Category: Publishing

Reminder, Explanation, Tour Schedule Update

Frequent auditors of this journal will recall that Lee and Miller will be embarking in the near future on a book tour.  The complete tour schedule is reproduced at the end of this blog entry, for your convenience.

PLEASE NOTE that we have added one more stop, in Maine, at the end of the tour.  We’ll be signing, reading, talking and doing who knows what other crazy things at Books-a-Million on Sunday, November 17, from 2-4 p.m.

Please feel free to distribute the schedule below wherever it may be of interest.

* * *

I’d like to take just a moment to clarify something about the book tour.  The tour is in support of a few things: Lee & Miller, the Liaden Universe®, Baen — but it is in Direct Support of Trade Secret, the 17th novel in the Liaden Universe® which, yes, is scheduled to be “published” on November 5.

There seems to be a little bit of confusion regarding this word “published,”  which more correctly ought to be rendered, “available in bookstores.”

See, the books have already been “published,” which in this usage means “printed.”  We know this because Steve and I received our authors’ copies a week or so ago.  This means that, even now, there are Trade Secrets in the S&S warehouse, and Trade Secrets on their way to distributors, and Trade Secrets directly on their way to bookstores. . .

. . .and Trade Secrets on their way, via the Sekrit Publicist Underground, directly to all of the stores where we will be signing, and! to the nice folks who will be escorting us during the various stages of our tour.

Which is the long way of saying that, Yes, Trade Secret will be on hand at our signings — even those signings that happen before November 5 — and if you come to one of our signings, you will be able to buy a book and see us sign it for you in front of your very eyes.

Which, you gotta admit, is kind of cool.

* * *

One more reminder — “Out of True,” a Liaden Universe® short story will be available to read for! free! on the Baen front page, starting. . .call it mid-day, Eastern Daylight Time, on Tuesday, October 15.  You will have to scroll down a bit (fiction on the Baen front page is published, as we used to say in the newspaper biz, “below the fold”) to find it.

* * *

The Official Lee and Miller Book Tour Schedule

Thursday, October 31, 7-9 pm
Pandemonium Books and Games, 4 Pleasant Street, Cambridge MA

 Friday, November 1, 7-9 pm
The Toadstool Bookstore, 586 Nashua Street (Lorden Plaza), Milford NH

Saturday, November 2, 2-4 pm
Barnes and Noble, 98 Middlesex Turnpike, Burlington MA

Sunday, November 3, 1-4 pm
Annie’s Bookstop of Worcester, 65 James Street, Worcester MA

Monday, November 4, 7-9 pm
Barnes and Noble, 7 Holyoke Street, Holyoke MA

Tuesday, November 5, 7-9 pm
Flights of Fantasy, 381 Sand Creek Road, Albany NY

Wednesday, November 6, 7-9 pm
Book Trader of Hamilton, 2421 Nottingham Way, Mercerville NJ

Thursday, November 7 (be careful! there are two events today)

Noon-2 pm : 
University of Pennsylvania Bookstore, 3601 Walnut at 36th Street, Philadelphia

7-9 pm:
Chester County Book Company, 967 Paoli Pike, West Chester PA

Friday, November 8 — Sunday, November 10
PhilCon, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Cherry Hill, NJ     

Sunday, November 17, 2-4 p.m.
Books-a-Million, South Portland, Maine

#SFWAPro

 

Trade Secret reminder

Signed copies of Trade Secret, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, the sequel to 2004’s smash Liaden hit, Balance of Trade are now available for pre-order from Uncle Hugo’s.

Here’s the synopsis:

Jethri Gobelyn is unique; he’s a Terran adopted into a Liaden trading clan. Under the tutelage of Master Trader ven’Deelin, he has achieved his license to trade in Liaden space. Not all Liadens are thrilled by this, or convinced by Master ven’Deelin’s insistence that Liadens and Terrans must learn to trade together.

But, Jethri isn’t only unique because of his adoption and penchant for trade; he’s also the son of a far-seeing Terran trader, now deceased, the author of a secret Envidaria — a plan that could change the face of galactic trade, forever. Ruthless people are willing to kill to obtain the Envidaria, in order to suppress it, or to use it for their own profit.

And it’s up to Jethri Gobelyn, a man who is both Liaden and Terran, to protect the Envidaria, and to decide how — or if — to use the information it contains.

Trade Secret cover. Art by Sam Kennedy
Trade Secret cover.
Art by Sam Kennedy

#SFWAPro

Regarding Carousel Sun

Asyouknowbob, Carousel Sun, the eagerly-awaited  sequel to 2010’s smash hit Carousel Tides, will be published in February 2014.

Now, asyouALSOknowbob, Carousel Sun will, like its prequel before it, be published as a trade paperback.  Which is perfectly fine; I like trade paperbacks.  Especially when they have my name on the front cover.  In fact, the only thing wrong with trade paperbacks is that they do not enjoy the “signed edition” status currently bestowed upon Baen hardcovers.  Doesn’t seem fair, somehow. I said as much to Don Blyly of Uncle Hugo’s, and —

He agreed.

So, here’s the deal.  Don and I are working on a way to provide those who want them with signed copies of Carousel Sun.

But that’s not all!  We’re trying to figure out a system that will allow me to personalize copies of Carousel Sun pre-ordered from Uncle Hugo’s (and only from Uncle Hugo’s).  Which, if we can pull it off, would be very cool indeed.

Watch this space for details.  This has been a Distant Early Warning; the pre-order page will in no case go up on Uncle Hugo’s website before mid-November.

. . .and there you have it.  Is that exciting or what?

Though I lie in your arms, I’m a thousand miles away/On the waves sailing fast, sailing free

Been a little busy here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory.  I will Sum Up.

