Publishing – Sharon Lee, Writer

Yes, I know

Helpful people can stop writing to me to explain that Due Diligence has not yet published to the Baen website. It will appear there eventually and it’s not really worth getting your t-shirts in a twist over.

SO!

Let’s play a new game.

Why not write to me when Due Diligence is available on the Baen website? That way, those who like to check back often can continue to do so, and I don’t have to open a whole buncha emails telling me the same thing, of which I am already informed. Win-Win, as they say.

Everyone on for the new rules?

Cool.

Go!

Moving right along

OK! Due Diligence: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 24 by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller is available from most on-line retailers, and is publishing to the rest. It was, for a couple days, a Number One Amazon Bestseller, and has fallen today to Number Three. It has also garnered a surprising number of reviews — thanks to everyone who has taken the time!

Those who are just arriving at the party — there’s room for your review, too; if you are so moved.

Because there were So Very Many requests, Due Diligence will also, soon now, be available in paper, from Amazon. The reason it will not be available REALsoonnow, is that I made an error and have to fix it, as soon as Amazon stops doing something else that Amazon is doing with the file. O! Brave New World, that hath such golems in it!

In other news, there’s a small army of ducks between me and the work I really need to be doing, here, and the coon cats are not really much into duck hunting. Their advice is to curl up on the couch with a book and let the coon cats camouflage me as a Big Pile of Coon Cats. This is, I note, often their advice.

And that? Is all the news that’s fit to print.

. . .I do believe that I need more coffee. . .

Watch the Skies!

Due Diligence: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 24 has been published to the Usual Suspects (including but not limited to: Baen ebooks, Kobo, BN, Apple, Amazon) and will be available for sale as the Various Ghods of Indie Publishing will.

Novella “Due Diligence” is Lee & Miller’s 81st fiction collaboration.

Here’s the teaser:

When Clan Korval knows your name. . .

Abandoned on a strange port by a scam gone bad, his license to pilot rescinded, and his pockets very much to let, Fer Gun pen’Uldra was teetering between trouble, more trouble, and bad trouble. Cornered in a cheap bar by a too-knowledgeable stranger with an unlikely offer, Fer Gun realized having no money and no license might be the least of his troubles. Clan Korval knew his name and that proposal was hard to refuse. . .

And, just to refresh your memory, the cover:

Low rider don’t use no gas, now Low rider don’t drive too fast

Unrestful sleep full of the horrors of free hotel breakfasts (is it me or is there less and less food at free hotel breakfasts? Some of them have a big crockpot of oatmeal, and that’s fine; I can get by on a bowl of oatmeal. But others. . .Gah. Picky eater is picky.), interleaved with a roll call of absent friends. Not sure who elected these the topics of the evening, but the result is a head full of sticky thoughts this morning.

Well. There’s more coffee where this cup came from.

So, today’s to-do list:

~~Drink more coffee~~
~~Edit last night’s pages~~
Edit Due Diligence
Write teaser copy for Due Diligence
Write more words for Fifth of Five
Consider questions to put to the panelists of Writing the Series (How do you plan out a multi-books series? Well, there’s one question right there — free from Programming.).
~~Print out Characterization Rant~~ and practice on Belle (don’t laugh; Belle’s a tough audience. For one thing, she doesn’t care about writing or characters.). Belle’s busy right now; she’ll get back to me when her schedule’s clear.
~~Enpurple hair~~
~~Meditate~~

. . .that’s enough.

Today’s blog post brought to you by War, “Low Rider.” Here’s your link.

Oh. Yesterday, I did build a cover for Due Diligence. Have a look:

“That’s an extra-size lot of respectability you’re wanting,” he pointed out. “I did say we’re a House full of scoundrels.”

“You did. But I’ve no objection to scoundrels, being one myself.”

Everybody take a deep breath

No, we are NOT “ending the Liaden series” (or “killing the series” or “abandoning our readers” or “selling out”* or whatever other variation you like).

