Category: Publishing

In which there are announcements

So, the next Liaden novel — Fifth of Five/Accepting the Lance.  After after close consultation with the characters, and of course the cats, Steve and I have spoken with Madame the Agent and  Madame the Publisher, and — we have agreed upon a January 2019 delivery date*.

Madame the Publisher allows us to know that the thirtieth anniversary edition of Agent of Change will be on sale on October 30, 2018.  We will be speaking with Mr. Blyly to find if he thinks the Uncle will find it possible to take pre-orders for signed copies of that edition.

Madame also lets us know that A Liaden Universe® Constellation: Volume Four has been penciled into the schedule for Summer 2019.

In not unrelated news, we have consulted with our bank account and our qe’andra and — we will not be attending WorldCon this year.

We will instead be badgering the contractors of Central Maine to paint and do small repairs at the Old Digs so that it can be shown and (we hope speedily) sold.

Steve and I apologize for being the authors of these inconveniences, but — necessity is.

In new house news, we have today put the rug down in the living room, signifying — something.  Probably, boredom with having to dodge around it’s rolled up bulk every time we wanted to open the side windows.

Scrabble celebrated The Event with a dance composed for the occasion:

Here’s a picture of the whole rug, with the Mencken table and the sofa:

Everybody have a good weekend.

__________________

*This is a delivery date, not a publication date.  “Delivery date” is when we turn the finished manuscript into Madame the Publisher.

Legacy Systems published in paper

Legacy Systems: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 19, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, including short stories “Intelligent Design” and “The Space at Tinsori Light” is now available in paper!

Here’s your link.

Once again, I am converting the older echapbooks into paper books as time permits, so progress will be slow and erratic. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Book Day!

Degrees of Separation: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 27! is officially released today.

You may purchase it at all of the usual ebook outlets.  Those who fancy paper, may purchase a paperback copy at Amazon.

A special thank you to the 730-ish folks who preordered, thereby assisting with our experiment.  For Science!

I spent the weekend going through Fifth of Five, moving scenes, removing scenes, rewriting scenes — which is not as easy as it sounds.  Still got a bit of that to finish up, and then we can see where we are.

Everybody stay warm.

 

Degrees of Separation paperback now available!

As the title of the post strongly implies, you may now order the paper edition of Degrees of Separation: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 27, from Amazon only.

Here’s the link.

The ebook edition of Degrees. . . continues to be available for pre-order from these vendors:  Amazon , BN, iBooks, Kobo, and Tolino.

On January 15 (that’s Monday!) the ebook will go “on sale” at the above stores, and also at Baen ebooks.

Here’s a picture of the paperback edition:

 

In Which Royalty Statements Have Landed

So, we got the January-June 2017 royalty statements yesterday.

Royalty statements always make for fascinating study — for values of “fascinating” that will make the eyes of any non-writer quickly glaze over.

The take-away from this batch of statements is that Dragon in Exile (June 2015) really did sell  (relatively) poorly.  No clue why, of course — bad title, unconvincing art, civil war, poor reviews, people were off dragons that year. . .could be anything.  For comparison, Alliance of Equals (July 2016) — the numbers for which we see for the first time in this batch of statements — sold more copies in its initial period than DiE has sold in its entire life.  Hmm.

We also see that DiE sold a total of 447 eArcs, while Alliance sold 1,678.  I do wonder if there’s a correlation between eArcs sold and first period sales, and how you’d go about measuring that. . .

The other really fascinating thing we learn from these royalty statements is that we’re selling the heck out of ebooks.  I think I first noticed in Mouse and Dragon’s initial period that the ebook sales had pushed it over the top — from break-even to royalty-earning — and that pattern seems to be holding for all subsequent titles.

For Sharon Lee titles — Carousel Tides, Carousel Sun, Carousel Seas — the pattern holds, but at a much more modest growth rate than the Liaden books.  Tides and Sun have earned out; Seas still owes the house money, though I expect it will earn out in another year or two.

So, anyway — now you know what I spent a chunk of my day on yesterday.

This morning, we took Steve to the dental surgeon for the last bit of that business.  We now move back to the reconstructive folks and hopefully this whole adventure will be behind him-and-us this year!  Maybe even before WorldCon.

Wow, wouldn’t that be something?

After the dentist, we stopped at the Barnes and Noble, since we were in Augusta, anyway, and signed stock, including eight! copies of Neogenesis, and after that?

We went for a ride — just a short ride, down to Lewiston and back up through Farmington.  Which reminds me that I have to look up where Wales, Maine, happens to lie.

This afternoon, I have a nap penciled in, then it’s back to Fifth of Five, until — Saturday, actually.  Some series of errors has conspired for an appointment-free day tomorrow.  Which is good, because next week is solid appointments.

And that?  Is all I’ve got.

Well, no.  I also have a picture of Belle, resting with her buddy, the rag tiger.

Back to work

So, three days of work essentially lost, which means I’ve gotta Write Like a Sonofagun.  Which I’ve been doing.  I’m just back from lunch, and thought I’d catch y’all back up before I got to work again.

