Martha Wells's Blog, page 192
February 10, 2011
Answering Questions and eBooks
I've been getting some questions on when The Cloud Roads ebook version is coming out. There's some confusion because even though the book's official release date is March, people who ordered directly from the publisher are now getting their copies.
Amazon now has a shipping date for the trade paperback of February 22, so (if Amazon isn't just confused) if you preordered from there or one of the other online retailers, you'll probably get it sometime after that. I suspect it won't start showing up in stores until the end of February or beginning of March.
The Kindle edition and the Baen Webscription (that's a link to the list of Night Shade books there) version will probably be available closer to the original release date, of early March.
I check on availability of all versions at every online retailer every day -- sometimes several times a day (it's the OCD) -- so as soon as I see it showing up, I'll post here. You can also check The Cloud Roads (that first link up there) page on my web site, where there are links to its listings on all the retailers I can find, and where I'll also add the links to the ebook listings as soon as they show up.
***
Writing question:
![[info]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1380442897i/1319734.gif)
ann_christine
asked Your books are among the most original and interesting ones I've ever read (although it's a bit of a challenge to buy them in Poland). I must admit I've read "The Death of the Necromancer" a few times already, but I keep wondering if Arisilde is a character inspired by a real person or just an invented one? Do we know anything more about his past or family? I'm curious, because he's one of my favourite book characters.
Thank you! The Polish publisher did lovely editions of The Wizard Hunters and The Ships of Air, then decided not to do The Gate of Gods, which has to be very frustrating for the people reading the series in Polish. I'm really sorry.
I like Arisilde a lot, too. He's not based on any real person. (I don't base my characters on real people, though some of them have combinations of characteristics I've seen in different people. I sometimes base their appearance on particular actors I like.) He came from an aristocratic family in Vienne, who disowned him after his reaction to Edouard Viller's death, and because of his drug use. It would have been hard for them to contact him after that, since it was impossible for anyone to find him unless he wanted to be found.
Still taking writing questions here. On writing and/or publishing in general, or on my writing.
Amazon now has a shipping date for the trade paperback of February 22, so (if Amazon isn't just confused) if you preordered from there or one of the other online retailers, you'll probably get it sometime after that. I suspect it won't start showing up in stores until the end of February or beginning of March.
The Kindle edition and the Baen Webscription (that's a link to the list of Night Shade books there) version will probably be available closer to the original release date, of early March.
I check on availability of all versions at every online retailer every day -- sometimes several times a day (it's the OCD) -- so as soon as I see it showing up, I'll post here. You can also check The Cloud Roads (that first link up there) page on my web site, where there are links to its listings on all the retailers I can find, and where I'll also add the links to the ebook listings as soon as they show up.
***
Writing question:
ann_christine
asked Your books are among the most original and interesting ones I've ever read (although it's a bit of a challenge to buy them in Poland). I must admit I've read "The Death of the Necromancer" a few times already, but I keep wondering if Arisilde is a character inspired by a real person or just an invented one? Do we know anything more about his past or family? I'm curious, because he's one of my favourite book characters.Thank you! The Polish publisher did lovely editions of The Wizard Hunters and The Ships of Air, then decided not to do The Gate of Gods, which has to be very frustrating for the people reading the series in Polish. I'm really sorry.
I like Arisilde a lot, too. He's not based on any real person. (I don't base my characters on real people, though some of them have combinations of characteristics I've seen in different people. I sometimes base their appearance on particular actors I like.) He came from an aristocratic family in Vienne, who disowned him after his reaction to Edouard Viller's death, and because of his drug use. It would have been hard for them to contact him after that, since it was impossible for anyone to find him unless he wanted to be found.
Still taking writing questions here. On writing and/or publishing in general, or on my writing.
February 9, 2011
Taking Writing Questions
After a few days of nice weather we're now back to freezing rain mist. Though it's not supposed to last very long, hopefully.
***
I haven't done this in a while and I have some new friended people (Hi new friended people!) so here we go:
If anyone has a question about writing and/or publishing in general, or about my writing in particular, comment with it here and I'll answer it in a later post if I know what the answer is.
