My notice was delivered to Ridan’s offices yesterday at 10:59am according to the post office. Accordingly my obligation under the terms of my contract are now satisfied. My publication rights for all the Share books will revert to me on or before November 6th.
That means Captain’s Share and Owner’s Share are going to be delayed again. I need to re-publish the first four before I can publish the next two. I’m already working with cover artists to streamline that process and I’ll be giving each book a bit of a scrub up before releasing. I already have an editor working on them to try to keep the delays to a minimum.
I wish I could say “They’ll be out by Christmas” but right now, without covers and without a clean edit on what amounts to about a million words? Yeah. Not something I’ll commit to.
Have patience. I’ll get these out as soon as possible. I just don’t know what’s possible yet.
Well, as sorry as I am to hear about that, I’m even happier to hear that the publishing pace will be back under your control.
My hearing doesn’t make audiobooks very practical, so I’m eagerly waiting for the last two in print/ebook.
I’m sorry to hear this is the case, but also glad at the same time. Do you have a new publisher or will you self-publish? Would something like a Kickstarter be beneficial?
Bad news all around, especially that part about “gotta republish “Shares 1…4†first” (even if it does make sense).
Good news and, IMO, overdue. It’s nice that you’ll have a chance to go back and fix some of the few annoying errors that are still in the first books.
Thanks, Dan. Getting stuff where I can control it is a step. I need to get better at following through than I have been. Knowing that I have to rely on myself from now on will be a big incentive :)
Thanks, Shannon, but there’s nothing a Kickstarter can do for me. What I need is time. No Kickstarter campaign in the world can give me 30 hour days :)
And I’ll be self publishing. I’ve already turned down contracts with the Bigs. I see no reason to change that now.
@TG, yeah — that “gotta start over” thing has been a stumbling block for awhile. Unfortunately, I can’t get around it any longer.
Well, it’s not really starting over, as a chance to give your most ardent fans a chance to collect new editions, and to eventually sell their Ridan editions as collector’s items of great rarity! (Relatively speaking, of course – a dozen thousand or more is nothing when you’re selling millions of copies a year – one day!)
As sad as I am the next two books will be delayed, I am overjoyed by the dumping of Ridan as your publisher. They clearly are horrible publishers.
I’ll look forward for Captain and Owner on kindle.
Good luck on the self-publish. I’m sorry things didn’t work out with Ridan – it really sounds like they got themselves in over their heads and instead of dealing with it, hid under the table. Hopefully they’ll get their act together at some point along the way.
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Congratulations on taking that brave step! What a nightmare… I know it is so scary to bite the bullet and sever the ties with the “devil you know”, but from what I’ve been reading… man… you’re making the right decision. Know that there are a billion cover artists out there who can turn around a brilliant cover in two weeks. There are editors who can turn things around in less than a month. And there is a whole world of indie authors to support and guide you through the transition. You’ll make it! Hang tough!
Good luck. I’m glad that you are able to get some movement in this issue. Can’t wait for the rest of the books. . .
I was curious and checked out Michael Sullivan’s web page. In the About/Contact page it says:
“… my wife, who supported our family for years while I banged on the computer keys, has now left her day job so her family can stop complaining about me leaching off her.”
Good luck to you Mr. Lowell. I’ll buy all of your books again to get the new artwork and to support you. If you keep writing, I’ll keep buying.
Wow. Just…. Wow.
Nathan, I’m currently sitting in the lounge at O’Hare en route home from Asia. I pulled up your site to see if there was any news – and wound up pulling up many, many other threads. The Kindle Boards and and Absolute Write Water Cooler are particularly interesting.
I was wondering if you’d notified Ridan of your intent to terminate given your recent silence (though I’ll also admit that I was rather hoping your were writing instead). As painful as I suspect it is, I’m glad you have taken that step – and will gleefully buy new copies of your works as you release them. Especially as self publishing means you get to keep more of the money.
Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help. You have a remarkable talent, an amazingly centered approach to adversity, and deserve a publisher that supports you instead of hinders you. If only to keep your wife happy!
I regret the additional hassle and delay for your sake, but I’ll be waiting. Fair winds and following seas, Captain.
Thank you so much for sharing the news with us. I, for one, will keep checking every day and cheering you on. Sounds like others will be doing same.
Best regards. Barb
Thanks for the update. Wish I could help.
Will this delay the next Tanyth Fairport book?
That’s a shame. Good luck with the next steps :-)
“And I’ll be self publishing. I’ve already turned down contracts with the Bigs. I see no reason to change that now.”
I’d be really interested to know your thinking on that. I know I would be like “where do I sign?” If you don’t want to talk about that publicly, email me… :-)
Sorry to hear that, Nate. Unfortunately, it seems that the struggles you’ve gone through on this is a common one no matter if you are dealing with the Bigs or a large numbers of the Minors. While it takes more of your time to do (and thereby impacts your available creating time), in this changing market you are probably better off going independent. As always I wish you the best of luck and can’t wait to see the finished result. I for one am sticking with you no matter how long it takes to get your books to market…
How long will I be able to get the Riden versions of the first 4 books. I have Quarter, Half and Full Shares. I would like to get Double Share before it becomes unavailable. The thinking is they will become collector’s items when you starts selling hundreds of thousands of copies of your new books. Kind of like Sigler’s GFL series. The Rookie is already worth several hundred dollars just because you can’t get them anymore in hard cover.
Also, would you consider releasing a hardcover of the books. I would rather have a hardcover if I could get one.
