Now hear this…
In case you missed it, my reading from BaltiCon 45 is up at the Balticon Podcast. In it, you’ll hear me read the story I did for JR Blackwell’s “Birthday Book” about Dr. Mercury.
If that’s not enough of my voice you can always catch my reading of “Blood Dauber” on StarShipSofa 206. There’s more in the wings there as soon as Tony gets it scheduled. Watch for my reading of Allen M. Steele’s “Observation Post.” It should show up fairly soon.
In other news …
The promised website overhaul hasn’t happened yet. It’s still rummaging around behind my eyes somewhere. It’ll get here.
Double Share has been pushed back again. Ridan will be trying to get it out before Christmas but those of you who are looking for it any day now, um, not so much. For what it’s worth, the three (yes, three) books ahead of it in line have been waiting for a year – longer in one case – for their turn in the chute and I fully support the decision that Ridan has made on this. It is disappointing, I know, and it has a significant financial effect on me as well, but that’s the price I pay for working with a publisher.
That’s one reason that I’ll be publishing Ravenwood myself. My goal is to have it out in time for Samhain, the pagan new year. You might know it as All Hallow’s Eve, or Halloween. The cover may not be as spiffy, and the layout will be my own, but I’ll be getting work out for you to read.
More to the point, Cape Grace is about to go into binge mode. I took a trip back to Maine last week to visit my sister and to smell Atlantic salt again. I’m rather excited to get this underway and to get it podcast for your enjoyment while we wait for Double Share to make its text debut.
Honestly, this has been a difficult year for me, and not for the reasons that so many of you have speculated about in the comments. Some stories are not mine to tell, so you’ll have to forgive me for not putting out spoilers on works that aren’t my own. I still have almost three months left to 2011, and that’s enough time to get my own little ship pointed in the correct direction and start building some momentum.
Let’s see if I can actually do it.
That is all. For now.
How are you doing the cover for Ravenwood? Soliciting artists? Going with someone you know?
I have some ideas about what I want to see for a cover. A lot will depend on whether or not I’m able to instantiate the vision.
Best wishes. I look forward to any of your new titles. Have you thought about publishing Ravenwood yourself thru Amazon? I do not know how it works but i bet it would be less investment then paper publishing. I just don’t know if it would be a financially viable option.
I check in every day to see if Double Share is ready yet. Sad that it’s not.
I suppose that both of Ridan’s employees are unconscionably busy?
Best regards. Barb
Um, sorry about the snark. Not aimed at you, Nathan.
Thanks for the update, Nathan.
I’m a bit curious about how much the books change after working with Ridan’s editor?
Do you find yourself adding a lot of text, or is it more about filling in a few holes here and there?
Chong, Mostly it’s about clearing out the underbrush and fixing the dialog tags.
When I write them to be read aloud, they need things — like more dialog tags — that I don’t need on the page for somebody who’s reading for him/herself. The sentence and dialog structures can be simplified. That usually means I find stuff that’s not quite right.
Bottom line, the story doesn’t change much but how I tell it sometimes morphs a bit.
Thanks for the update!
Sad to hear about Double Share, but I assume Ridan has good reasons. I’ll keep my eyes peeled for Ravenwood. :)
Things have got to be positively schizophrenic at Ridan, considering one of the key players is simultaneously working to get his own works published by a much bigger imprint! I quite understand, though, them pushing through Joe Haldeman’s “Forever War” early, as that’s a major piece of science fiction, which should give them enough traction to hopefully hire some more help. Of course, finding someone to hire also delays things as an investment against later getting things done faster… *sighs* It’s complicated, isn’t it?
On a side note that has nothing to do with your writing directly, let me say that while I’m glad you got to come up to Maine, I think you might have picked a better week for it. If you came up last week…well, it was pretty wet. I hope you enjoyed your time in our fair state and if you are ever in town, I’d love to treat you and your wife to a beverage of some sort.
*sigh* I’ve been checking Amazon daily for Double Share. I’ll just drop that back to weekly now I think. Can’t wait for it, but I understand the delay. It will make it all the better for the wait I think.
Nate,
I want to thank you. Your hard work makes so many people happy, and your stories touch lives by showing us entertainment, wonderful entertainment is still available. You’ve inspired my writing, and I can’t wait to keep sailing under you Skipper.
Thanks,
Michael
Thanks for the update Nathan!
I know it’s out of your hands, but I’m curious as to what in Ridan is holding it up? Is it that the book’s just not ready on their end yet? A publisher should be able to release multiple books at once, no?
