Michael J. Sullivan's Blog, page 83

Covering Crown

Most of you know by now that the Riyria Revelations was not originally published by Orbit. The series actually faced a very long road taking turns being self-published, small independent published, self-published again, and finally traditionally published through Orbit. These changes can perhaps be best followed by the changing covers of the first book of the series—The Crown Conspiracy.
Initially I never intended to publish the books for money. Before ebook readers were invented, when Amazon had only recently started turning a profit, I had decided to just post my books online for free download. I never sent them to a publisher, never sent a query to an agent. I had given up on that waste of time. I was going to write and put them on the Internet, feeling this was better than in a drawer.
I built a website and created this cover for the first book, which at that time I called Heirs to the Throne.


In all the time I had it on the Internet, I doubt a single person ever read it.
Then my wife found me an agent and I took the site down. My agent wasn't thrilled with the title. Turned out no one was. I pondered the options for days until I settled on The Crown Conspiracy, that everyone agreed was much better.
When my agent was unable to get any traction, and eventually quit the industry for personal reasons, Robin and I set in motion plans to self-publish. This was still before the ebook evolution and we were saving up for the printing and warehousing costs. In the meantime I created this new cover that played off the new title. 


My daughter hated it  having a bias against computer generated art. Turns out she had a point, but the point became moot when before we could implement our plans for self-published world domination, I was offered a contract by AMI a small, independent publisher.
They inquired about what I would like to see on the cover. To give them an idea I pulled some images off the net, most by Alan Lee and sent them this concept art: (you'll notice that Nyphron Rising was at that time entitled Legends and Lore.)


They liked the look and feel and hired their own artist who returned with this sketch. 


I became concerned. The castle was too imposing, more like Dracula's, the river looked like Harry Potter's scar, and there was an aqueduct where the Winds Monastery should be. I also couldn't figure out where they planned to put the title. With Robin's encouragement I did a cover painting of my own and sent them this:

  Which in their wisdom they changed to this:


After financial problems caused AMI to return the rights to me, I then had no choice but to self-published, but this was the Spring of 2008. 
Talk about being in the right place at the right time. Amazon released the first generation Kindles on November 19th 2007, but after selling out in five and a half hours, the devices remained out of stock for five months. Kindles became available in April 2008, the same time Ridan began selling the Riyria Revelations.
Then in 2011 I signed a contract with Orbit Books, changed the title, and work on the covers began all over again. This was the first cover idea I saw back in February of last year. A far cry from the simple, subtle landscapes that I created. 



Eventually this was paired down to the more shelf/series brand friendly:


And this is where we are today except that Royce and Hadrian have escaped and gone international.  Orbit's UK arm produced this cover using Orbit's original art.


But I have presently signed foreign language rights contracts or have deals pending with: The Czech Republic, Russia, Poland, Spain, France, Germany, Brazil, Japan, Denmark, and most recently, Bulgaria.  The first of these covers have been appearing as the books are finally being released overseas.
Czech
Polish
Spanish
French

Funny how many different ways a single book can be packaged.

Audiobooks

"Is it in audio?" the guy asked. "I don't read. I drive two hours to work and two hours home each day. I don't have time to read, but I have lots of time to listen, and I got bored of music, and irritated by talk radio a long time ago. Now I listen to books. So it is on audio?"
"My problem is that I would love to share them with my sister," she wrote. "She is legally blind and doesn't read anymore.  I get all her books on Audible for her.  Is there any chance that yours will be available as audio books?  I feel guilty telling her how much I am enjoying the books - don't know if I could hold out reading them all to her ."
These are just a couple samples of comments and emails I've received inquiring about the availability of the Riyria Revelations in audio. For years, I've had to say, "Ah yes, one day…maybe." For months it was, "Absolutely, I'm just not sure when."
Today I can finally say this:
THEFT OF SWORDS audio, read by Tim Gerard ReynoldsProjected Pub Date: 03/01/2012
RISE OF EMPIRE audio, read by Tim Gerard ReynoldsProjected Pub Date: 06/01/2012
HEIR OF NOVRON audio, read by Tim Gerard ReynoldsProjected Pub Date: 09/01/2012