Rpbert. I’ll be releasing signed, numbered limited edition hardcovers. My apologies to those who bought the first one and were never able to get the rest.
The books should be available with the Ridan covers for a while yet. They are licensed to sell them for another 29 days, but if you want to get them, buy soon. With all that’s happened, I have no idea what they’re going to do with this.
Nathan,
I’m sorry it came down to this. I think I speak for most of your fans when I say we will follow you where ever you go. We will try not to chew our legs off waiting for the books.
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Commence normal watch rotation.
Sometimes you just want to be heading to the next port and leave the last port behind.
=
I just discovered this series a few days ago and have already slammed through the first 4. This is my favorite series in a long while. I am sad that the newest two wont be available for a while, but I will certainly buy them when they come out. Thanks for an excellent story so far.
Will amazon still stock the ebooks?
The return of the hard covers – YES!
Ridan’s inability to get POD copies of Half Share was the first hint that things weren’t adding up, frankly. It’s not rocket science to prepress,, but we never did hear a valid explanation of why they couldn’t deliver after Quarter Share. Then deadline after deadline was missed. I suspect we’ll never know why Ridan melted down.
Sign me up for a full set. I want these around for my son to enjoy!
For awhile.
I’ll be re-releasing them under my own name so they shouldn’t be offline too long.
Robin Sullivan has made a comment here: http://www.jimchines.com/2012/10/good-news-on-the-ridan-front/comment-page-1/#comment-118254
Note the “As for Nathan…” section at the bottom.
And she’s done what she lists there.
I have been dying to find out what happens next to Ishmael. any idea when a new book will be out?
Many hands makes light work. Is there any leg work we can do? What needs to be done. Fans reporting for duty!
I’m sorry you had to part ways with Ridan. As a collector I will miss the Michael J Sullivan covers on books 5 & 6.
Have you considered publishing three Omnibus editions for the Share series? (This would give readers the option of just purchasing Volume 3 to complete the series – I’m sure that some readers will not listen to a Podiobook to complete the series and would require only three new covers!
Well, if she has done what she says, that tells me that we might well get something for Christmas. At the very least, you’re saved the cover issue, and it looks like Captain’s Share is close to being able to be published. That’s good news. This is a series I have very much enjoyed, and I look forward with anticipation to the rest of it.
I was actually thinking two trilogy volumes – Pre-Newmar, and Post-Newmar. Once South Coast & Cape Grace are available, make a “E-Boxed Set” of all 8 books.
Hi Nathan,
I’ve been following your issues with Ridan ever since i picked up my copy of Quarter Share when it was released on Amazon. I’m curious, how does this affect our pre-orders for the 2 books left in the series? I’ve personally had Captain’s Share and Owner’s Share pre-ordered since they were listed on Amazon. Some guidance would be helpful!
I believe those stubs will be removed. I’ll be issuing the books myself — I hope later this year, but there’s a metric buttload of work for me to get the files and new covers and get them all editing and put together again before I can push into Captain’s Share.
Cover artists and editors are already working. As soon as I get them, I’ll roll them up.
Casen, that’s an interesting idea and one I had not really considered.
Lemme ponder that.
Safe voyage!
Are the books no longer available online? I’m just about to finish quarter share after purchasing from iBooks store. I’m no longer able to download it to my other devices, and can’t find the half share / full share books …
Hi Nathan,
I too, like all of your fans, am saddened that the relationship between you and Ridan was not ultimately successful for you. I read the list Robin had posted in the comment thread of the link above, and she said if I understand it, that you’ve been given the cover artwork as well as the files. Are you going to continue to use them or create new cover art? It would seem that if you can still use them (and they do look good), that would reduce the turn around time for your getting the books out again. Though I do understand the idea of having new covers to distinguish your publications from Ridans.
they were still available on kindle, but they’ve disappeared from Smashwords (have been gone for a while now). With no smashwords, there’s no iBook.
they’re about to disappear from Kindle, but I’ll have copies going up soon-ish, I hope.
Congrats on taking a step long overdue. You did your best by Ridan; they did their worst by you. I’ll wait as patiently as I can for Captain’s and Owner’s.
On the plus side, I’d long past decided I’d buy the rest of the Solar Clipper books when Ridan got around to them, but no other books on their list: even yours. Now I get to read the rest of yours and Ann Crispin’s, too.
The best of luck to you!
Nathan:
What is going to happen to those who have purchased the E-Books from Amazon in the past when Amazon removes them from their site?
Good question sir. What will happen to my Kindle versions of ALL the books you had there via Riden? Will they be “no longer available” ? Yanked from my Kindle online library?
Nathan, I think I’ve read this above, but to clarify, you are going to re-release the Share Series in eBook format again, right? So I should probably hold off and buy them once you’ve re-released them instead of doing it now?
No, the books are yours. That’s not an issue
Captain, sorry it took so long, and it cost you so much, but now you have regained control. Ridan treated you very shabbily, no excuse for that. But now that you are once again in control, I am so looking forward to the rest of the Galactic Clipper books that I can read, and the rest of your books on other subjects. I just hope in the future you will stand up for yourself, and your talent, and not tolerate folks who do not appreciate your ability, or your skills.
Happy Birthday Nathan!
I think the only mistake here is how long it took to take this obviously necessary step. Based on Ridan’s execrable performance lately, I’m certain that even with the delay in republishing the first 4 books, we’ll see the rest before we’d have seen them from Ridan, and with better quality as a bonus.
On behalf of your fans, thank you for making the move – may it work out as well for you as it is sure to for us.
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