Snappsy the Alligator (Did Not Ask to Be in This Book) is one step closer to being a real thing. I just got F&Gs!
What’s an F&G, you ask? It’s an acronym for “folded and gathered” and it’s the book, but unbound (sometimes also called a “floppy copy”). The pages look just like they will in the bound book, but they are only folded together and put in order.
What this means is it’s just like the real book, but much more fragile. The rule in our house is that you can’t touch an F&G unless you’re in a clean room wearing a hazmat suit and promise not to sneeze or breathe. Other people maybe have better methods for reading F&Gs, but they have a habit of exploding on me.
It’s so weird to see my name in actual print on the cover of a book, after a lifetime of writing my name in crayon on a cover I drew myself and stapling it to the words I wrote. It’s like finding your name in the phone book, multiplied by one billion.
So here’s a sneak peek at the F&G! (Click on any of the images below to make them bigger.)
It has a cover!
And a hilarious front flap (and endpapers!).
And a title page! With my name on it! And Tim’s name! And Viking’s name! Plus that gorgeous blank page opposite where I’ll sign my name when you come to a book event or pre-order from Bull Moose. (That color has now been named Snappsy Green and my family is getting a weensy annoyed by how many things I insist we buy in Snappsy Green now — nail polish…oven mitts…couches.)
And a back flap with a drawing of me by Tim! (And a drawing of Tim by Tim.)
And, special to the F&G, a back cover with blurbs. I am so awed and lucky and grateful to have gotten blurbs from Ame Dyckman, Adam Rex, and Bob Shea. The bound book will have a different back cover, but I love this one, too!
Gorgeous! Now I have Snappsy goggles on… this plant next to me is Snappsy green, the toe of my socks is Snappsy green, my oven mitt…