State of the Books Address

So, finally all the books are released (well at least the hardcover, trade paperback, and ebook editions…there are still foreign language translation and audio books in the works), but now it's just a matter of  "wait and see." I think Orbit did an excellent job with the launch. Not only did they create a great fan page on Facebook, but they've also provided for premium placement in the bookstores, as well as advertising in Locus Magazine, Facebook, and Goodreads.  They've also gotten the books in the hands of a ton of review sites, and combined with Robin setting up a blog tour, I had some nice coverage for the rollout.
Hopefully people are starting to pick up the books. It may take a while to reach the top of To-Be-Read piles, but if they like them maybe they'll tell a few friends and family members. At the end of the day it's only word-of-mouth that will make the series a success. No more effort from Orbit or myself is going to make it catch fire – it's all up to the books now and whether I wrote something that people enjoy.
I must say, that the launch has gone better than I would have expected. I thought it would take a while to "ramp up" but we really hit on all cylinders and showed strong pre-order sales even before the books were released.
While I don't have hard numbers (one of the disadvantage of not self-publishing is you have no idea how many books have sold) indications suggest that the books are selling well. A second printing of Rise of Empire was ordered after only a few days for sale, and there has been both a second and a third printing of Theft of Swords. Orbit is keeping good watch on stock, but even so we actually ran out of Theft, and it became unavailable for a while on Amazon. The new printing is completed and there should be no problem getting the books at this time.

The books (both kindle and paperback) have consistently been dominating Amazon's Hottest New Releases Lists both during preorder and right up until they become ineligible (30 days after release).  They have been found on the following: Historical Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Fantasy, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Action and Adventure, Genre Fiction, Fiction, Literature & Fiction. It wasn't uncommon to find all the eligible books (both in print and ebook) on the top 100 and often I would see all them in the top 20 having The Riyria Revelations take up 30% of the list. Also, all four kindle books (including Percepliquis) hit the #1 spot in at least one category and Theft of Sword and Heir of Novron hit #1 in both Historical and Epic fantasy.
While it's great to make the Hot New Release List, the one that is even more important is the Best Seller's Lists. Again the books have performed admirably both in ebook and paperback. Since we started watching the lists in early November there's never been a time when the books haven't been on multiple lists. Even now, approximately 10 weeks after the release of Theft of Swords the books are on the following lists:
·         #5, #12, #22, #68, #69, #98 Books: Science Fiction & Fantasy: Historical·         #23, #4, #62, #78 Books: Science Fiction & Fantasy: Epic Fantasy·         #58 Books: Science Fiction & Fantasy: Fantasy·         #80 Books: Science Fiction & Fantasy·         #28, #47, #82 Books: Literature & Fiction: Genre: Action & Adventure·         #5, #12, #18 Kindle: Fantasy: Historical Fantasy·         #18, #26, #45, #58 Kindle: Fantasy: Epic Fantasy·         #43, #86 Kindle: Fantasy
The "Big List" as Robin has coined it is the Science Fiction and Fantasy Books list and it counts the number of days a book has been on it.  Riyria has seen 3 of the 4 titles make this list including:
Theft of Swords (10 days – over 2 periods)Percepliquis (3 days)Heir of Novron (7 days so far  – although it may be at the end of its run)

·            We got "oh so close" to making the Movers and Shakers List. This is for books that are under 400 in overall ranking and have seen a large movement in ranking over a 24 hour period. Heir of Novron hit 401 and hovered in the 400's for a few days but never dipped below the magic number.

Sales outside Amazon have also been strong as well. PopVortex reports the top 50 Best Selling Fantasy and Science Fiction Books in the ibookstore and I've peaked in on it from time to time and found Heir of Novron ranging from #20 - #38.

