Ghost Story cover art and Side Jobs Wallpaper

It’s official: Changes is in its TENTH week in a row on the New York Times Bestseller List! We thought this deserved a little celebration.
Share in the Dresden glee with Chris McGrath‘s cover art for the thirteenth Dresden Files novel, Ghost Story! Ghost Story is due out March 29th, 2011. Click to enlarge.
Ghost Story cover art
We also have wallpaper for Jim’s next release, Side Jobs, a compilation of Dresden Files short stories. Slated for October 26th, this anthology contains the following stories:

  • “Restoration of Faith”
  • “Vignette”
  • “Something Borrowed” — from My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding
  • “It’s My Birthday Too” — from Many Bloody Returns
  • “Heorot” — from My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon
  • “Day Off” — from Blood Lite
  • Backup — novelette from Thomas’ POV, originally published by Subterranean Press
  • The Warrior — novelette from Mean Streets
  • “Last Call” — from Strange Brew
  • “Love Hurts” — from Songs of Love and Death
  • Aftermath — post-Changes novelette from Murphy’s POV, EXCLUSIVE to this anthology!

Download the cover art as desktop wallpaper in about every desktop size imaginable:

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Pre-order Side Jobs and Ghost Story (or catch up on the previous novels in the series) through the Jim-Butcher.com store!
Discuss this on the Jim-Butcher.com forum here.

Storm Front eBook promo

Next week (May 24th-30th), Barnes and Noble is giving away free eBooks of Jim Butcher’s Storm Front in a special promotion!
Here’s how it works:

  • Download the FREE BN eReader to your mobile device. This can be an iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry, or Mac or PC laptop. Own a NOOK? You’re all set – no need to download.
  • Visit any Barnes & Noble store and show your NOOK or mobile device to one of our booksellers, and receive a voucher for the FREE eBook. This week’s eBook is Alexander McCall Smith’s The #1 Ladies Detective Agency, and next week’s is Jim Butcher’s Storm Front! Find a Barnes & Noble store near you.
  • Enter the access code on the voucher at BN.COM/redeem.

New Fanfiction Policy

We are pleased to announce that Jim is altering his stance on fanfiction, much like Mercedes Lackey did last October. Rather than upholding the awkward “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy towards fanfiction he used in the past, Jim is embracing the Creative Commons. Now, fanfiction is to be licensed as derivative, noncommercial fiction under the Creative Commons umbrella.

What does this mean?

A) You can’t make money from fanfic based on Jim’s work.

B) Jim still isn’t going to read it. (Wouldn’t you rather he spend that time writing the next book, anyway?) Do not send Jim your stories or story ideas.

C) You need to post a disclaimer on your fic, like this handy example: “The Dresden Files/Codex Alera is copyright Jim Butcher. This story is licensed under the Creative Commons as derivative, noncommercial fiction.” In doing so, you waive any rights to that work–you can’t sue Jim for compensation if he writes something similar.

D) Fanfic can now be talked about in places that had previously been off-limits, like our forum. We’ve created a separate “Fan Creations” section of the forum for for this purpose.

E) Ponies and ice cream for everyone!*

* This is not actually a byproduct of the new policy. Sorry.

Happy writing, folks!