Degrees of Separation: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 27 ebook edition is available for preorder at the following online vendors:  Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, Tolino.

Degrees will publish on January 15.  On that date (on the US timeline), you will be able to buy an ebook edition from all of the vendors listed above, and from Baen eBooks.  The paper edition ought to be available on January 15, as well, but if not then, very soon after.

Degrees is the prequel to “Block Party,” which you may read, for free, on Baen.com.  Here’s your link.

Neogenesis, the 21st novel set in the Liaden Universe® created by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, was officially released as hardcover, ebook, and audiobook on January 2.  If you read the book, please consider putting a reader review up on Amazon, BN, or another review venue.

No, I do not have a publication date for Fifth of Five, but a good guess would be: between six and 14 months after Steve and I turn it in to Madame the Publisher, which!  We haven’t done yet.

A couple months ago, I had to stop drinking coffee.  This is of course a tragedy, but with the help of kind friends, I have been able to locate several teas which will deliver the miracle of caffeine into my system.  My morning drug of choice is Irish Breakfast Tea.  In the afternoon, I sometimes have a cup of vanilla chai, which is pleasant, but I also like green tea in the afternoon.

Early in the week, Steve brought me news of Zhena’s Teas — a must-see, as I’m sure you’ll agree.  I went online to look at them, and found the! perfect! green tea for my needs, which arrived today — and here’s a picture:

For those who follow the Cat Farm’s Snow Removal Protocols:  We had a “snow hurricane” on Thursday, which deposited about 17 inches of snow that I could not shovel (see back spasms), and which Steve could not shovel (see cardiomyopathy), and which the plowguy could not shovel (see three dozen customers needing to be plowed out and the limited number of hours in the day).

The plowguy, however, had a solution.  “I know a guy,” he said.  “I’ll get him down here.”

And so it is that, in addition to a lawnguy, and a plowguy, we now have a shovelguy.  Which is actually something of a relief.

It’s also good to know that the I-Know-A-Guy Network is still operational, at least in our part of Central Maine.

And that?  Catches us up for the day.  Back to work I go.

_________
*Yes, I know I have not provided links for Apple and Tolino; that’s because I have heard news of availability from third parties, but have not been able to locate the books on those two services myself.  If someone will supply me with links, I’ll be happy to amend the post.

Thanks to Susan for providing the iBooks link!

Thanks, also, to Estara Swanberg for the Tolino link!

And to Marion, for the explanatory Tolino links.  Who knew?

 

Preorder Links and? We have Weather

So, after an email exchange a couple nights ago, the Nook Team magically invested me with the ability to publish books for pre-order, with the result that you — yes, you! — can now preorder the electronic edition of Degrees of Separation: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 27 from BN/Nook Books ,  from Amazon/Kindle, from Kobo, and (this is according to rumor, only) at Apple.

I made an attempt to get Amazon to help me put the paper book on pre-order, but! It turns out that it never occurred to them that someone might want to do Such An Outrageous Thing, so!  The idea is being remanded to the Team, and no paper pre-orders for this title.  I’ll do my best to make sure that it is available for sale on January 15.  Baen ebooks will have the book for sale in electronic edition on January 15, as well.

Speaking of links and Amazon. . .Several people have written, and posted here and there on-line that there Is! No! Kindle! Edition of Neogenesis available — they are variously made sad, bewildered, and angry by this, which is kind of a shame, because!

There is a Kindle edition of  Neogenesis.  Here’s your link. You will note that, while this page lists both the ebook and the Audible editions of the book there is no hardcover listed — but fear not!  This does not mean that there was no hardcover published, it only means that the hardcover sits in lonely splendor on its own catalog page. I hope this makes everybody happy — and, no, I don’t know why Amazon has not been able to merge both catalog pages.  ‘WAY above my pay scale.

Here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory, we are experiencing Weather,  In particular, a blizzard (or, if you prefer a bombogenesis, aka a “snow hurricane”), which is expected to dump 11 to 14 inches of snow before it decamps, early tomorrow morning.

Related to this, yesterday, I acquired back spasms as one does, especially if one had the experience of going head-first through the windshield of an automobile at the tender age of 23.  Yesterday was fairly well a waste; while I waited for it to be time to see the doctor at 4:45 pm.  Received blessed muscle relaxants and have been Taking Them As Directed since last evening.  Back still hurts, but has eased back to a 5 on the 1-10 pain scale.  For comparison, yesterday was a 12.

The plowguy — all hail the plowguy! — will be clearing our steps and porch and the so-called “front” steps, too, in addition to plowing the driveway, so that, at least, is taken care of.

I think this more or less catches us up, and it occurs to me that it might be prudent to go seek my heating pad again, though standing at my desk is a remarkably pain-free posture.

Everybody, stay happy.

NEOGENESIS Official Release Day

Today is the day that Neogenesis, the twenty-first novel in the Liaden Universe® created and curated by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller is published in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook editions.  The novel is available at all major bookstores, brick and mortar, as well as on-line booksellers.

Go thou forth, buy, and, if it pleaseth you, read.