Straight from the horse’s mouth:
I’m really, really gutted to report this, especially at such a late stage, but the US publication date for Red Country is dropping back three weeks to the 13th November.
UK publication remains unaffected.
The delay is unfortunate, especially at such a late point in the game, and doubly frustrating for American readers who were finally given a chance to read an Abercrombie novel just days after their UK and Canadian brethren, rather than the weeks that usually separate the releases of his novel in the different regions. Given that Gollancz was capable of publishing and releasing the novel on time, five days before the previous US release date, which cog in the great Orbit Books engine wasn’t sufficiently oiled. Abercrombie sheds some light on the delay, but it still seems like an unfortunate incident that could likely have been avoided:
[O]nce the manuscript was turned in it gradually became apparent that there had been one or more serious miscalculations or miscommunications somewhere and there wasn’t going to be enough time for proof-reading, setting, and the various necessary file jiggery-pokery to get the books printed and distributed across the US for the 23rd October publication date.
In any case, a three week wait won’t hurt anyone, and I’m sure the book will be mighty fine, regardless of the delay. Heck, it’ll likely be better, not being rush and all.
Also of note, it was recently revealed that Abercrombie has hit 1,000,000 novels sold worldwide. Impressive numbers.
From