Another venue is BooksOnBoard, who releases their Top 10 bestsellers in both the US and UK market. I was shocked that the 1/30/2012 UK list had Heir of Novron listed (the only fantasy book on the list) others on the list were a few "up and comers" like Stephen King and James Paterson.

I mentioned in my other post about hard covers in the Science Fiction Book Club and the books are hitting the Top 100 there as well.  Last time I looked the books were at #23, #28, and #38.
All in all a very respectable showing and I reached my first goal which was to not embarrass myself  or disappoint Orbit. I must say I'm curious where things will go from here. It could be we've had the "big hurrah" and the books will slowly climb in rankings (decrease in numbers sold), we may stay steady for some period of time (hopefully a long period of time) or we could see even better positions on the bestseller's lists if that old word-of-mouth thing really does start a bonfire from the sparks that Orbit, and Robin, have created.
Whatever the future brings, I'm already a winner. I did exceedingly well as a self-published author and the series is getting a second chance with the Orbit launch. Kinda like eating my cake and having it too.

How to Get Hardcovers

Everyone has an opinion on ebooks these days. Some have added a fifth horsemen to the apocalypse and his name is eReader. Others are trying to discover just how to bestow sainthood on the Internet naming ebooks as an example of one of its many miracles. There are countless blog posts, magazine, and news articles still being written, and podcasts and talk shows still discussing the various electronic formats for literature. Precious few, debate the various incarnations of paper.
How often do you hear about the end of publishing as we knew it because of Allen Lane or Fanny Fern. You likely don't even know who they are, or how Saul Bellows tried to eliminate hardcover books.
This post was supposed to be about how you can get your hands on hardcover editions of the Riyria Revelations for those who wanted them, and it still is, but the explanation has taken an unexpected detour through the history of publishing in America that has enough strikingly similar connections to current events that I thought you might find the whole story interesting.
To begin with, we need to travel backward…
Long, long ago in a land far, far away—Europe—books were printed by a printer and sold unbound. If you wanted the pages put together you needed to take them to a bindery and there you could have it dressed up anyway you liked, pick the leather, the end papers, etc. As you can imagine this whole process was expensive.
Across the pond in the colonies, while there were printers who functioned as publishers, books were mostly imported from England. Eastern port cities like New York, Philadelphia, and Boston became the source of books in the New World and this trend continues today, with New York retaining its publishing crown and Philadelphia most known for its medical publications.  
As it wasn't until 1886 that international copyright laws were established, in the early nineteenth century the open pirating of books was rampant in the United States. Half of books published in the US were by British authors who had their work copied and sold without their permission or seeing a penny of the revenue. I have to wonder if they ever considered SOPA (Stop Overseas Pirating Act.)
Books at that time were still expensive, too.  When the average working class man made $1-$1.50 and the average woman made $.30-$.40 and the average book cost $1 to $1.25, that meant a book cost a day's wage or more, which restricted the luxury of book buying and often, in lack of a nearby library, the very act of reading to the upper and middle classes. Published books were also being written almost entirely by men and in the high literary style of the day, which made it difficult for the less literate to enjoy.
Then in the 1850s Maria Susanna Cummins sentimental novel The Lamplighter sold 20,000 copies in twenty days, coming in second only to another woman, Harriet Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. In a year that Melville and Hawthorn were happy to sell a couple thousand copies of their books, another woman, and newspaper columnist, Fanny Fern sold 70,000 copies of her "conversational style"  ladies fiction book Fern Leaves from Fanny's Portfolio. Women's fiction was not just born, it was kicking down doors.
In 1855 Nathaniel Hawthorne famously wrote from Britain to his publisher:

America is now wholly given over to a damned mob of scribbling women, and I should have no chance of success while the public taste is occupied with their trash–and should be ashamed of myself if I did succeed.  What is the mystery of these innumerable editions of the 'Lamplighter,' and other books neither better nor worse?–worse they could not be, and better they need not be, when they sell by the 100,000.

