Folks, were are so close to having the cover work done for SERVANT and BAD PENNY. But it’s not done yet. So we’re slipping the delivery into November. CURSE will move back to early December. We lost two months with the issues we encountered with our original art projects. This time, though, we’re going to make it. And you will be pleased with the results.
Just a reminder. I’ll be meeting the public and chatting about my book in Utah this week. David Farland and Larry Correia will there as well. It’s a three-for-one deal.
| Thursday, October 22 6 pm – 8 pm |
Book signing and release party | Logan, UT | Borders 1050 N Main St. Suite B-2 Logan, UT 84341 435-787-0678 |
| Friday, October 23 4 pm – 6 pm |
Book signing and release party | Orem, UT | Barnes & Noble 330 East 1300 South Orem, UT 84058 801-229-1611 |
| Saturday, October 24 12 pm – 2 pm |
Book signing and release party | Layton, UT | Barnes & Noble Layton Market Center 1780 North Woodland Park Drive Layton, UT 84041 801-773-9973 |
| Saturday, October 24 3 pm – 5 pm |
Book signing and release party | West Jordan, UT | Barnes & Noble Jordan Landing 7157 Plaza Center Drive West Jordan, UT 84084 801-282-1324 |
I’m very happy to announce that Curse is now available in audio format. The other nice thing is that the audio performance of Servant is getting great reviews. Wyndham did a fab job.
And for those who graciously leave reviews, well, you never know when you’ll become famous. A reader, Jared Smith, left a review of Curse some time ago for the text version. Who knew the publisher would have decided to slap a quote from his review on the cover? Thank you, Jared!
The artists were the wild cards with my delivery schedule. Now that I’ve secured the artist for all three books I want to release this fall, I can finally give some target dates. Here’s the schedule:
I want to get GLORY out sooner, but it’s going to be a big book, and I’m not going to rush the editing phase. I don’t want to release shoddy work. Furthermore, it’s almost the size of two normal 100,000k novels. I hope to significantly accelerate the schedules for both AWFUL INTENT and GLORY, but we’ll have to see if I can make the necessary arrangements.
After GLORY, I will publish another Frank Shaw novel. And then I begin the LORD OF BONES epic fantasy series which is going to be structured differently that much of what’s out there. The concept excites me and allows me to take the story in all sorts of directions. It’s going to be a blast.
Can’t wait to get these books out there and let them find their audience. Thanks to all of you who have hung with me, sending me emails or posting comments of support. It’s much appreciated!
EDIT: I keep the release schedule up-to-date on the Calendar page.
I’ll be presenting this Saturday at this conference that will be held at the Bountiful Art Center, 745 S. Main Street, Bountiful, UT 84010. I grew up in Bountiful, and so this is a special treat for me to go back.
COST: Free for League of Utah Writers Members. $25 for non-members. More info at http://www.luwriters.org/.
I loved Amazon since the first day we met. But Amazon just sucker punched me, pulling my book from its shelves last Friday. As well as those of thousands of other authors. Why, Santa, why?
Cash, Johnny. Power. Is it ever about anything else?
Well, sometimes it’s about cookies, Santa. But money and capitalism are good things.
Yes, they are, Johnny. And fights are exciting, especially the ones where the one guy cleans the other’s clock, folding his nose over, and the blood spatters everywhere, and his eye swells up like some pig’s eye, and the teeth, the TEETH! It makes you want to pop an elf’s yammering happy singing head off with your thumb and forefinger, stomp his body into oblivion. Ah! Little shooting parties, elves lined up in a row, elf guts (pant) elf blood (pant) power (pant) BBQ roasted elf heads (pant) and Rocky theme music.
Mommy, Santa looks weird.
***
So, here’s the deal. Listed below are the “big six” publishers in North America, accounting for the lion’s share of sales and titles.
Tor Books is an imprint of Macmillan. This means Macmillan is my daddy right now. We luvs Macmillan. Amazon, on the other hand, is a distributor. And we luvs them as well.
But Amazon’s not just any distributor. Amazon wants to take over a bit more of the publishing supply chain in order to make more money. Macmillan said, “um, I don’t think so,” and the fight was on. Actually, I don’t think it was really so much of a fight as Amazon immediately going all North Korean Kim Jong-il on us. Despite what I think was poor strategy, it illustrates the real battle going on in the publishing world at the moment as the ebook and edistribution start to become a reality.
Changing your business model to make more money is a very logical thing to do, and I have no problem with Amazon trying to do it. I’m not one of those Wal-Mart haters. I like cheap goods. And I like to see children in sweat shops. However, I do have some self-interest. And ultimately there are few situations where a monopoly is a good thing for the consumer.
No, Amazon isn’t a monopoly now, but Hitler wasn’t always “Hitler” either. For his first 39 years he was Schicklgruber. But “Heil Schicklbruber” doesn’t induce people to rise up and slaughter nations. And so his Nazi PR sensibilities demanded he change it. No really, this is true. Anyway, this just proves that Amazon could start killing bunnies at any moment–don’t ever trust someone who names their company after a river. Or after Adolf Hitler, like if someone called themselves Hitler Lipstick or Hitler Toys.
I’m not going to rehash the story on my blog because others have already done it so well. So read these.
What does this mean for you, dear reader? Well, for the interim, it means you’ll find new copies of SERVANT the cheapest at the select Smiths’ grocery stores out West that carry it. Furthermore, Barnes & Noble has always been an excellent book seller Let me recommend any internet purchasers use their site until Amazon decides to stop bullying publishers and authors.
Beyond that, I don’t know, we’re only in round one. As for me, I tend to think the publishers have a more viable option with this agency model. But I’ll need to think on it more. In the meantime, enjoy the blood and bashing and the little authors screaming as they flee the building with their clothes on fire.
Hey, wait, MY back IS ON FIRE!!! AAaaaaaahhhh!
So I signed the contracts and put them in the mail today–I’m officially doing a collaboration with Larry Correia.
This is an extension of the novel that we sketched for the 2015 LTUE presentation we did together called “How to Build an Action Plot.”
Basically we took pirates and smugglers, put them in space, added in a nice helping of giant robots, huge aliens, space ships, nasty warlords, organized crime, and a government you don’t want to mess with, then stirred.
It’s going to rock.
You can see the materials for the presentation here. And read more about the collaboration in Larry’s post.
Please note that we started our novel sketch by asking Larry’s ten-year-old son, “Hey, what’s awesome?”
He replied without hesitation, “Giant robots, bandits, and murderers.”
And we took it from there.
