Clothing is a big thing in Arabella of Mars. At the beginning of the book, Arabella is a wild child, running around the desert in a warm, protective, and thoroughly scandalous Martian garment called a thukhong. When her mother finds out, she hauls her back to Earth and makes her dress like a proper English lady — which she hates. Later on she winds up running across the English countryside in her nightdress, and eventually she dresses as a boy and signs on to the crew of an interplanetary clipper ship.
To celebrate Arabella and her outfits, I commissioned a paper doll set from Rachel Cohen of paperthinpersonas.com. It’s done, it looks fabulous (printed in full color on heavy paper), and now, thanks to Tor, you can get one for yourself — free! Here’s how:
- Pre-order Arabella of Mars from Powell’s, University Book Store, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, or even Amazon.
- Submit your proof of purchase to torpublicity@tor.com with the subject line “ARABELLA PRE-ORDER PROMOTION.”
- Don’t forget to include your mailing address.
That’s all! But hurry — quantities are limited. Offer expires July 12, 2016.
If you want a paper doll but can’t pre-order the book, you might have another chance. I will be giving away paper dolls (and other goodies) at my readings to people who dress up, ask questions, or otherwise earn them. :-)
Join Arabella Ashby on her space adventures with this paper doll set. In this alternate history Arabella has grown up on the flourishing British colony on Mars and loves her wild frontier home. Packed off to the stiflingly civilized Earth, Arabella soon discovers that her family is in danger so she runs away and dresses as a boy to join the crew of the flying ship Diana. She must learn to sail the skies, weather the naval war raging between Britain and France, and deal with a mutinous crew if she hopes to save the day. From her Martian hunting clothes to her proper lady’s gown this paper doll features outfits from all of her adventures in Arabella of Mars, on sale from Tor Books July 12, 2016.
Uh oh. This is a lottery, which is considered public gambling. It’s not exactly legal to do this in most states. Sweepstakes are legal, which is where you can get a free chance, which is why McDonald’s has some little thing where you can get a Monopoly game piece without playing by sending an SASE to whatever address. All it takes is one troll who sees a change to get some jollies by reporting this. When I do my own giveaways like this, I give a freebie to everyone who wants one, and two more for buying my books. Oregon is pretty strict about this, and it’s pretty illegal in my state too.
It isn’t a lottery; there is no element of chance. Everyone who sends in proof of purchase gets a paper doll (up to the available quantity of dolls, which is finite but not very small). And if this is illegal, there are tons of others in the same boat: http://www.fictionfare.com/category/book-deals-pre-order-deals/
If you still have issues with this, please take it up with my publisher, whose idea it was: torpublicity@tor.com
Hmm.. the phrase “you have a chance to get one for yourself” could give the impression that there’s an element of chance. I should have said “opportunity” rather than “chance,” but I’ve changed it to “you can get one for yourself” just to remove all ambiguity.
Yeah, it’s buying something for the chance that would be a problem. It sounded like a drawing for people who bought something before.