According to US Postal Service records, they delivered a priority mail letter to the offices of Ridan Publishing yesteday morning at 10:59 AM. That letter informed them of my decision to take back the rights to publish the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper series. Effective November 6, 2012, their license to publish my books expires.
That means at least three things.
One, I’m going to be tied up getting the books in shape to re-publish under my own brand. That means new covers, a new layout, and a scrub up on editing.
Two, I’m getting some other works out between now and then. Zypheria’s Call – book two of the Tanyth Fairport adventures – should be released to ebook this weekend–assuming I don’t lose too much more time to the distraction that is swirling around. I’ll have the paper version up as soon as I can get a clean galley proof out of CreateSpace and those will go out to all the normal paperback venues. The podcast version will be later still because Podiobooks only accepts completed works now. I’ll need to finish audio production entirely before I can ask Evo to release it. South Coast is on tap for the first Saturday in November and I should be able to get a more organized release of that.
Three, I’ve got editors and cover artists on tap but this isn’t going to be a slap-dash process. I’m going to work hard to get Captain’s Share out by Christmas, but it’s silly to publish book five when books one through four aren’t available. Honestly, I don’t think publishing seven books between now and the end of the year is even possible. While that sounds self-defeating, I’m trying to be realistic.
It may seem counter intuitive to spend time publishing South Coast. I’m doing that to buy some time. This is a book that is completely unencumbered by contractual agreements and I can proceed in good faith with delivering this story in print. It’s an olive branch to you, the fans, who’ve been so patient for so long. It’s something I can deliver.
Right now, delivering something seems more important than more delays in delivering anything. By the time the 30-day timer has expired, we’ll know more about what can/will happen after that.
Stay tuned. I’ll keep you posted.