Today is entering the corrections into the manuscript of The Gate that Locks the Tree, destined to become Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 30. As I open the manuscript, it is 16,200 words thick — that is, according to SFWA, a novelette.
The cover price for our last chapbook, Shout of Honor, Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 29 was (and is) $4.25 for ebook; $8.00 for paper. We anticipate no increases in cover prices at this time.
There is a better than 50% chance that this title will be collected at some point, into Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume Five, if Baen is willing.
There has lately been some confusion about the honor of authors and the requirements of readers.
I will attempt to clarify.
RE AUTHORS:
There is no dishonor in publishing our own stories independently; we’ve been doing it since 1997 (this time).
There is no dishonor in our charging such cover price as we find good.
There is no dishonor in selling reprint rights so that a publisher may bring X-number of indie-pubbed stories into a “collected works” edition.
There is, in fact, no dishonor in trading the products of our skill for money. That’s what authors do.
RE READERS:
There is no dishonor in purchasing books, for whatever reasons seem good to you.
There is no dishonor in declining to purchase a book for whatever reasons seem good to you.
There is no dishonor in waiting for the collection.
There is no dishonor in not caring to read shorter works.
RE THE CONTRACT BETWEEN AUTHOR AND READER:
The authors put the stories out there, as an opportunity to readers.
Readers decide whether and when they wish to take advantage of this opportunity.
I hope this helps.
And now — to work! See y’all on the flipside.
I’m glad in this day and age it’s an option authors have to publish things of different sizes as they wish with more ease than ever before, and I can purchase and zap the ebook to my dad a thousand miles away. We’re living in the future.
RE YOUR POSITION PAPER ABOVE: AMEN!
What is this honor/dishonor stuff? Has someone suggested that getting paid for your hard work is dishonorable? Fuck that nonsense (sorry for the vulgar phrasing.)
We have been Informed that selling — or offering to sell — a story more than once is “immoral.”
No, I don’t get it either. In my world, a story that sells multiple times is called “the gift that keeps on giving.”
We do indeed Live in the Future.
Some days that’s scarier than others, but I do so love the way electronic submissions give us get 10 “extra” writing days, over mail-in submissions.
Whoopee!
I love anything you put out. I don’t support patron (sp) but do buy your chap books as e-books. I buy you e-arc’s and each book as it is published. I didn’t discover your books tell three years ago with Fledgling so have gone back and purchased used hard back copies of things published between Fledgling and Dragon in Exile. At that point I started buying each new books as it was published. I have purchased everything else in paperback including the Collections. I reread so having multiple copies of things for me is a bonus. I am really looking forward to the next chap book.
Whatever an author writes should be sold as many times as possible unless the contract specifies exclusive rights. The more it is sold the better opportunities the authors have to write more with perhaps a bit less time pressure to produce regardless of satisfaction with the final product.
Sam
I eagerly await the new story and am happy to buy it in its electronic version, its physical dead tree version and the collected version too, when that becomes available. Write on and entertain our days. All honor to you.
Anne in Virginia
I read ’em faster’n you can write ’em, so as long as you keep on producing, I’ll keep on buying!
I eagerly await the new story.
I am baffled by confusion over such issues as you mentioned.
Huzzah! Yes, that is the generally accepted contract.
RE: We have been Informed that selling — or offering to sell — a story more than once is “immoral.”
Uh, haven’t musicians been doing this since recording began? Grateful Dead are masters at this & the variations are often wonderful! But I digress…
Perhaps the “Informers” could just get over themselves! All they accomplish is distraction from getting on with the writin’! Now who’s “immoral”?!