I got yet another request for paperbacks this morning, asking for a schedule. I left a reply on the comment itself – and also replied to the accompanying email but here’s what it looks like right now for publication schedule…
It takes about a month per title. I’m working on the paperback of Half Share now and should have it done by the end of the month.
Full Share in February
Double Share in March
Captain’s Share in April
I don’t have Owner’s Share back from the editor yet, but if I get it back in time I’ll publish that in ebook as soon as possible and paperback in May.
Then on to revise and re-release Ravenwood in June, Zypheria’s Call in July, and Hermit of Lammas Wood in August.
By then I should have South Coast back and will publish that in ebook as soon as possible and paperback in September.
The rest of the year will be recording audio for those books that don’t have it yet. The Tanyth Fairport stories – arguably much better – are suffering because they’ve not had the same exposure as Ishmael Wang has enjoyed. I need to fix that.
Hardcovers will have to wait until 2015.
My six book year will have to wait for a bit, too.
My plan is to approach publishing as my “day job” and see if I can carve an hour or two a day out of the schedule to actually write something new. There won’t be any 10,000 word days in there, but I might be able to get something written by mid summer for publication in the fall. If I can get those paperbacks out sooner, then of course, I will because that will be one huge load off my back.
Stay tuned.
Just wondering how different the print books will be from the podcasts. I’m on my third listen of the entire Solar Clipper series in three years and if the paperbacks are changed in significant ways I’ll definitely be buying them.
The stories are the same. The language is a little bit cleaner, a little bit clearer.
The audio and text have *always* been slightly different because of the dialog tags that I needed for audio, but not for text.
These new releases are much closer to the original than the other ones. I took the liberty of un-doing some of the improvements I didn’t agree with.
I also cleaned up some continuity errors. 🙂
While I look forward to having your books in dead tree versions, I still find it rude that some folks are demanding them. I’d rather see a balance between writing and publishing in e and dead tree.
But that’s me.
Maybe the focus on dead tree will help you find some tricks to help speed up the process so it isn’t so onerous?
Doc
I’ve already found a couple, Doc.
A couple more and I’ll be done 🙂
Just a short note of gratitude/praise/or whatever to say how much I enjoy your work. For a long while I’ve been a heat sync for you podcasts and writings – just enjoying and not saying anything. Guess the highest praise one can offer an author is to buy his works, but maybe better is to buy and also acknowledge the satisfaction and enjoyment I get from them. So here I am having just completed the Hermit and feeling somewhat itchy, not having another to grab and read. I know creativity is a muse, and good story telling requires time, but write more, soon….. 🙂
I feel like a cave man sitting around the fire waiting for the Shawman to put a log on the fire and start spinning his next set of verses. ….. Might be nice to have a mug of that Lammas Wood cider while I wait!
Love your work. Have you seen what your used paperbacks are selling for? Wow ! I have no idea how your revenue streams work but from content that you could listen to for free to someone trying to sell a used paperback for a $100. I get that if you publish more it should level the playing field but that is kind of disturbing. I own the e books and look forward to additional adventures!
That’s only what they’re asking for the used paperbacks.
Not what they’re getting for the used paperbacks.
If it were, I’d be selling a LOT more paperbacks 🙂
I agree with you but the price is likely somewhere in the middle or close to 2/3rds that price. Someone or many people have driven that price up. Does it make financial sense to publish books in paperback still? It seems like a dieing industry. My grandma is 90 and she reads off of a kindle.
I agree with the others that you are the captain and while you get all your ducks in row we will do other things. However, it just seems like you want to write new material and we want to read new material (and pay for it!).
Hope all is well and keep doing what you love!
I’m just curious as to what exactly you have to do with getting the paper books out, Ive got Quarter, Half, Full and Double in paper…so shouldn’t they already be good to go for paper?
Mac, I had to go through and put the books back the way they should have been.
Ridan convinced me to make changes to the stories that I didn’t agree with.
The Lois McKendrick is not twenty kilometer’s long, for example. There are a lot of those that are not so noticeable but which muddy the stories. I’m taking the opportunity to make ’em right again.
Any thought given to providing updates to the ebooks for the folks that have the copies with the Ridan changes, so we can see the books as you intended them to be?
I’m not sure you’d notice the difference, Mike. I’ll send you a copy of the latest .mobi if you want.
I don’t know how big the differences are from the Ridan versions, of which I have all, but perhaps at some point a bundle for those of us who have them could be made available? I’d gladly pay for the updated and corrected versions, but a _slight_ deal on them would allow me to justify it to my internal auditor. If it’s more hassle and work for you, however, or it would slow down the wait for OS, then instead I’ll slap the auditor upside the head and just go buy them. 🙂
We can probably work something out, Charlie. 🙂
After Owner’s Share eventually comes out in paperback, any chance of putting together a “boxed set” of all six of the “Share” novels, in one package ?
It’s possible, but I don’t know how that actually works in Amazon. I’ve been asking around to see if anybody has a lead on the boxes that would be required. I could always buy the boxes and ship some books to my house to load them up. I’m guessing boxed sets of paperbacks would be too expensive to be worth it.
It’s also possible that I might offer a six-book paperback bundle (without an actual box) from my website rather than on Amazon. We’re talking about sometime in 2015 before any of that’s going to happen, though.
Ebooks get bundled all the time, but I’m not likely to bundle all six books that way. It’s more likely that I’d bundle three and three.
Nathan,
When Dale Kraemer said box set, I thought it meant combining all of the books into one set electronically and charging more. Like I bought a “boxed” set that was electronic but a compilation of different books, one being Ravenwood. It was sort of an introduction to different authors.
I always enjoy your work. I’ve had a number of health problems over the last few years and your podcasts, books and short stories have provided hours of entertainment and distraction that helped me keep positive.
Thank you for your work and as always I look forward to further enjoyment of your continued efforts.