I just can't read this and not think of Stephanie Meyers, or Amanda Hocking, and I wonder if this was the first shot fired in the battle between, not only sexual discrimination in literature, but the conflict of "good" literature and the sort that sells.
Then as the Civil War was getting underway a number of events caused an upheaval of another sort. With increased demand due to increasing literacy and new printing technologies, along with cheaper paper, and later the lowering of transportation costs due to the new railroads, books got cheaper. (Prior to railroads, the production of books stopped in the winter due to frozen rivers upon which logs were transported.) It was at this time that Beadle & Adam's invented the Dime Novel that created an explosion in the fiction market added in large part to the demand of bored soldiers having nothing to do to pass the time and enjoying small, light, cheap books.
While dime novels were a proper name for a series of publications, they became synonymous with cheap popular fiction that actually ranged in price from a nickel to twenty-five cents.  These were largely reprints of stories that had run as serials in "storypapers," eight page weekly newspapers-like publications.  They were largely sentimental, "lurid" stories written in common language and focused on western gunslingers, adventures, detective stories, and romances.  It was these "common man" popular novels that gave birth to genre fiction.
By the start of the twentieth century, publishers found that a larger format with less pages was cheaper to produce, and soon the dime novels transformed into magazines such as Popular Magazine, Nick Carter Weekly, (Nick Carter first appearing in a dime novel The Old Detective's Pupil) Wild West Weekly and the Detective Story Magazine.  Also known as pulp magazines, pulp fiction, or just The Pulps, by virtue of the cheap paper used.  
Street and Smith publishing who created Argosy, the very first pulp magazine, came up with the idea of specialized genres, making whole magazines that focused on one common story theme or subject, such as romances, detective tales, etc. These classifications form the basis of our modern day genres. Later in the twenties two other pulp magazines called Amazing Stories and Weird Tales popularized modern science fiction and fantasy.  
Then in 1935 Allen Lane founded Penguin Books and invented the modern day mass market paperback, with the idea that the classics ought to be available to the masses for the same price as a pack of cigarettes. (Which incidentally,  today sells from $4.74 in West Virginia to $11.90 in New York—still a good benchmark for the price of a book.)  This combined with comic books and television, killed the pulp market which ended in the late fifties.
Now after the advent of Lane's mass market penguins, there were two kinds of novels available, mass market and trade. The definitions being determined by distribution or where they are sold. Trades are books sold in bookstores, shops whose stock and trade are selling books. Mass markets books are sold anywhere: drug stores, grocery stores, airports, newsstands, etc.
In the early 1980's when inflation and declining sales were wrecking havoc with publishers and bookstores alike, the trade paperback became the new thing. Actually it had been around since the 50's, but used mostly as special editions until the 1980's when it was seen as the solution to a struggling publishing industry. A trade paperback is a paperback book, of any size—but often larger-than-rack-size—that is sold exclusively in trade stores (bookstores) and not mass marketed—although this is starting to change and the definition is becoming more and more obsolete. They are also of better quality binding and paper. At often half the price of trade hardcovers, the portability, and affordability made them attractive to readers and the restricted trade venue, made them attractive to booksellers. At one time it was believed that the day a big-name author opted to have their book debut in trade paper, would be the day hardcovers died. This hasn't happened even though in 1988 Saul Bellows (Pulitzer and Noble Prize winning author) opted to have A Theft, originally published in trade paperback with the hope of starting a trend.
Hardcover books are still seen as the most preferred luxury, binding for those who can afford it due to their durability, and sheer presence. Originally built of wood wrapped in stamped leather, this was made more economical by using heavy cardboard covered in cloth (which lent them the nickname of "Cloths".) Long about the middle of the twentieth century the cloth was replaced with clothette, a textured paper that vaguely resembles cloth, and the only real cloth might be covering the spine. Over this was placed a dust cover. (Calf's leather is still used for special fancy binding.)  
Traditionally hardcovers are typically reserved for authors who are expected to be successful—popular enough to attract readers to spend premium prices for their work as hardcovers often average $25. This then forms the start of a sales cycle, with a trade paperback being released the following year and depending on the level of sales in another year or two, the mass market paperback would be released. These repeated releases in different formats allow for three-times-at-bat, three chances to promote the novel and to gain revenue from all levels of the reading public. Less guaranteed authors work are likely to debut in original trade paperback form and never see a hardcover edition or mass market.
Given the choice I suspect most readers, who have shelf space, the money, and aren't required to haul their novels around with them, would opt for the Cadillac of book binding—the hardcover, and if possible the embossed, raised spine, gilded-paged, variety. That's a lot of conditions however. Most people like to travel with their novels just the same as the Civil War soldiers, and most avid readers can't afford to spend top-dollar on a book anymore than a laborer in the nineteenth century could. Still there are a few who love books, who when they find a special one they're willing to spend something extra for the chance to own a more permanent doorway into whatever world they see themselves visiting more than once. A portal they might plan to one day leave open for their children to walk through.  
And that brings me to the point of this post.
I was one of those not-so-guaranteed author releases that got the trade paperback treatment. I was delighted with Orbit's decision in this respect as I'm not sure people would spend the extra money for the hardcovers of a new author, and they offer a good balance between "affordable" and "quality." Still, nothing beats a hardcover for sheer unadulterated luxury in reading. Even if my books do great I never expected to see hardcover editions, maybe mass market, but not hardcover.
So it was wonderful to discover that when Orbit sold the subsidiary rights to a book club they planned to do a hardcover edition. The Book club in Question is SFBC.com (Science Fiction Book Club) which offers a wide variety of both fantasy and science fiction books in special edition versions. They have hardcover copies of the books in the following arrangements
• Theft of Swords Stand Alone  $12.99• Rise of Empire Stand Alone  $12.99• Heir of Novron Stand Alone  $12.99• Theft of Swords/Rise of Empire $22.99• All three books $34.99
They even have Heir of Novron as their Top Featured Book right now. And all three books are on their Top 100 List:
• #23 Theft of Swords• #28 Rise of Empire• #38 Heir of Novron
Like most book clubs they have a great introductory deal, specials (running a buy 2 get 1 free right now). You get your first 5 books for $1 then you have to buy 4 more at "regular price" within the next year.
For my $1 order I chose 5 Riyria Revelations (so I got 15 hard cover copies of my book for $1 – Sweet)
I recently ordered single copies of each so I got 3 more for $26 (one is free).  I've just about satisfied my requirements – I just need to buy 1 more by November 2012. But I'll probably stay in the club after I make the requirements as their prices are very good.
For those that don't want to "join the club" you can get the hard covers which are being sold on the Amazon Marketplace.  These are sold by individuals (and sometimes book collectors) so the prices vary but I've seen both the Theft and Rise for sale for $10.00.  I haven't seen any Heir of Novron but I think that's just because they are so "new" – I only got my order on Friday so it will probably be a few days until they start reaching the market.