The bottleneck is in editorial. While they work on more than one, there’s only one person doing edits there. They work on one, send it back, work on the next, but by the time they send that back, the first one has been returned.
We’re still in edit mode on three titles ahead of me, and I haven’t seen the edits from my first pass at Double Share come back yet. There’s some questions about the beginning….
Thanks, Michael.
Is it only Robin and her hubby at Ridan? I’d hope they’d hire some extra help to get over this backlog – maybe one or two interns or freelance editors to get ‘er done.
Looking forward to the eventual release!
Yes. At the moment, Annie.
They’ve been trying to get good, reliable help and have been farming out some work, according to Robin. They’re still looking.
Well hopefully they’ll be able to handle the work load. Especially since pulling the company into full time. I’m a patient man and I can wait. I’ll also keep a lookout for Ravenwood.
Keep up the good work Nathan.
-Josh
Boy! Looking at Ridans web site post from yesterday, it looks like they have plenty of time to sign up new authors… Just not meet production schedules. Hope they realize that if they treat New York Times Best Selling Authors like they have you, Nate… It impacts the big name authors bottom line and they will go elsewhere.
Since these works have been previously published, the amount of effort needed to re-release them is relatively small. According to Robin, she hasn’t done much beyond sign contracts and turn the manuscripts over to the format person for production. Most of these deals — Haldeman, Crispin, and there’s more in the wings, I think — happened over the summer and they’ve been working out the details in the background.
I’m hoping that the attention that this brings Ridan will help with the visibility of Double Share when it finally gets released later this year. With any luck at all, that visibility along with the Christmas buying rush will make up for the current losses, and I still have two more books in the Share series beyond that for production next year. Those two books will be huge — at least in scale but I hope in sales. :)
Will the covers be done by Michael?
My covers will.
I don’t know what deals the other authors have.
I’m a bit worried here – seems that Ridan made their fame from these books and now is tossing over their older authors to bag the big names. It may be good business but not really all that ethical.
I do hope DS is out by Christmas. I’ll be *very* upset with Ridan if it’s not because she’s making money hand over fist and not wanting to spend it with the authors who made Ridan what it is today. Your books are what made Ridan successful and if she’s pushing you to one side to go play with the big names it’d just be so sad…
I agree, Annie. For Ridan to claim they are having trouble finding editors is nuts, too. They are in a Washington DC suburb, for Pete’s sake. You can’t throw a stone without clonking someone who makes a living with words on the head. Every K street lobby firm, law firm, government contractor, and Department or agency has editors on tap.
I’d love to hear a plausible story from for once, on why they aren’t pushing on share series harder.
That last paragraph could have used an editor… It should be:
I’d love to hear a plausible story from them, for once, on why they aren’t pushing harder on the Share series.
So still no news abou the limited edition hard covers? Sigh, …
Nate – love the new pics! But suggest you add a left margin on the main page – similar to subordinate pages – as the text is hard against the edge of the screen on mobile devices and the window on desktops. A little white space would make it easier to read…
BTW: listened to CS again over the last couple days. Your voice (and stories) make flying a great deal more enjoyable. The aircraft fades away, the story takes hold… And suddenly we’re preparing to land! Thank you!
Odd. I have a center strip of text with HUGE margins on either side on my desktop.
But I’ll see if I can get a left margin in there
There you go. A 10px pad.
I’m not sure why there’s a problem… Are you looking at this on a *really* narrow screen?
Not sure why myself – but that fixed it.
I initially noticed it on Safari on an iPad, but checked it with IE and Firefox on my desktop as well.
Thanks!
The three Solar Clipper stories were wonderful. I devoured them in days on my Kindle. I am eagerly waiting for Double Share and the last two. What a very fine writer you are, Nathan.
I found Ravenwood and enjoyed it immensely also. Are there more of Tanyth’s stories planned?
Well done, Nathan. You are a wonderful author to read.
*sigh* I was so hoping to be able to read Double Share now. For some strange reason I have trouble understanding the whole story just listening to it (English is a foreign language for me). It was such an eye-opener to read the first three books and understand all the details!
Thanks for telling us, and I hope the publisher gets a move on.
Andrea, I’m working on the Ravenwood sequel now.
It isn’t entirely clear why you need a.publisher. at all, given the ease.of.publishing.on the.kindle. at.some.point they aren’t.holding.up their end of the bargain.
Pardon the nonsense periods – I.love.everything about the kindle.fire except the period bring where a rational typer would hit space.
Actually, you’re right, but the truth is that I like the results I get when working with Ridan, even if the process seems a bit rocky at times. :)