Past writing questions are tagged here.
***
I also have a section on my web site of links to Publishing Information Sites for Beginning Authors. The categories include Basic Information, Craft of Writing/the Writing Life, Business of Writing, Submitting Stories to Magazines, Finding an Agent, Writing Queries, Writing Proposals.
***
I haven't done this in a while and I have some new friended people (Hi new friended people!) so here we go:
If anyone has a question about writing and/or publishing in general, or about my writing in particular, comment with it here and I'll answer it in a later post if I know what the answer is.
Past writing questions are tagged here.
***
I also have a section on my web site of links to Publishing Information Sites for Beginning Authors. The categories include Basic Information, Craft of Writing/the Writing Life, Business of Writing, Submitting Stories to Magazines, Finding an Agent, Writing Queries, Writing Proposals.
February 8, 2011
I had to go have blood taken this morning, so I'm not fee...
I had to go have blood taken this morning, so I'm not feeling particularly well. I did get someone who was really good and found the vein on the first try, so that was a relief. I can apparently will my veins to withdraw into my body whenever anybody wants to draw blood, so sometimes they have to use the tiny little needle and take it out of my hand. That hurts a lot.
I'm reading N.K. Jemisin's The Broken Kingdoms and really enjoying it. It's set in a very cool city with godlings living alongside the mortal inhabitants. The main character is a woman who is a blind artist who can only see magic, getting involved in a situation where someone is murdering the godlings.
nisi_la
has the info for applying to Clarion West
Washington Post: What it costs for a best-selling e-book: $12.99 Contrary to popular belief, the costs of creating an e-book and a hardcover edition are similar. About 10 percent of hardcover costs go to printing, binding and shipping. Publishers set a retail price for an e-book, and selling agents such as Amazon.com and Apple receive a flat percentage of that retail price. These estimates are based on sales of 75,000. Expenses for a book include one-time costs such as editing and marketing. Many e-books lose money for publishers; e-books that sell millions of copies offset losses from less popular books.
Rachelle Gardner explains the differences between Sell-in, Sell-Through, Earn-Out (and Returns)
I'm reading N.K. Jemisin's The Broken Kingdoms and really enjoying it. It's set in a very cool city with godlings living alongside the mortal inhabitants. The main character is a woman who is a blind artist who can only see magic, getting involved in a situation where someone is murdering the godlings.
nisi_la
has the info for applying to Clarion WestWashington Post: What it costs for a best-selling e-book: $12.99 Contrary to popular belief, the costs of creating an e-book and a hardcover edition are similar. About 10 percent of hardcover costs go to printing, binding and shipping. Publishers set a retail price for an e-book, and selling agents such as Amazon.com and Apple receive a flat percentage of that retail price. These estimates are based on sales of 75,000. Expenses for a book include one-time costs such as editing and marketing. Many e-books lose money for publishers; e-books that sell millions of copies offset losses from less popular books.
Rachelle Gardner explains the differences between Sell-in, Sell-Through, Earn-Out (and Returns)
February 7, 2011
I started out the day by falling down the stairs. The sta...
I started out the day by falling down the stairs. The stairs are carpeted and I fell backward, so landed on my butt and slid most of the way down. But the two half-full bowls of cat food I was holding went flying and are now all over the stairwell. Not a great start to the week, but it could be worse.
Okay, finally got The Element of Fire up on Barnes and Noble as a NookBook. This is the real authorized edition by me. It's $2.95. When I get a chance, I'll get City of Bones up there too.
Courtney Schafer has a great article on the Night Bazaar on the submission and acquisition process for novels, and what happens after you get an agent: Here Be Dragons.
Kelly and Laura McCullough are on Neil Gaiman's blog: Once You've Got a Lampost... with some fabulous photos by Matt Kuchta.
A very serious link: The Lipstick Chronicles: The Least Among Us This is the story of how writer Melissa Mia Hall died, and why she didn't have to.
