Saturday, March 30, 2013

Good News and Bad News

Other than the announcement that a book has been published, this is the biggest news that has ever appeared on this page.  We're moving to the "right side of the tracks."  Our self publishing days may well be over.

Amazon's Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror "imprint" or publishing house, known as 47North (the latitude of Seattle, Washington, where Amazon is headquartered), has offered a three book deal.  We are currently in negotiations, and there are some small differences between what they are offering and what we want, but I can't imagine any of them being deal breakers.

Under the terms of the current offer, 47North will re-issue the first two "Man of War" novels, To Honor You Call Us and For Honor We Stand in early 2014.  The re-issued novels will be professionally edited and designed, with high quality cover art, hardback, paperback, ebook, and audio book versions, and all the other panoply of major house publication (including something that, for some reason, means a lot to me--justified right margins in the print versions).  So, those little homonym errors, the confusion of EMCON and EMCOM, and those other intensely irritating mistakes that managed to slip past three different proofreaders in eight different proofreads will be eliminated.  The third not-yet-written novel, Brothers in Valor will be written with the advice and guidance of a professional developmental editor and will receive the same treatment.

Meanwhile, the current editions of both books will remain available until shortly before issuance of the new ones.  We hope and expect that people will continue to buy them.

The bad news is that readers of the first two books will have to wait a bit longer to get the third book in their hands.  We were looking for a release of Book III in June or July of this year.  That will now be in March 2014, a delay of eight or nine months.  I know that many readers will find that delay frustrating.  We certainly do.  However, I'm sure you will understand the commercial necessity of issuing the third book under 47North's imprint after issuance of the first two books.  Those publication dates are as early as they can be made because, like any publisher, 47North publishes only so many books per month so that they can receive the appropriate promotion and other resources to make them successful.  The publication schedule is set many months in advance.

The compensation for you readers for this delay will be that you will have in your hands a much higher quality product.  That is not to say that what we have previously issued is not high quality.  We are very proud of the quality that we were able to deliver with the small but dedicated team who brought you the first two books in their self-published versions.  After all, look at the customer ratings--as of this writing both books are in the top 40 of all the Military Science Fiction and War Fiction books ever published in terms of their Amazon customer ratings.  Not a bad job for a 53 year old retired lawyer with heart problems, a retired Law Office Manager/Medical Billing Specialist, a retired teacher, and a retired school librarian.  We have nothing to be ashamed of and believe, along with many readers who have said as much in reviews, that the editorial quality of these books is as high as that they have seen in many professionally published works.  Going through 47North, however, will make the quality even better.  We are going to raise the bar and try to give you Military Science Fiction/Space Naval Fiction as good as anything out there in the market today.  We aim to blow your socks off.

Seriously.  We are huge fans of Timothy Zahn, Tom Clancy, Patrick Robinson's modern naval fiction, and Patrick O'Brian's naval fiction set in the early 19th Century.  And, let's not forget the Olde Tyme and Newe Tyme Greats of Science Fiction:  Asimov, Silverberg, Clark, Heinlein, E.E. "Doc" Smith, Spinrad, Poul Anderson, Keith Laumer, Robert L. Forward, David Brin, Greg Bear, etc.  Huge.  Fans. What we are aiming for is something very simple, yet hugely ambitious:  to forge a new genre--Space Naval Fiction.  There are glimmers of it elsewhere:  David Weber's Honor Harrington Series, the naval and shipboard business in The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (God, what an amazing book that is!).  But we want to put together in one package something that we have never seen anywhere else.  We aim to give readers from the perspective of a space warship in the year 2315 the nitty gritty of the maneuvers, the "how to," the lives of the men, and the "feel" of shipboard life that Patrick O'Brian gives of a British Frigate in 1815.  We want the believable future technology and future tactics of Timothy Zahn, the techno-thriller razzle dazzle of Tom Clancy.  Plus the believable naval characters and grand strategy of Patrick Robinson.  And the hard science validity of Robert L. Forward.  Plus the compelling stories, the energy and the vividly, plausibly-realized alien races of Niven and Pournelle and David Brin, wrapped in the vast sweeping galactic scope of Asimov and the rest.

Not much to shoot for, is it!  Arrogance?  Maybe.  But, we hope not.  Rather, we like to think of it as aiming high.  We know we're not Asimov or Zahn or Clancy or O'Brian or any of these other folks.  We've got two novels under our belts and that's it.  We've got a lot of sweat and long hours and elbow grease until we can even remotely approach that level. Only by making the attempt will we learn whether we have anything like the talent required to accomplish such an undertaking.  Nevertheless, we refuse to aim low.  That is our target:  Space Naval Fiction.  Exciting.  Scientifically and militarily valid.  Gritty.  Epic.  Stories as big as the galaxy in which they are set.

Game on.  

But, we digress.

Back to business.  This offer also includes an "option" on the fourth book, which would be the first book of the second Max Robichaux/Ibrahim Sahin trilogy.  These publishers will have thirty days to accept or reject the manuscript.  If they reject it, we can go back to publishing it as we did the first two novels, or we can shop it to other publishers.  We don't think either of those things is going to happen.  Rather, we are confident that these books will do quite well under the 47North imprint and that you will be reading Robichaux/Sahin novels issued by them for many years to come.

We look forward to a long and mutually profitable association with 47North, and we ask that readers be patient until we and our publishing partners can bring to you a truly excellent reading experience that will keep you coming back for more swashbuckling adventures in the Orion-Cygnus Arm of the Milky Galaxy in the early 24th Century.  We will work night and day to be sure that these new books are worth the wait. 

4 comments:

Duncan said...

Well, I AM a bit disappointed that the book will not be coming out this year. When i heard that it was coming out June/July, I was thinking "Book coming out just before my birthday? Self-bought birthday gift!". However, I am also exited about the prospect of some cover art for the books(YES! This is going to be AWESOME!). One advantage I can see in this is that you will have plenty of time to write the first book of the next trilogy and hopefully there will not be much delay in it's release! Well it looks like I will have to content myself with waiting till next March. Look forward to reading the next book and any more books you publish, you are already one of my favorite authors.

H. Paul Honsinger, Military Science Fiction Author and Retired Attorney said...

Duncan, thank you for the very kind comment. It is very flattering to hear that I am one of someone's favorite authors, particularly given how new I am to fiction writing and how suddenly I came to find myself doing this for a living. I believe and hope that the new product will be worth waiting for. Already, working with a professional editor, I am seeing "To Honor You Call Us" turn into a tighter, more exciting, better book. Even the best player needs a good coach, and Mike Shohl is turning out to be a good coach. Of course, he needs a little help understanding the effect of thermonuclear weapons detonations in a vacuum and a few similar items, but I can tutor him so he'll be a better editor for other Sci Fi writers! At least, that's what I keep telling myself. Thanks again. I'm sure the new editions will be worth the wait.

Unknown said...

Hi there

Have to say, intensely disappointed upon learning we have to wait until next year for the 3rd installment of this fantastic series...I've only got so many sets of fingernails to go through!!

However, it is what it is and I understand that you want to give us the best possible novel to read (and believe me, the previous two have been some of the best novels I've read over the years!!).

So ...roll on 2014!.. and thankyou for giving us such a brilliant and outstanding;) read. Don't forget you have a small (but growing!) and loyal following in the UK and Europe (see the +ve comments on Amazon.co.uk)

Regards

Lee

Anonymous said...

I'll be interested to see the redux of the first two books, as well as the new book to come. How about updating us as to publication dates for all of them? Thanks for writing these great books and keep them coming.

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