Paksworld

The first week out is the week that determines (nearly always) whether a book will reach “bestseller” status.     It’s the week that agents watch over,  checking BookScan numbers regularly, checking rankings any place they can find one and making their own calculations of raw numbers v. other books’ raw numbers.   In the first week,  LIMITS sold a few fewer hardcovers than ECHOES, and a few more e-books, to wind up with a modest increase of total hardcover/ebook sales in the US market.   So thank you, all of you who wanted to and were able to buy a copy  in the first week.    Thanks for talking about the books, and introducing others to them.   You’re the ones who keep a writer in bread & butter (and dark chocolate.  Can’t forget the dark chocolate.)    Read the rest of this entry »

Crown of Renewal, by a nose, despite all the obstacles in its path as reported in breathless gasps by Crown’s disheveled jockey: Read the rest of this entry »

Echoes of Betrayal has a new cover for the paperback edition coming early next year.    I liked the hardcover art, but this is a very strong cover that will show up better on the smaller format.

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Limits of Power passed Editor’s approval (my reworking of her comments)  and heads for the copy editor on Monday.   I don’t know what the CE’s schedule is.   Since Editor did a line edit,  and has approved the variations, one would hope CE keeps sticky fingers off the dialogue, but you never know.   At any rate, I should have the copy edited pages to review sometime between the convention I’m going to on the last weekend in July (ArmadilloCon, for those of you in the Austin area), and WorldCon at the end of August.

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Editor emailed this morning to let me know Echoes has gone back to print another 3000 copies.  I don’t think I’ve ever had a hardcover sent back to print that fast before.   Very happy dance of writer.   Wowza and all that.

And it’s you folks–the readers–who have made the book popular enough for this to be needed.  THANK YOU.    Read the rest of this entry »

Book IV left via the electronic express this morning, after a brief conversation with Agent on the topic of titles.   It’s gone off with an obviously not-suitable (but descriptive) title that will ensure Editor realizes it needs a different one.    It’s going first to Agent,  who will read through it just in case I’ve missed something really awful, and then to Editor.    And it’s out of my hands for right now, which is WHEE! time.

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OrbitUK  has me in their Author Spotlight this month.   I’ve also been told my author copies are shipping this week.  Yay, hurray, and rejoicing by writer (esp. with Book IV about to head for the big city.)

For US readers,  the mass market paperback of Kings of the North is coming out very soon, and the hardcover of Echoes of Betrayal releases February 28.   Even better (for those who still buy hardcover books) I’ve been told it will be on the Random House Triangle displays at Barnes & Noble.

Now I really must get back to work.   It’s kind of like the cross-country of three-day-eventing….you have to ride the whole course, including the last fence.

What I think (and devoutly hope) is the last pre-submission scene to be ripped up and rewritten was finished this morning by 10 am local time.    I was writing like crazy until 2:45 am when I pretty much froze up, joints and brain together, and started again this morning at 7:30am.  You are reading the typing of a very tired writer.

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Just got back today.  Had two good writing days on trains (2000+ words each day) after a brief conference with Editor at the convention.     As usual, time away from a project allows more balanced contemplation of what’s already been done.     I realized, for instance, that a pivotal scene I’d been thinking about for months had never actually made it into the computer–an extreme case of “I know that, but I didn’t show that.”

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Some of you may have read the long article on epic fantasy at Clarkesworld built on interviews with fantasy writers, editors, etc.   Robin McKinley, whose blog is my just-before-bedtime reading, was one of those interviewed and she referenced the article in her blog last night.

I threw a comment out on her discussion board, as I didn’t exactly agree with everything everyone interviewed had said, and she asked if she could use it–perhaps expanded a bit–as a guest-post on her blog.  Uh…(scraping jaw off the floor)…certainly.  Absolutely.   Honored & delighted.

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