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Sandy
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Jan 09, 2024 12:17PM

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Save all that for the spoilers post.
...Although I would be gratified if the very first comment isn't a typo note! It is, after all, a place to discuss the story, not the errata, but the latter have a weird way of taking over.
People could discuss the old & new covers here, though. Ron made some subtle changes that solved the problems being mooted in the December post -- it'll be interesting if anyone can spot them.
Ta, L.


GR apparently forbids links in comments, which may be why this one does not work. Apple Books is not search-friendly, but maybe we can figure out a work-around?
L.


The cover looks more impressive now that I can see it larger, on my computer monitor.
As I understand it, the maximum size of a novella under Hugo and Nebula Award rules is 40,000 words, so it seems that this is officially a short novel! I’d already noticed that a number of books sold as novellas in recent years seem to be longer than 40,000 words, although I know no easy way to get an accurate word count. (Also, the word count varies depending on exactly what you count as a word.)

The cover looks more impressive now that I can see it larger, on m..."
Novellas are a very interesting length. The Hugo/Nebula word-count thing is entirely arbitrary, and a historical artifact by now. Also, irrelevant if one is not chasing SF awards. Novellas used to be an underpopulated category, because the pulp mags had room for very few, and they weren't long enough to be sold as books. The space between ~40k and ~70k words was sort of a weird no-man's land. All those paper limits are now gone -- I talk about this at greater length in my intros to the first two Baen Pen & Des collections.
Ta, L.

Lois wrote: “GR apparently forbids links in comments, which may be why this one does not work. Apple Books is not search-friendly, but maybe we can figure out a work-around?
L.”
For me it didn't function as a link, but when I copypasted it into chrome it went straight to the correct page.

Lois wrote: “GR apparently forbids links in comments, which may be why this one does not work. Apple Books is not search-friendly, but maybe we can figure out a..."
Aha. I had tried that and it didn't work, possible because I'd dragged along some extra characters, but it worked just now in my Firefox. I shall add it above in the post (where it will work.)
thanks, L.

The story has only just been submitted to Blackstone last week (I presume); I doubt they've had time to get to it yet. Assuming it's not lost in the shuffle (an event with precedent) it's certainly my intention to license it to them like all my other work.
Best case would see it produced in about six months, but that depends on Blackstone's schedules.
Ta, L.

Well, not really: it was occupied by novels. It seems to me that the expected length of a novel has been creeping up during my lifetime (and yours), which has led to similar inflation in the expected length of a novella.
Ben Aaronovitch’s recent “Winter’s Gifts” is sold as a novella, and described on Amazon as 227 pages in hardback: similar to “Ethan of Athos” (224 pages in hardback).
There are various 20th century books thought of as novels that are less than 200 pages long. Examples: Panshin’s “Masque World” (157 pages in paperback), Niven’s “World of Ptavvs” (160 pages in hardback), Kapp’s “The Survival Game” (184 pages), Zelazny’s “Doorways in the Sand” (195 pages in hardback).
Martha Wells’s recent “System Collapse” (256 pages in hardback) is sold as a novel, but has been described as a novella by at least one reviewer.
I like novellas, but is there any distinction between a novella and a novel that is not arbitrary?
“I talk about this at greater length in my intros to the first two Baen Pen & Des collections.”
Unfortunately I miss out on these intros because I buy only e-books these days.

Mira’s Last Dance (1326), Knot of Shadows (1426), Masquerade in Lodi (1575), Penric’s Demon (1612), Penric and the Shaman (1745), Penric’s Fox (1792), Demon Daughter (1918), The Physicians of Vilnoc (2013), The Orphans of Raspay (2019), The Prisoner of Limnos (2125), Penric’s Mission (2140), The Assassins of Thasalon (4030).
Some others for comparison: Winterfair Gifts (1033), The Flowers of Vashnoi (1107), Ethan of Athos (3064), Komarr (5726), The Hallowed Hunt (8177), A Civil Campaign (9259).
I count from the beginning of the story to the end of the story, omitting front and back matter.
The length of a story isn’t very important to me. When reading, I don’t really notice that A Civil Campaign is an unusually long novel, or that Ethan of Athos is a rather short one. I like both of them. But I’ve made a list of the lengths as a matter of statistical curiosity.