What We Are Doing Is This:

We are finishing the five-book arc which begins with Dragon in Exile (aka Dragon in Exile, Alliance of Equals, The Gathering Edge, Neogenesis, Fifth of Five (working title))
We are also finishing the 20-book arc** which begins with Agent of Change (aka Crystal Soldier, Crystal Dragon, Local Custom, Scout’s Progress, Mouse and Dragon, Agent of Change, Conflict of Honors, Carpe Diem, Plan B, I Dare, Fledgling, Saltation, Ghost Ship, Dragon Ship, Necessity’s Child, Dragon in Exile, Alliance of Equals, The Gathering Edge, Neogenesis, Fifth of Five (working title))
After Fifth of Five (working title) has been completed, Steve and I are under contract for five more Liaden novels in two chunks.
1. Chunk One, consisting of two novels bearing the working titles of Liaden Mask Book One, and Liaden Mask Book Two
2. Chunk Two, consisting of three novels bearing the working titles of Liaden Triple Threat Book One, Liaden Triple Threat Book Two, Liaden Triple Threat Book Three
3. No, we don’t know what any of those titles will be “about”. They will be Liaden Universe® novels, because the contracts so stipulate
It remains hard to write the last book in two arcs at once. Just so that’s clear.

I hope everyone is reassured now. Thank you for reading, and for being so invested in our work. . .

______
*This one is really hard to figure out. I thought that “selling out” means, um, taking a lot of money to do something questionable that would compromise one’s morals or good name. I could be wrong, here, but I think the key to “selling out” is, well, SELLING, not just. . .stopping.

**or the 22-book arc, if you’re of the opinion that the Jethri Gobelyn books are in the main arc. Not a 21-book arc. Innumerate writer is innumerate.

Monday morning round-up

We’ve had something of a busy few days here at the Confusion Factory.

Last week, Steve graduated from cardio-gym and is now on the Third Phase, which is going to the cardio-gym early on Monday and Wednesdays and doing what he’s been doing, with the same personnel on-staff, but without the various measurements at the beginning, middle, and end of the session. This means a change of schedule, including rising Much Earlier in the Day than I, personally, care to do, but that’s life. I’ll be going to gym around Steve’s schedule — Tuesdays and Thursdays in the early hours, with refinement of the afternoon and evening hours as we go forward. Since I have for all of my life been an evening/night writer, this may entail afternoon naps, which ought to please the cats.

In writing news, the page proofs for the Alliance of Equals mass market edition landed late last week, and have been added to the mix of Tasks to Be Done. Also! The first in a series of Lee-and-Miller Read Lee-and-Miller podcasts has been moved from Patreon to Splinter Universe LIVE. You can listen to Steve read “A Night at the Opera” at this link.

We’ll be posting more of these to SULIVE, as they age off of our Patreon page, so remember to check back.

We are also, in light of the. . .substantial number of emails we’ve gotten from people who either want paper chapbooks, or the Excitement of the Annual Yule Chapbook, or want a return to Olden Times. . .

We cannot any of us return to Olden Times, so that’s right out.

But we can, perhaps, accommodate the wish for paper chapbooks, and even, maybe, for the Annual Yule Chapbook.

So, we’re running an experiment. Amazon has a. . .program where those who have published ebooks with them may convert those ebooks into paper books. This is an expensive process, as Amazon takes 40% off the top of cover price, and then charges printing costs from the author/publisher’s 60% royalty. It’s also somewhat time-consuming, as is working with any template program that is based on Assumptions. However! With determination and enough wine, it can be done, as I proved this weekend by converting both Barnburner and Gunshy to paper books and putting them on sale. The reason we chose these titles to experiment on first is that they convert into 5X8 paperbacks, which is an easy convert (part of the test was to see how “easy” easy was). Based on my time and effort expended this weekend, we anticipate that converting to chapbook will be somewhat more time-consuming, though still doable.

We will, eventually, convert an actual Liaden chapbook, but that experiment has to wait in line behind work with a deadline attached.

For those interested, here’s the link to Barnburner. (Which Amazon has decided to discount, so it will be interesting to see how that affects our royalty rates from them.)

Here’s the link to Gunshy.

The downside to this, besides the expense, is that these books would only be available through Amazon, which is whimsical at the best of times and downright malicious at the worst.

So, there’s that.

For those who have been asking anxiously about progress on Fifth of Five. . .progress progresses, more slowly than I had anticipated, but picking steam up as the new meds kick in.

