My webmaster reminds me to put a post up every single week.
Too frequently of late, I’ve let that reminder go begging. It’s been two months since I posted on this blog so let me catch you all up.
I’m clearing away the Gredok story — The Gangster. It was due in February and it’s taking what little effort I can apply right now to get it finished up and moved over to Dark Overlord for editing and revisions. I should be done with it this week.
So anyway. There is some good news and some bad news.
The bad news
I’m nearly blind. Literally.
I have zero vision in my right eye and my left eye is about 70% occluded with cataracts. It makes it stupidly difficult and frustrating to deal with writing because I can’t find the cursor on my screen. Copy editing has been all but impossible because I can’t tell the difference between a comma and a period, between a quote and an apostrophe. Luckily I know a lot of accessibility tricks, but they’re time consuming and knowing them is a far cry from being fluent in their application. Everything — including this post — takes twice as long. At least.
The good news
I’m getting it fixed.
Last week I visited with the eye surgeon and next week I’ll have the first of two surgeries to correct my vision. He’s repairing the right eye first and we’ll go back for the left on the 20th.
That should be the end of my major medical trials. I finished up the dental issues a couple of weeks ago and, with my sight restored, I hope I’m going to get back on the production train.
At the end of the month we’ll have a house full of company visiting to celebrate my elder daughter’s graduation from high school — assuming she does, in fact, graduate. That will not be conducive to new work, but should be fine for applying the copy edits for Captain’s Share. I can sneak in a few hours of work between family hours.
It’s been a long road since November. I had high hopes that I’d be re-issuing the books within a few weeks and have the series complete by the end of the first quarter. Yeah. So much for that plan.
The Current Plan
When I get The Gangster off my plate, I’ll be re-publishing Double Share and then releasing Captain’s Share to text for the first time. While that’s happening, I’m getting Owner’s Share through the editing process, but it’s a huge book and I have no idea how long that will take.
My goal is to get Double and Captain out by the end of May…which my calendar assures me starts tomorrow.
Yikes.
I will get Owner’s Share out just as soon as possible because you’ve been patiently waiting for the print for way too long. I’ve learned enough about editing and publishing to know that it won’t be perfect–no matter how many editors I hire or how much time I spend on it. My goal is to make it as good as I can within a reasonable time frame. If the other two books get off my desk by the end of May, I’ll be shooting for the final volume of the Trader’s Tales to be out by the end of June.
After that I have only South Coast to produce in July and that will be the last of the completed works published.
Then I’ll release all the books in epub format and get the paperbacks (and hardcovers) in production. I’m focusing on Kindle as the first pass because that’s 95% of my market in one upload.
A half-dozen or so of you have begged me to publish on B&N so I’ll also be uploading there for you folks and starting up the Kobo store to start building international sales.
I will not be uploading to Smashwords, Apple, or Google books. At least not directly. Several colleagues have recommended a service that supports some of these fringe markets. I’ll be looking at that after I’ve finished initial release of all the works that I have completed and before I start writing the new books. That will put every completed work out in all the text formats.
New books – Cape Grace and The Hermit of Lammas Wood – are on my schedule for the second half of the year.
If I can get all that done by year end, it’ll be far short of what I wanted to do, but will clear out the backlog of everything I’ve got currently on the big white board beside my desk.
Sorry for not keeping you updated more. I do post on the other blogs — Solar Clipper and Lammas Wood — and you can get an almost daily update from me at Talking on My Morning Walk. Even that has had problems lately as I wrestle with a new flare up of arthritis that prevents me from walking as often as I would like.
That’s about all the news for now. Next time you hear from me, it should be the re-release of Double Share.
Fingers crossed.
Thank you so much for the update. Prayers and good thoughts to you on your journey through these challenges.
I’ve heard, from several who’ve had it done, that the cataract surgery is a “piece of cake” and that the results are immediately positive.
Just sayin’. It sounds like you’re due for some “piece of cake”. 🙂
Nathan, My granny got the same sort of surgeries done recently and she’s in her 90’s. One didn’t go exactly as planned because she had waited literally YEARS too long to have it done. The other was much better and, although her glasses look like coke-bottle-bottoms, she can see really well again which has been a huge blessing.
Trust Lois. 😉
-C
Thanks for the update and I wish you all the best for getting through the remaining health issues. Thank you so much again for the great books (I just finished listening to the Trader Tales series again and I fell in love all over).