Okay, finally got The Element of Fire up on Barnes and Noble as a NookBook. This is the real authorized edition by me. It's $2.95. When I get a chance, I'll get City of Bones up there too.
Courtney Schafer has a great article on the Night Bazaar on the submission and acquisition process for novels, and what happens after you get an agent: Here Be Dragons.
Kelly and Laura McCullough are on Neil Gaiman's blog: Once You've Got a Lampost... with some fabulous photos by Matt Kuchta.
A very serious link: The Lipstick Chronicles: The Least Among Us This is the story of how writer Melissa Mia Hall died, and why she didn't have to.
February 6, 2011
I'm not watching the Superbowl (I originally typed "suppe...
I'm not watching the Superbowl (I originally typed "supperbowl" which may have something to do with the fact that I haven't had breakfast yet) because I used to watch football (back when I was in college, when the Gipper was playing) but I've just gradually lost interest in it over the years. The only TV sports I really get into now are the Olympics (Winter more so than Summer, for some reason) and the Expedition Racing they used to show on TV, which I absolutely loved. (see Patagonian Expedition Racing and the Wikipedia article) They still do it, they just don't show it on TV here anymore that I can tell. I wish they would. I would drink beer and scream at the TV just like people do with football.
I'll probably just watch the Ghost Hunters marathon and write.
Links:
The Night Bazaar Guest Post: Pseudonyms and Multiple Personalities Laura Bickle (a.k.a. Alayna Wiliams) on writing under pseudonyms.
The Guardian: Unpublished Works by Dashiell Hammett Found in Texas
Science Daily: Part of New Zealand's Submerged Pink Terraces Found This was called the Eighth Wonder of the World in the 19th century.
Atlas Obscura: Skellig Michael Perfectly preserved ancient monastery in an impossibly dramatic location on a rocky island in the Atlantic
Neat Art: Netherworld Archipelago
I'll probably just watch the Ghost Hunters marathon and write.
Links:
The Night Bazaar Guest Post: Pseudonyms and Multiple Personalities Laura Bickle (a.k.a. Alayna Wiliams) on writing under pseudonyms.
The Guardian: Unpublished Works by Dashiell Hammett Found in Texas
Science Daily: Part of New Zealand's Submerged Pink Terraces Found This was called the Eighth Wonder of the World in the 19th century.
Atlas Obscura: Skellig Michael Perfectly preserved ancient monastery in an impossibly dramatic location on a rocky island in the Atlantic
Neat Art: Netherworld Archipelago
February 4, 2011
Snow Day
We had an ice rain then snow last night! Usually, we either never get snow down here, or it never sticks to the pavement, which still retains too much heat. This time, it's been below freezing since Tuesday, so we have snow-covered streets.
I also remembered why I like to live somewhere that's normally warm to the point of tropical when I walked outside last night at about 7:00 and got hit with a sinus/migraine headache that lasted until for the rest of the night. Very glad it's gone this morning.
Oh, I got all the books mailed off to the winners of the drawing. There were four winners in the US, one in the UK, and one in Canada.
I got an awesome review of The Cloud Roads over at the Finnish fantasy review site RisingShadow.net without a doubt one of the best and most original fantasy books of 2011. This rich and well imagined fantasy book invites readers to explore a new world which is inhabited by strange beings. It also offers wondrous and beautiful vistas to its readers, because the world is full of wonders. It tells a bit about the story, but no real spoilers, especially if you've already read the first two chapters on my web site.
I also remembered why I like to live somewhere that's normally warm to the point of tropical when I walked outside last night at about 7:00 and got hit with a sinus/migraine headache that lasted until for the rest of the night. Very glad it's gone this morning.
Oh, I got all the books mailed off to the winners of the drawing. There were four winners in the US, one in the UK, and one in Canada.
I got an awesome review of The Cloud Roads over at the Finnish fantasy review site RisingShadow.net without a doubt one of the best and most original fantasy books of 2011. This rich and well imagined fantasy book invites readers to explore a new world which is inhabited by strange beings. It also offers wondrous and beautiful vistas to its readers, because the world is full of wonders. It tells a bit about the story, but no real spoilers, especially if you've already read the first two chapters on my web site.