. . .and I think that catches us all up.

Everybody do your best to enjoy Monday, OK?

Let the coon cats lead the way.

Everything Upcoming!

We’ve had some queries about upcoming publications, and upcoming appearances, and, and — herewith an attempt to get them all in one place, for you, and for us. Please note that the list is probably not complete; it’s only as complete as far as we know, as of Right Now.

Upcoming Appearances
May 1: Ask Me Anything, Reddit, starting 12 noon
May 13: Meet ‘n Greet and book signing, Barnes and Noble, at 9 Market Place Drive, Augusta, Maine, from 1 – 3pm
August 4-6: Confluence, in Pittsburgh, Lee and Miller will be writer Guests of Honor
March 9-11, 2018: MidSouthCon, in Memphis, Lee and Miller, writer Guests of Honor

Upcoming Interviews
April edition of The Intergalactic Medicine Show: Lee and Miller interview, reprint story, and! sample chapter

Upcoming Publications
April 15 +/-: “Cutting Corners,” Baen.com
May 2: The Gathering Edge, hardcover, ebook, audiobook, Baen & Audible
June 6: “Wise Child,” in Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF, Volume 3, Baen
August: “Dawn’s Early Light,” in All Hail Our Robot Conquerors, Zombies Need Brains
December 15 +/-: Short Story, Baen.com
January 2, 2018: Neogenesis
TBA: “Excerpts from Two Lives,” in Ships of the Line, Baen

Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 23

Change Management: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 23, has been uploaded and is publishing (in the case of Amazon, has published) to Amazon, Baen ebooks, BN/Nook, Kobo, iBooks, 24Symbols, Page Foundry, Scribd, and Tolino, so expect to be able to purchase it from those vendors within the next 72 hours or so.

Here’s the blurb for the book:

Times are perilous, violence rife, and the future uncertain. Success and the survival of all you hold dear may hinge on how you manage change.

Some people advise that we “Embrace Change!” Other people realize that change has edges, and if you embrace it the wrong way, it may feel a lot more like a knife than a bromide when it touches your guts.

Here are two Lee and Miller stories set in the Liaden Universe®, “Street Cred,” original to this chapbook; and “Wise Child,” reprinted from Baen.com. Both stories deal with the complications arising from decisive change, and decisive Change Management at the point of peril.

Pinbeam Books on Sale at Baen

The last bundle of five Pinbeam Books titles has gone up for sale today at Baen ebooks. Here’s your link.

The November bundle includes:
Master Walk, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Surfside, Archers Beach #4, by Sharon Lee
The Gift of Magic, Archers Beach #5, by Sharon Lee
Spell Bound, Archers Beach #6, by Sharon Lee
TimeRags, by Steve Miller

You may also buy each title separately, if you prefer.

No mail today…

Where I live, today is Columbus Day (observed). Which means there’s no mail delivery. Two Sundays in one week is kinda harsh. . .

Today’s big news!

The second of three Pinbeam Book bundles is now available for purchase at Baen ebooks. The titles included in the October Bundle are: Endeavors of Will, Sharon Lee; Gunshy (the sequel to Barnburner), Sharon Lee; The Naming of Kinzel, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller; The Cat’s Job, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller; The Day They Brought the Bears to Belfast, Sharon Lee.

Here’s your link

. . .you may also buy each title separately from that link.

In other news, I seem to have caught Steve’s cold, so no gym for me today. Better luck tomorrow.

Today will be a writing day, commencing, as soon as I post this blog entry, with a session of sitting-on-the-couch-staring-at-nothing. I’m always amazed when people treat the “creative process” like some kind of cognitive mystery. All you have to do is stare at nothing, hard, until the bead of blood form on your forehead, and the backbrain has pity and forks over.

See? Easy.

So! Things are starting to heat up, in A Night in the Lonesome October. Somebody’s shown Bad Form, and somebody else is offended. The Things are getting restive, and the lines are confused. Not only that, but there’s a new fellow in the neighborhood, who is strangely determined to befriend Jack and Snuff; and the Great Detective is afoot.

# # #

“Yes, I am familiar with your candor, and the limits placed upon it. I will ask carefully, Translator. I would not unwittingly cause you pain.”