys his family. Shamed and shattered, Trent runs away to London, where he slowly he learns the ways of staying alive on the streets. This brings him in touch with a demimonde of artists and activists who are trying to fight a new bill that will criminalize even more harmless internet creativity, making felons of millions of British citizens at a stroke.

Things look bad. Parliament is in power of a few wealthy media conglomerates. But the powers-that-be haven’t entirely reckoned with the power of a gripping movie to change people’s minds…

As a publisher that likes to reward our friends with exclusives, it now behoves us to provide you with a look at the concept covers, which we think you'll enjoy. Let us know what you think, via @TitanBooks, kind folk: we love to talk!

The Kitschies, presented by The Kraken Rum, reward the year's most progressive, intelligent and entertaining works that contain elements of the speculative or fantastic. The prize is now entering its fifth year.