Since I no longer regularly listen to your podcast I had been wondering how things were going with you. I’m very sorry to hear of your vision problems, but it sounds as though you’ve got that area well organised.
All the best for the forthcoming operations and hoping that all your plans go well after that. Looking forward to the new work being released later in the year.
Best wishes on the cataract surgery. My dad got that done 10-15 years ago, and said he was seeing better afterwards than he ever remembered seeing before.
Great to hear you’re on the side to better wellness. Best wishes and smooth writing!
Thanks for the update, Nathan. I stop by TOMMW every so often and see what i can guess from the comments, but 20 minutes a day is a huge investment of time that i can’t often indulge myself with.
Hope everything works out with the surgery – and I’m very much looking forward to the new works.
Wow!
I can’t imagine how frustrating and nerve-wracking it would be to lose my sight as a reader, much less an author!
I’m very glad to hear you’re on the mend and you’ve got my Lammas Woods and Ishmael sales whenever you put them up, soon or late… Health definitely comes first! Family next, of course, and the rest can be juggled…
Thanks, Geoff.
It’s been pretty rough – and at probably the worst time. I *really* needed to get those first books turned around more quickly so I could have Owner’s Share coming out now. As it is, I’m behind on my own contractual obligations and struggling to rebuild the momentum.
It’s coming. I’ve written nearly 30k words in the last week or so and should have the Gangster over to Dark Overlord by the time I go in for surgery Monday morning.
I am glad you are coming out of the storm of troubles, and hope you have smooth sailing for long time. My daughter was born late last year, and I hope someday we will both be waiting for your next book to be released.
Are you going to sell the epub books on your site?
I’m planning on it, but I’m looking at what the states/feds are going to do about internet sales tax.
I’ve been convinced to publish all of them on B&N and Kobo and use a third party service for the fringe markets like iBooks.
I had to get cataract surgery way back in 1996 when I was only 46 years old. I was totally blind in my right eye and only about 50% blind in my left when I discovered it accidently while driving home after work(not the best time to discover being blind on the right side) Now, I no longer wear glasses-vision used to be about 20/400-and vision is still 20/20 in both eyes 17 years later. So why did you wait so long? Cataracts are easy to fix(were easy 17 years ago, I imagine easier today)
But I have 2 questions. Amazon.com goes to the page selling your books(kindle) when asked about the books captains and owners share, but neither book is actually listed. Meanwhile, I noticed Full Share listed as a “new book” just published in 2013, but you already published that in ebook format back in 2011., Whats next, a rerelease of Double Share, published as an ebook in 2012?
So what is the holdup on Captains share and Owners share.
Am unable, due to total hearing loss to listen to those books on audio(which is where I discovered quarter share) because my hearing loss is permanent and unfixable. Damn but I miss hearing birds singing.
And, those books are out of print so am unable to buy them. Can you give me any idea when the last 2 books in the series will become available on kindle?
@Timr. When I dropped Ridan as my publisher, I had to re-release all the books under my own imprint. Because of the publisher change, it’s considered a new edition so it gets a new date. So far I’ve got Quarter Share, Half Share, and Full Share done and up for ebook on Amazon. I’ve got Double Share and Captain’s Share edited but I need to incorporate those editing changes, then format and publish. Captain’s Share is out for first pass editing now and that’ll be a few weeks (at a minimum) before it’s ready to go. I’ve got a contractual obligation to clear away before I can get back to work on my own stuff…and it’s taking me *forever* to get it done.
As for the cataracts, they came on pretty quickly — over about a year’s period. I was diagnosed a couple years ago, but the occlusion wasn’t significant until relatively recently. When my vision started failing, it went quickly.
Sorry to hear about all the health issues Nathan. I hope the eye surgery comes out 100%. I will wait patiently for the rest of the Share books in the Kindle series. Best Wishes…
Best wishes on the surgeries, hope they go well. Take care of yourself. Give the book writing and editing the priorities of what is important to you, not to us readers. We would all love the books to all come out tomorrow but will read them whenever they are ready. Your health and your family come first.
First Let me say Thank you for Your service to our Country. I really enjoy your works. I think I have read or listened to them all. They are so easy to read and enjoy, I feel that I am right there on the Deck of of the ship or walking in the woods and can hear the birds.
