Plans Change
I had all sorts of plans for this summer. At the start of the year, I thought I’d have three novels out in the US within the space of two months, and that meant it was time to ramp up the promotion machine like never before. It’s not often I have that many books to talk about at once, and I was excited about it.
However, the publisher of two of those books, Angry Robot, recently moved from HarperCollins to Osprey Publishing. As I wrote on my blog, I think that this is a good change for Angry Robot and, by extension, its authors, including me. But it also means — understandably — that Angry Robot’s release schedule is going to have a short hiccup during the transition.
Now, instead of my three books blasting out all at once, they’re going to come out months apart. The first book — Ghosts of Ascalon, which is based on the upcoming Guild Wars 2 MMO, and which I co-wrote with Jeff Grubb — will come out this summer, so I won’t be left empty-handed at the big conventions. The others — Amortals and Vegas Knights, my first two originals out of the fifteen I’ll have had published when they release — won’t release until later this year or early the next.
This means that my plans for the summer must change. This isn’t such a bad thing though. Instead of making a huge splash with three books this summer, I can make a large splash with one and then follow it up later with two other large splashes. Think of it as three rifle shots rather than a single shotgun blast.
Making the most of this should be simple though. It makes it easier to position myself as a long-term novelist, to show that I’m a dedicated swimmer in this pool and not just shouting “Cannonball!” before making a single massive splash. I can build on my efforts and add to them rather than massing for triple release.
Also, now I don’t have to ask people to buy three books all at once. Instead, we can start readers off with one and give them a chance to ease their way into the others.
The extra time also means I’ll have another chance to revisit Vegas Knights with the cold, dispassionate eye it deserves. I wrote it in a rabid rush this spring, and it deserves a bit of time to cool off after being baked.
These are all good things.
It might sound like I’m rationalizing my way into liking the new situation, and maybe I am. After all, as the author, I don’t have a lot of say about when and how my books come out. That’s the call of each book’s publisher, which is fair since they’re putting up all the money to get the books produced, printed, and placed on shelves. I can’t alter the situation. I can only adapt to it and make the best of whatever spot I find myself in — maybe even make it better.
This summer’s plans would have been a blast. I’m still going to have some amazing fun, but now I get to watch that spill over into 2011 too. I hope you get the chance to join me.