Measuring Up

It's all in the paper.

Picturing Hadrian

By Jesse H Bechtold (Ink on paper)
In most careers there are established scales to indicate the level of success. The corporate ladder is broken down by rungs and it's easy to determine how far along you are and at what point you can considered yourself legitimate, established, or successful. Creative fields are murkier and novel writing—particularly with the advent of self-publishing—downright opaque.
Is it when you've finished a novel that you've arrived? When you publish it? When you sell a thousand copies? Ten thousand? Fifty? Is it when you are published in foreign languages? When you become eligible for membership in SFFWA? When you get a traditional contract? When you make the USA Today bestseller's list? The New York Times list? When you win the Hugo, the Pulitzer, or the Nobel? When you're book is made into a movie? Or when you've made enough money off your writing to start your own endowment to the arts?
Different people have different opinions on this. I personally had only one milestone I felt would indicate success to me. It's when I spy someone I don't know on a train, a bus, in a park, or coffee shop who is reading one of my books. To me that will indicate that the well-spring of saturation has risen high enough to see with my own eyes. It hasn't happened yet.
My daughter had a different gauge. In her way of looking at things, I wouldn't be a success as a fantasy author until someone I've never met or had any dealings with, produced fan art for my stories.
Yesterday,  it happened.
My wife stumbled across the above drawing on Deviant Art, created by Jesse H. Bechtold, who writes:
This illustration is inspired by a small event in a book called "The Crown Conspiracy", part of a book series called "The Riyria Revelations" by Michael J. Sullivan. If you haven't heard of it it's about two thieves in a medieval style world accidentally getting caught up in a bid to create a new world empire. It's good fun, so I'd recommend it to anyone wanting a good adventure to read. Anyway, this started as a doodle to try to nail one of the main characters, Hadrian Blackwater, but I was having a lot of fun with the barmaid so I just kept going. What can I say, I have a thing for busty, size twelve barmaids...just ask my fiance'. More illustrations from this book to come and any comments welcome!
I can't wait to see what Jesse comes up with next. He sells prints of his artwork. If you'd like to buy one, or post a comment on his art gallery page go to this link. Maybe he'll take requests.
Thanks Jesse for making me a success in my daughter's eyes.