Thanks for the hours of enjoyment you have given me.
I want you to know that you are in my thoughts and Prayers, I wish you well.
When you are rested and restored I look forward to more of your stories. You are a masterful story teller and keep it real. those are the best.
Look forward to your future works and I think that Mr. Wang has more jumps in him if you let him!
I am proud of you for putting up with my nagging despite it all 🙂
– Ye olde WebMaster
Love your work, Nathan. I have all the books on audio and listen to them constantly. Your writing had given me the courage to write and publish (for free) my little stories and to continue writing.
Your descriptions of the scenes with the facial expressions, and all the little nuances that make up life brings all your characters to life. As I read or listen, my “brain stage” creates the scene and action in my minds eye very vividly because of your excellence. All of your scenes are rich in color and texture.
Get well soon.
Hi Nathan! I am sorry to hear about your vision. You are one of my favorite authors. Your books are by far the best compared to the other audio books I listen to. I get tired of them and have to go back and listen to your audio books and they are still great to listen to over again. Can’t wait til you get better to do more writing and audio. I will keep you in my prayers.
Have been looking forward reading Captains Share and Owners Share to see where the deep dark takes me.
Have had the surgery that you are going to have, piece of cake.
All The Best to you
It’s now June and no sign of Captains. You’ve now lost a customer because of promises you repeatedly have failed to meet.
fair enough. thanks for your support so far.
safe voyage.
Get over it! Let’s see how well you’d do if your vision took a sudden dive and you had arthritis bedeviling you! YOU’RE the one losing if you cut yourself off from Nathan’s books. I, for one, care that Nathan is taking care of his health , and will enjoy his books when they come out!
Can’t wait for The Gangster! It seems you have extremely good reasons for your scheduling problems and I hope no one is giving you grief. I hope your surgeries go/went well (i think I’m posting this rather later on so I’m not certian if they are passed yet). I must say I far prefer iBooks (Apple’s book reader) to the Kindle app for my iPhone. I don’t know enough about buying from other sources and transferring them over so it might work out at some point. And I might buy them anyway just to support you. 🙂 If any of the formats available outside the kindle store are .epub that’s what iBooks uses. I’ve book from Scott Sigler for his GFL series and he hands out .epub and .mobi formats and the .epub goes into my iBooks without a hitch. I’ll keep a look out for your books. 😀
Thanks, Megan.
Surgeries are over. Eyes are healing.
We’ll have epubs available .. eventually 🙂
So correct me if I’m wrong but I was under the impression that Amazon published in epub format, so wouldn’t they have to be in that before you could send anything to them?
Anywho, I’ve really enjoy all of the solar Clipper books so far, I don’t know why people have been so gripey about how long it’s taken, I was a little but then I looked at other authors and put it all in perspective.
I pray you heal up well (just had a friend from church go through a similar surgery to the one you had) and get back on your feet quickly. God Bless you and yours 🙂
Yeah. The kindle version starts with an epub. Getting that ready for other places is not a big time sink…but it’s also not exactly trivial because of the way each portal operates. When I have the whole set, I’ll be able to roll all of them in all at once and make that even less of an issue.
It’ll also mean they’ll probably be a little cleaner as I’m correcting the epub as people sent me typo reports.
I realize that for those of you who are either anti-Amazon or pro-epub, this is a major pain in the buttocks and seems arbitrary on my part. From my perspective, the sales history on these alternate formats is about 1 to 50. For every one unit I sold in all the other (non Amazon) formats combined, I sell fifty on Kindle. I also realize that part of the problem there was the way Ridan released on Barnes and Noble or Smashwords. That single factor is the only thing causing me to even consider other formats.
Note: In addition to Amazon, I’ll be releasing on B&N, Kobo, and perhaps Draft2Digital for those of you who use the iBook store.
BUT .. the biggest obstacle right now is that I’m in default on this contract and I owe those people to get this story out *first*
1) So very glad you can read this! 8D
2) Death in the family, then health issues. The parallel to Riden is eerie. Please make *your* next step “back to publishing”, I’ve got cash for you when you do 😉
Yeah. It’s a bit odd … the parallels. Now if I can just *stop* the parallels, we’ll be in good shape.
