Samhain Closure
A quick post re Samhain Publishing’s imminent closure and what that means for my books.
Samhain have announced that they will be shutting down, with their website going dark at the end of February. For me, the affected titles are the entire Charm of Magpies series including Jackdaw and Rag and Bone, and the standalone titles Think of England, Non Stop Till Tokyo, and The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal. That’s…quite a lot of my books.
***If you bought books directly from the Samhain site, DOWNLOAD THEM.*** Get everything to your library. There should be time enough that the site won’t fall over from demand, unlike the disgracefully rushed ARe closure, but if you’re having problems, take screenshots.
Books will start going off third party vendors (Amazon, Kobo etc) at the beginning of March (again, if you have Samhain titles stored in the cloud, download now).
Print titles will be available for a while longer as stock is sold through, but if you really want a print copy of anything Samhain, consider buying it now.
March is when they’ll start officially giving authors their rights back. My books may not be available for a period while this chunters through. I haven’t decided on what I do next, but assuming I self pub, it will take a while to reformat, tidy up, and get new covers done, and if I move to another publisher it will take considerably longer. On the other hand, there will probably be cool new cover art. That’s always fun.
A bit of good news is that return of rights mean I will at last be able to do audio books. This is something readers have been asking for, and hopefully I can get that in motion soon.
More news once I work out what to do; fist bump to all the authors affected as well as the excellent professionals who worked with Samhain–designers, editors, in house staff. This is a sad ending, but I had a very happy relationship with Samhain for a long time, starting when they offered to publish The Magpie Lord and changed my life. I’ll always be grateful for that.
A more cheerful post about EXCITING NEW SERIES follows!
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Yikes. Didn't realize purchased books could disappear from my Amazon content. I downloaded everything I bought direct from Samhain back when they first said they were closing but I thought my Amazon stuff was safe. I don't even know where to begin to find all the Samhain titles I've bought thru them. I wish publisher was listed along with title & author on my content list.Great news about audiobooks tho.
I hope you'll self publish. You have more control over your books and I imagine that must be a an all-round good thing?Cover art that's well done can be a good thing, if it is unique enough to really stand out and be truly individual and done with knowledge of the book in question.
But I question the value of covers in general. I will download everything I can find by the authors I like and I don't stop to look at the cover. It may impinge on a more subliminal level but I wouldn't base buying decisions on it. Not since realising that some covers (for other authors and probably other publishers) get recycled (quel horror).
I very much hope that your books will be available sooner rather than later, but I will probably check to see if I am missing any and buy them now. Better safe than having to wait.
Thanks for writing really wonderful books (a favourite is Think of England. I am just fascinated by it and keep thinking of the story).
Thank you
Giselle
Any ideas on how to make backup copies from my Kindle books? Don't own a laptop, just an iPad. Gonna lose a few my very favorites and three still unread but bought ones I haven't had time to read yet.
Am excited at the possibility of audiobooks! :)