Posts Tagged: Self Publishing

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Today, I join Justin Landon on the latest episode of Rocket Talk, Tor.com’s official podcast. We talk about a whole bunch of fun things, including:

I had a lot of fun, and it was a good opportunity for the two of us, longtime bloggers both, to get a little Inside Baseball about publishing, blogging, and SFF in general. I can’t wait to hear what you think.

Find out more on Tor.com, or get Rocket Talk on iTunes/RSS.

How Kickstarter is replacing traditional publishers by Michael J. Sullivan

Editor’s Note — In late March, I published an essay by Bradley P. Beaulieu about the changing landscape of publishing and why he decided to leave his publisher, Night Shade Books, and relaunch his Epic Fantasy trilogy, The Lays of Anuskaya as a self-published series of eBooks. Seeing this, Michael J. Sullivan, author of The Riyira Chronicles, one of Fantasy’s early self-published success stories, wrote to me with his own valuable take on the world of ‘hybrid publishing.’ You can find more information about Sullivan’s upcoming novel, Hollow World, on the official Kickstarter page.

I first met Brad Beaulieu at ConFusion this January. We were having lunch and after telling me about what was going on at Night Shade we tossed around the various options. I encouraged him to retrieve his rights, do another Kickstarter, and take control of what I saw as a valuable franchise. He was probably already leaning that way. Hopefully I gave him the last nudge to take the leap. I will be taking the hybrid route myself with one of my upcoming novels, Hollow World, and I couldn’t be more thrilled with his decision, and I think it will work out very well for him.

I’m a huge supporter of the hybrid model. Traditional publishing opened doors for me that I couldn’t get when I was self-published. Now that my books are in libraries and bookstore, my audience broadened. I received more foreign deals, and the advances on those were probably larger than they would have been without Orbit. There was even book club and audio versions produced, which paved the way so to Theft of Swords being named a finalist for an Audie (the audio book equivalent of the Grammy). These are all good things, but there are also aspects that I miss from my self-publishing days. Read More »

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I shuddered at the thought of switching editors mid-stream, as many of my colleagues have been forced to do.

Editor’s Note: When news came that Bradley P. Beaulieu was leaving his publisher, Night Shade Books, and making the change to self-publishing, I was puzzled and intrigued. I’ve invited him here to talk about his experience, his decision and the changing landscape of publishing. If you’d like to support Beaulieu, he is currently running a Kickstarter to support the relaunch of his trilogy, The Lays of Anuskaya.

Several months back, I learned that my editor, Ross Lockhart, was let go from Night Shade Books. It had been very good to work with Ross up to that point. He was enthusiastic about the series, he kept the wheels of publishing (at least for my books) oiled and running smoothly, and he gave me some great advice on the series. I’m grateful he was there to help for all three of the books in The Lays of Anuskaya trilogy, and I shuddered at the thought of switching editors mid-stream, as many of my colleagues have been forced to do. Such a change can end up well in the end, but it can just as easily cause serious and permanent damage to an author’s career.

So Ross’s departure was worrying news, indeed. It comes as no surprise to any who have cared to look that Night Shade has been a cash-strapped business for some time. This is bad enough, worrying about where your future with them was headed, but the loss of my editor made me doubly worried about how my books would now be handled. Taking a pragmatic look at the change, cutting back on staff is normal in business. It can help a business survive. But when it happens it means that fewer people will be doing a lot more things, at least in the short- to medium-term. None of this boded well for the release of my third book, which frankly I hadn’t heard much about from my publisher. Not having heard anything different, I had assumed it would be coming out in April of 2013, as the first two books had been released that same month. Everything else—the initial editing, copy edits, and artwork—were all in works already, so things seemed good for an April release, even if it would be a bit rushed. Read More »

Life, art by Keith Parkinson

Life, art by Keith Parkinson

Bestselling fantasy author Terry Goodkind is self-publishing his next novel, The First Confessor. The author has been releasing tidbits about the book via social media–he has shared links to two book trailers through Twitter and his Facebook page–and, on Tuesday, unveiled the title of the work. The book will be available on July 2.

Goodkind’s agent, Russell Galen, of Scovil Galen Ghosh, declined to offer any more details about the book, but confirmed that this will be the first title the author has self-published. Goodkind is arguably best known for his Sword of Truth series.

Without a lot to go on (except for one personal story that makes this whole situation extremely interesting to me, but will remain behind my sealed lips), I’m curious whether this is a decision made by Tor (which I doubt) that might reflect the poor sales of his recent novels. The Law of Nines underperformed so poorly that he abandoned that series to return to the Sword of Truth universe (though, really, he never left in the first place), and that novel was published by Putnam Adult, an imprint of Penguin (best known to Fantasy readers for their imprint, Ace), rather than Tor and Macmillan, Goodkind’s long-time publishers.

Or, is this a bold move by Goodkind, who has long felt that he is the master of not only his own domain, but all domains which intersect on the venn-diagram of his existence, looking to capitalize on the success of his name as a brand. I think we can all breath a sigh of relief to see Goodkind finally escaped from the tyrannical clutches of traditional publishers and will now be able to tell the story of “The First Confessor” without bending to the sway of Tom Doherty.