1.  Sadly — and I do very much mean that — young Whiskers has been returned to the Waterville Humane Society.  He was loving, playful, and a perfect gentleman to Steve and to me — and an unremitting, ferocious warrior to Mozart and Trooper.  The good news is that, now, the shelter knows that he needs to be an only cat, and will be able to place him more appropriately next time.  We gave him a good character when we returned him, and saw him placed back in the room from which we adopted him before we left him.

1a. Whiskers did manage to land a solid hit on Mozart’s eye.  I took Mo to the vet yesterday afternoon — no scratches, thank goodness, but swollen and very angry.  We have Ointment to apply.

2.  Steve’s oral surgery yesterday morning went well.  He’s already bored with eating “soft foods,” so I’m calling a Successful Procedure.

3.  In between It All, I’ve been making eChapbooks.  Right now, Surfside (including “Emancipated Child,” and “How Nathan Archer Came to be a Prince of the Land of the Flowers,” both of which were previously published on Splinter Universe, and an Author’s Foreword original to the volume) and Moon’s Honor (previously published on Splinter Universe, plus an Authors’ Foreword original to the volume) are available for sale at the Nook and Kindle Stores.  Sometime today, barring interruptions, I will upload Technical Details (including “Landed Alien” and “Eleutherios,” previously published to the Baen website, and an Authors’ Foreword original to the volume) to BN and Amazon.

PLEASE NOTE:  We do not place DRM on Pinbeam Books; both BN and Amazon offer publishers the choice of DRM or  NO DRM, and we always choose NO DRM.

3a.  No, there will not be paper editions of these chapbooks.  We no longer publish paper chapbooks.  We continue to be very sorry about that, but asking for paper chapbooks will not make paper chapbooks happen.

3b.  Yes, we’re aware that some people prefer to buy from iTunes, Kobo, in mobi format &c, &c.  We have previously taken care of this demand by uploading files to Smashwords, which then distributes to all the rest of the formats/store/whatever that people like.  I had stopped doing that because preparing a book for Smashwords took twice as long as preparing  the same book for the other vendors, and because Smashwords would, months after accepting a book, suddenly delist books for “formatting errors,” the solution to which was “the nuclear option” — i.e. Starting All Over Again.

All THAT said, we have a kind reader offering to format these three books for Smashwords for us.  If/When those books are in the Smashwords catalog, I’ll let y’all know.

3c.  We don’t know when-or-if these stories will “go to  Baen.”  It is not an immutable law of the universe that they will go to Baen.  Much depends, for instance, on how well the two Constellation volumes (Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume One on sale now in paper from the bookseller of your choice; Volume Two coming in January; eEditions available from Baen in all formats known to God and Man; from Amazon; Blio; ITunes, and I forget where-all else) sell.

3d.  Yes, we know we’re “asking people to pay” for short stories that we gave away in the past.  No, we don’t think that’s unreasonable, or that we’re ripping anyone off, or that this is a valid excuse to pirate the books because The Tyranny of Copyright.  Thank you.

4.  If you do buy the eChapbooks, and you have a few extra minutes, please consider writing reader reviews for Amazon, BN, Goodreads.  Reader reviews do apparently help bring attention to ebooks, especially self-published ebooks.

5.  Cael the Wolf, who lives in the Archers Beachverse, has convinced me to write a story.  With luck and a tailwind, I’ll have that done this week.  Then, I can get to work.

Here ends the Summing Up.

Five things make a post

1.  Carousel Sun, the sequel to Carousel Tides, is now available for pre-order from the bookstore of your choice (NOTE:  This refers to the trade paper edition, only– which is to say:  you may not pre-order the ebook).

2.  Madame the Editor has stated that there will be an eArc edition of Sun. No, I don’t know when, but figure four to six months out from the publication date in early February.

3.  I am behind in mentioning that Heart of Briar, the first book in Laura Anne Gilman’s Portals duology, is now on the shelves of bookstores everywhere!  I read portions of this novel as it was being written and enjoyed the heck out of it.  I think you will, too, but judge for yourself!  There’s an excerpt here.  Laura Anne will also be doing signings and readings — and she Might Just Be! in your area.  Here’s the full list of where-and-when.

4.  The new memorial bridge spanning the Piscataqua River to connect Kittery, Maine with Portsmouth, New Hampshire is now open — and here are the pictures to prove it!

5.  I’ve been there and over there, too, but not so much here, lately.  I intend to do an overview post to catch y’all up — but not this afternoon. This afternoon, I am calling the hospital billing office, coping with the Gigormous Pile of Dirty Dishes which has taken over the kitchen sink, and seeing if I can get a short story out of Andy LaPierre.  No.  No, the glamor never does diminish around these parts.

#SFWAPro

Cover Art Sneak Peak

(Apologies to those who have seen this before.  This is a repost in order to see if the Magic of the Internet is on the case.)

We have, through the kind offices of Tony Daniel and Danielle Turner at Baen, the following Sneak Peak of the cover art for Carousel Sun by Sharon Lee, which is tentatively slated for publication in early 2014.

I like it.

Carousel Sun cover art by Eric WilliamsCarousel Sun cover art
by Eric Williams

For those coming in late, Carousel Sun is the sequel to Carousel Tides, by Sharon Lee — available even now at a bookstore near you; in all ebook formats known to man from Baen, from the Kindle Store, and the Apple ebook store.  It is also available as an audiobook from Audible.  I’m writing the last book in the trilogy — Carousel Seas — as we speak.

Please note that the Carousel books are not (that’s not) Liaden Universe® novels; they take place in an almost-real town on the coast of Maine, and they are fantasy.

#SFWApro