Well, not really: it was occupied by novels. It seems to me that the expected length of a novel has been cree..."
There is very little about fiction that is not arbitrary or subjective, but as to page count, it's pretty useless for comparing the lengths of paper books. Typesetter choices of font, line spacing, margins, break spaces between chapters, etc., mean that the same number of words can be made either a 300-page book or a 600-page book. (I've seen this, in different editions of the same titles.)
Off the top of my head, Mirror Dance was my longest novel at about 163k words; Ethan of Athos the shortest at 62.7k. Which is indeed not that far from my longest novella, "Knife Children", at 53k, which does fall into that no-man's-land between categorizations, but which I think of as functionally a novella. "Winterfair Gifts" was my shortest novella at 23.5k. The Curse of Chalion was substantial but not especially long at 143k.
But you're right about length creep. When I first started at Baen contractual word counts were set at 80k words minimum; that rose to 100k at last look. The Assassins of Thasalon, at about 85k, would be considered a short novel these days if I had to care. Which, happily, I don't, for these indie epubs.
Ta, L.

I realize that, but it’s often the only measure that’s available. If I have a Kindle copy of the book, I can measure it in ‘locations’, which is almost certainly better than page count. But a word count remains unavailable.
If you’re the author or publisher, you can easily put the book through some word-counting software, but this isn’t feasible for ordinary members of the public, who don’t have access to the source file.


100% I have the whole series in audible and his voice acting is perfect. I can hear him in my head now as Des - "Penric attend!"

Several days of horsing around with every solution anyone could think of and much emailing various Supports has not yet managed to get rid of them.
We could still upload it with the flaw embedded, to the confusion of future readers, but I'd rather wait a bit more and see if some fix does emerge. Meanwhile, since we've just started to put my Spectrum ebooks up on that vendor, I voted for just continuing to upload my other titles, which is going to take a while.
And that's what's going on there.
Ta, L.

Following up on my prior reply, I'm pleased to report Blackstone's audiobook offer came in yesterday, now accepted. Grover Gardner is confirmed as the narrator, and I'm given to understand they will be wanting to move production right along. Yay!
"Moving right along" for a company this size does not mean instantly, but looking at past performance a conservative guess of 4 - 6 months ought to be about right.
Ta, L.

It's been submitted to them. They've hardly had time to get back yet. Because this tale was something of a surprise to everyone (including me) nobody's had lead time for other editions. (Though Blackstone was really fast in their response.)
Anyway, if a contract is made, I'll definitely report it. Even if contracted, I'd expect a year to paper publication, though.
Ta, L.

They are all about the same. Pick to your own convenience.
Ta, L.

...
Nah, everyone, I'm pulling your collective leg. Minor spoiler: Penric doesn't die in the story. You can read my actual review here, if you're curious; I avoided major spoilers.



Ah, Amazon email! That explains the novella's pop up in Kindle sales ranking this weekend.
How do people get those emails, and what are they exactly? I know I have nothing to do with it.
Ta, L.

I suppose Richard was referring to the quite frequent messages of suggested reading based on your recent activity on the Amazon site.

Past 6 months I've not obsessivly trolled Goodreads, so missed advance notices DD was in the works. My ungood.


By now Amazon may know even more about me than Google does.

Ahh, that explains why I have felt that the last few years of Baen books could be shortened without damaging the story. Some of those authors were padding the word count.

...
Nah, everyone, I'm pulling your collective le..."
That was mean!!

Not known yet, but it's contracted to Subterranean Press. I'll post on this blog when there's firm news, which will be when SubPress makes their own website announcement. 6 months to a year at a guess. I will have 1200 tip sheets to sign sometime first...
Ta, L.