Just stopping in and wishing you a speedy and smooth recovery, Nathan. It’s been a while since I had the chance to stop in and check-up on your self-publishing efforts; a few of us were chatting at Balticon and your recent bout of health challenges were mentioned after someone commented that they were surprised that you didn’t attend this year. I’m very happy that your surgeries are over and you are healing nicely. Sending along additional positive thoughts and well-wishes to help you on your rapid journey back to full health, Sir.
Thanks, Scott.
It wasn’t my health that kept me from BaltiCon this year. It was my daughter’s graduation from high school on Saturday morning.
Some things just take priority.
I’ll be there next year … and the year after that … but then I’ll probably miss a year for another graduation. 🙂
Looking back at the dates on this thread, that makes sense. 😀
Totally understand about priorities… I almost didn’t make it myself. I only solidified my plans for it a couple weeks before.
A big congrats to your daughter for that milestone.
Looking forward to seeing you next year.
I live in Australia and recently found your podcasts of Trader Tales on itunes and just wanted you to know how much I enjoy listening to your voice giving so much depth to your characters. I find your universe really easy to believe in and half expect to be able to book passage on a fast packet from here to there, I just need a few more creds… I absolutely love your writing. Yes its the small detail that gives life to your imaginings, like the closeness of family and friends, its the minutiae of daily living that keeps our network of intimates close and you get that and tell it. Captain Ishmael H Wang is such a likeable, honourable person I feel I know and like him (and therefore you), and I want to know what happens next… He has to continue to ride the solar winds, and be in the deep dark but does he sell the Lois? Oh I’m totally, selfishly hooked! And now I discover you have a life and are yet to give voice to further Tales! Not only that but you are human enough to have health issues! Good grief! Where’s your whelkie? It ought to be able to smooth your passage through Life’s rough waters, surely? I wish you increasing good health and a life full of love and triumph. You so deserve it. Very warm regards from down-under. Fair winds and smooth sailing, Captain.
Nathan,
I discovered your work a bit more than a year ago and was instantly hooked. I read a lot of self published material and in light of the quality of the editing in some of it…… I appreciate your attention to detail! your work is well edited, and flows from chapter to chapter. don’t sacrifice quality for quantity. Just my opinion but I am willing to wait a bit to read a well edited piece of work.
I looked you up to see when the next book was coming out. I cannot for the life of me understand why some people do not realize that stuff happens in a person’s life that causes barriers to achieve certain goals. Your health is far more important than a publishing date.
What I do want t know is why you publish your books in the size that you do. It truly makes it difficult to hold at 2am when I cannot sleep and the normal paper back size works so much easier. Why the size choice?
Soon, I hope, Steven.
As for the paperback size … I assume you’re referring to the “mass market paperback” (the little six inch tall one) when you mean “normal paper back size.”
Unfortunately that’s not a format I can get my books printed in. I went with 6×9 because it cuts a dollar per unit off the price over the next smaller size (which is 5.5 x 8, if I remember). In terms of holding it, it’s not that much difference between the two so I went for the larger format because it means more words per page – and fewer pages – which means lower prices for people who still buy paper.
I don’t have any problem holding my ereader so the paperback size isn’t an issue for me 🙂
Hope all is going well with your recovery. As with all of your Solar Clipper fans I am anxious for the release of Captains Share and Owners Share but understand how important getting healthy is. Wishing you the best and at our age hoping you get as close 100 percent as possible.. Thanks for your amazing work Captain….
I am impressed with how you are keeping folks updated even with all the challenges and deadlines you face. I hope the medical procedures continue to succeed.
I am delighted to hear you are going to put Captain’s Share and Owner’s Share out in Nook format, as
though I am able to read in any of the formats, I usually llke to get books in Barnes & Noble’s store.
Best wishes for every recovery, smooth business, and great fun in writing.
best, Robert
EXcuse my O.C.D. however is there someplace or site I can go to to get a list of books being released.
For example, Captain’s Share will be released on July 25, 2013. Thank you
The Production Schedule (such as it is) lives on the Solar Clipper Diary.
I just realized that it’s still showing last year’s data so I’ve updated it for what I know.
If you want to know exactly when a book is out, the best thing is to subscribe to the email notices list. I’ll post there when I release a book.
My experience for predicting releases in the future is that “I suck at predicted releases in the future.” Rather than tell you when the book will be available, the best I can reliably commit to is to you that the book is available when it actually is.