February 3, 2011
It's been below freezing here since Tuesday night, and ye...
It's been below freezing here since Tuesday night, and yesterday most of the state was having rolling blackouts to try to conserve power. I didn't get one at home, probably because our house is close to both a high school and a hospital. (Though the steam heating plant at the university was down for several hours yesterday.) There's a winter storm warning starting at noon, so I need to get to the post office before then.
Links:
Good way to keep up with events in Egypt: Al Jazeera English on Twitter They're also posting stories on the cyclone in Australia.
When you need a break, two links from the Henson company: Jim Henson's Red Book In June 1965, 28-year-old Jim Henson started a written log of his activities in what became known as "The Red Book." He noted down what had happened up until that point (deemed "Ancient History") and then recorded anything that he felt was worth recording as single line journal entries until the end of 1988.
Neat t-shirts from Stargate: Atlantis, Farscape, and tons of other shows.
From Facebook: The Star Wars Weather Forecast for Your City At the moment, we're Hoth, though normally we're a weird hybrid of Endor and Tatooine.
From Rick Klaw: Photos of the Moebius exhibition in Paris
Links:
Good way to keep up with events in Egypt: Al Jazeera English on Twitter They're also posting stories on the cyclone in Australia.
When you need a break, two links from the Henson company: Jim Henson's Red Book In June 1965, 28-year-old Jim Henson started a written log of his activities in what became known as "The Red Book." He noted down what had happened up until that point (deemed "Ancient History") and then recorded anything that he felt was worth recording as single line journal entries until the end of 1988.
Neat t-shirts from Stargate: Atlantis, Farscape, and tons of other shows.
From Facebook: The Star Wars Weather Forecast for Your City At the moment, we're Hoth, though normally we're a weird hybrid of Endor and Tatooine.
From Rick Klaw: Photos of the Moebius exhibition in Paris
February 2, 2011
Free Book Drawing -- Winners
Okay, we have the winners of the drawing for an autographed copy of The Cloud Roads!
There was a total of 85 entries -- 70 from Live Journal, 14 from Dreamwidth, and 1 from the mirror of my journal on GoodReads. I drew six winners, because it turns out that when you're drawing names to give people something free, it's fun and you have this urge to keep going.
I know there's a way to do this online with a randomizer program whatever, but this is the scientific method used to do it:
And the six winners are:
queenoftheskies
joyfulseeker
thefourthvine
hikkup
grammarwoman
(from Dreamwidth)
ivylore
I'll also notify them as replies to their comments in case they don't see this post.
***
In other news, I've been asked to be the Guest of Honor at ApolloCon 8 in Houston, TX, on June 24-26. So I'm very happy about that. It's only the second time I've been guest of honor at a convention.
There was a total of 85 entries -- 70 from Live Journal, 14 from Dreamwidth, and 1 from the mirror of my journal on GoodReads. I drew six winners, because it turns out that when you're drawing names to give people something free, it's fun and you have this urge to keep going.
I know there's a way to do this online with a randomizer program whatever, but this is the scientific method used to do it:
And the six winners are:
queenoftheskies
joyfulseeker
thefourthvine
hikkup
grammarwoman
(from Dreamwidth)
ivylore
I'll also notify them as replies to their comments in case they don't see this post.
***
In other news, I've been asked to be the Guest of Honor at ApolloCon 8 in Houston, TX, on June 24-26. So I'm very happy about that. It's only the second time I've been guest of honor at a convention.
February 1, 2011
Free Book Drawing -- Now Closed as of 2/2/11
Okay, this is the great book drawing post foretold in legend, or the one I mentioned last week.
This will be a drawing for a free copy of my new fantasy novel The Cloud Roads. (See a description, cover art, reviews, and sample chapters at that link). Note that these are trade paperbacks, and that the winners can ask to have their book signed and personalized.