The Release of Heir and the Finding of Percepliquis

When I agreed to the republication of my Riyria series through Orbit, it was to be for a trilogy of books comprised of two novels each. This repacking provided many benefits, most of them to readers, in the form of bookstore availability, but mostly in price as the series costs half of what it would if I were still selling them individually. This I thought was a great deal, but those who had five of the books sitting on their shelves at home wanted that last volume to complete that set. I understood this desire and so too did Orbit who went to the trouble and expense of offering a special edition just for these loyal fans.
I produced and released the print version of Percepliquis and Orbit handled the ebook version.
Percepliquis was released on the 16th of this month in both paper and electronic versions, however some fans were unable to buy it—those fans living overseas.
As it turned out those individuals trying to buy the ebook who were not in the US, or Canada, had their purchases blocked by regional restrictions. This is something I could not see, and it took emails from fans to make me aware of it.
I took the problem up with Orbit and discovered that while Orbit US had agreed to the release of Percepliquis, Orbit UK had not, and Orbit UK handles Europe as well as the UK and Australia. I have word now that Orbit UK will be offering Percepliquis, so those of you wishing to do so, can still order such. At this time I don't have a release date.
While there is no restriction on the paper version, shipping can be prohibitive overseas. I have however discovered that The Book Depository which provides free shipping anywhere in the world, is now carrying Percepliquis and it can be obtained at this link.
For those of you who are not looking to complete your original paper edition of the series, and are unable to obtain Percepliquis in ebook format Heir of Novron, which contains Percepliquis along with the republication of Wintertide, has been released today, and should be available worldwide—at least I have yet to learn of anyone not able to obtain an ebook copy of Theft of Swords or Rise of Empire so I expect the same should hold true for Heir.   
Please let me know if that is not the case and thanks for your patience.

Release Day

For those of you who started the series early, those that read the first five, the wait for the final book is at last over. Today Percepliquis has been released.
As always seems to happen, shortly after the book becomes available someone, somewhere manages to read it. Well over 500 pages that took me eight months to draft, a reader consumed in a matter of hours. I can't complain. When I originally published The Crown Conspiracy no one read it. And when I released Avempartha, it was six months before readers took notice.
Those that are buying ebooks, can download them now. Those that are getting the books in paper can order and have them in just a few days.
Those of you reading the Orbit editions and have just completed Rise of Empire, it looks as if Heir of Novron is available in your local store.
At long last the series is over, but until you get your chance to read the book, I suggest you stay away from the Internet as spoilers are popping up like weeds.

First Sighting

Heir of Novron was first found at a Books-A-Million in Butler, Pennsylvania. It was found and shot by Michael Tynan thus winning him the exclusive Riyria shirt.
Congratulations Mike!

Heir of Novron Available

Countdown, Day-3

Heir of Novron is no longer listed as a pre-order. Both Barnes and Noble and Amazon are showing the book as "in stock" and purchasable. We're almost there. Still looking for that first sighting.