I've been watching from afar, and I'm a little concerned about a possible trend of books missing their release dates. For instance, Nathan Lowell's book,
Double Share, was to have been released at Xmas 2011. Ridan's site says that his remaining two books,
Captain's Share and
Owner's Share should be available in e-book and print formats in early 2012, yet none of those titles are even listed in Amazon.
Additionally, I noticed that Nathan's
blog has numerous posts about his frustration with what's going on at Ridan.
- In December he says that the release date of "before Christmas" is gone and bemoans the loss of momentum from earlier releases.
- In November he talks about waiting for the edits to return.
- In October he talks about
Double Share being pushed back "yet again".
- In September he talks about the
Double Share edits being in Ridan's hands and waiting for the release of "special editons" of previous books, which hasn't happened.
Sadly, it doesn't stop there. I looked at Ridan's site and noticed that AC Crispin's books also haven't been released.
They say:
Silent Dances and Shadow World will be released 12/10/2011 and Serpent's Gift by 12/12/2011. The last three books in the series are scheduled for release in early 2012.
Yet none of these books have been released, nor are they a blip on Amazon's site. If you want to generate excitement, most publishers get their upcoming titles up several months (at least) to generate pre-orders.
Since these are two big feathers in Ridan's cap, I'm concerned that basically five books have missed their deadlines.
I understand that Robin's father is ill, or passed away, which is horribly sad. But this underlines the same concerns as I have in the
Lethe thread, which is basically, life happens. Shit happens, and it sucks. But we, as publishers, have a larger concern to meet our contractual obligations. If we can't do it ourselves, we need to hire staff who can keep the company running.
I feel for Robin, but I also feel for her authors. What do you tell authors who have put a lot of energy, time, and money into promoting the upcoming release of their book? "Oops, sorry, I was too busy with my personal life"? As publishers, we don't have that luxury because release dates don't stop just because we had surgery or someone in our family passed. It's incredibly generous of authors who have the compassion to forgive a missed deadline due to personal issues. But the marketplace doesn't care one whit.
One can forgive a push back on one book. But five books? From your biggest authors? My concern is on two fronts; are these missed deadlines a casualty of personal issues, or is more energy being poured into her husband's books? It may be rude of me to ask, but it's not an insignificant concern. Robin is only one person, so how far can she spread herself before something breaks?
She may regret putting the 30-day rights to reversion clause in her contract. I would hate to do that kind of editing and promotion only to lose the author.