* Comment on this post with some indication that you want to enter the drawing. You have until tomorrow at about mid-morning or so CST to enter. At that point I'll call a halt and randomly draw at least three winners. The winners will have to provide me with a mailing address and let me know if they want the book just signed, or personalized with their name (or someone else's name if it's a gift).
* I will pay for the shipping, and yes, entries with international shipping addresses are fine.
* Only one entry per person, please. You can enter either on Live Journal or on Dreamwidth, but not both.
If for some reason there are tons of entries, I may add a couple more copies. If you don't want to enter but you know someone who might, please let them know about it.
ETA: 61 entries so far on LJ and DW, so I'll go ahead and make it five copies.
ETA 2/2/11: Contest is now closed. I'll post the winners and notify them today.
***
That's a big storm we're having now. We won't have much if any snow down here, but we may have ice. I woke up last night to wind that sounded like hurricane Ike all over again, but it didn't go on nearly as long.
This will be a drawing for a free copy of my new fantasy novel The Cloud Roads. (See a description, cover art, reviews, and sample chapters at that link). Note that these are trade paperbacks, and that the winners can ask to have their book signed and personalized.
* Comment on this post with some indication that you want to enter the drawing. You have until tomorrow at about mid-morning or so CST to enter. At that point I'll call a halt and randomly draw at least three winners. The winners will have to provide me with a mailing address and let me know if they want the book just signed, or personalized with their name (or someone else's name if it's a gift).
* I will pay for the shipping, and yes, entries with international shipping addresses are fine.
* Only one entry per person, please. You can enter either on Live Journal or on Dreamwidth, but not both.
If for some reason there are tons of entries, I may add a couple more copies. If you don't want to enter but you know someone who might, please let them know about it.
ETA: 61 entries so far on LJ and DW, so I'll go ahead and make it five copies.
ETA 2/2/11: Contest is now closed. I'll post the winners and notify them today.
***
That's a big storm we're having now. We won't have much if any snow down here, but we may have ice. I woke up last night to wind that sounded like hurricane Ike all over again, but it didn't go on nearly as long.
Free Book Drawing
Okay, this is the great book drawing post foretold in legend, or the one I mentioned last week.
This will be a drawing for a free copy of my new fantasy novel The Cloud Roads. (See a description, cover art, reviews, and sample chapters at that link). Note that these are trade paperbacks, and that the winners can ask to have their book signed and personalized.
* Comment on this post with some indication that you want to enter the drawing. You have until tomorrow at about mid-morning or so CST to enter. At that point I'll call a halt and randomly draw at least three winners. The winners will have to provide me with a mailing address and let me know if they want the book just signed, or personalized with their name (or someone else's name if it's a gift).
* I will pay for the shipping, and yes, entries with international shipping addresses are fine.
* Only one entry per person, please. You can enter either on Live Journal or on Dreamwidth, but not both.
If for some reason there are tons of entries, I may add a couple more copies. If you don't want to enter but you know someone who might, please let them know about it.
***
That's a big storm we're having now. We won't have much if any snow down here, but we may have ice. I woke up last night to wind that sounded like hurricane Ike all over again, but it didn't go on nearly as long.
This will be a drawing for a free copy of my new fantasy novel The Cloud Roads. (See a description, cover art, reviews, and sample chapters at that link). Note that these are trade paperbacks, and that the winners can ask to have their book signed and personalized.
* Comment on this post with some indication that you want to enter the drawing. You have until tomorrow at about mid-morning or so CST to enter. At that point I'll call a halt and randomly draw at least three winners. The winners will have to provide me with a mailing address and let me know if they want the book just signed, or personalized with their name (or someone else's name if it's a gift).
* I will pay for the shipping, and yes, entries with international shipping addresses are fine.
* Only one entry per person, please. You can enter either on Live Journal or on Dreamwidth, but not both.
If for some reason there are tons of entries, I may add a couple more copies. If you don't want to enter but you know someone who might, please let them know about it.
***
That's a big storm we're having now. We won't have much if any snow down here, but we may have ice. I woke up last night to wind that sounded like hurricane Ike all over again, but it didn't go on nearly as long.
