Blade of Empire Delivered to Tor

[merlinscribe]

Hail Gentiles All:

It is my honor and my pleasure to announce to you that Dragon Prophecy Book II: Blade of Empire has been delivered to Tor Books. At the moment it is 161,000 words long. We'll see how many of those words make it into the finished book.

In other news, I'm 20,000 words into Scourge of Fate (aka Dragon Prophecy III) so you shouldn't have quite as long a wait for the next one.

Comments

that is great news!

[(Anonymous)]

I am so glad it is done but I wish there was a way to hurry along Tor... :) I just finished the first book and I cannot wait to see what happens next!

[(Anonymous)]

omg I am so excited!

[(Anonymous)]

Yay! How long do you think it will take for that to get to us?

Re: that is great news!

[merlinscribe]

And I can't wait to see what you think of it. I will keep you posted, but it's an unfortunate reality of publishing life that (the collective) you have more influence at Tor than I do about how and when the book appears.

[merlinscribe]

Thank you!

[merlinscribe]

The Platonic ideal of a book production schedule is twelve months from delivery to publication, but like most ideal things, it is rarely seen. If the author is famous and the book is eagerly-awaited, it can be much shorter: I believe one of the Harry Potter books was published six weeks after Rowling turned it in. If the author is *cough* less famous, it can take longer: Crown of Vengeance sat on its editor's desk for over a year before the mechanism of reading and editing and publishing it began.

So while I don't *know*, I will guess that it won't be out earlier than this fall, or later than next fall. When I have more information, I will post it here.

[(Anonymous)]

I do certainly hope it comes out as early as possible! Since it came out Crown of Vengeance has become one of my favorite books of all time, even more so than the rest of the Obsidian universe. I also really enjoyed it on audiobook, since it had fantastic narration. Do you as the author have any influence over the audiobooks? I assume it is mostly the publisher. I would love to see the same narrators come back and do Blade of Empire if at all possible. Also, do you know what the general turn-around from print to audiobook is?

Length

[(Anonymous)]

You mentioned that Crown of Vengeance had about 1000 pages cut from it at Tor's demand. Could you roughly give us the original length and the cut length of Crown of Vengeance in word count? Or alternatively could you give us the rough number of pages that Blade of Empire is? Just for comparison and to possibly see how much might end up getting cut. Hopefully none of it does!

Re: Length

[merlinscribe]

The first draft of "Crown of Vengeance" was roughly 450,000 words long. The second draft was 200,000 words long. The first draft of "Blade of Empire" is roughly 160,000 words long (no idea yet what size the second draft will be or how many pages that comes out to). BLADE is a shorter book because I would like to see the entire manuscript make it into print. (There are a couple of other things going on, too, but I can't talk about them yet.)

[merlinscribe]

As the author, I have no influence over the audiobooks. I know the same company will be doing the audiobook of BLADE, but I don't know if they'll bring back the same voice-actors. If you liked the cast, write to the audiobook publishers and tell them so. It helps more than you know.

As for publication, they can start recording as soon as there's a final draft, so it will probably come out very close to the book publication.

[(Anonymous)]

I have been really excited since the first time I read this, and I have been in a good mood since. I am surprised no one heard me a few states over. Hopefully it comes out this fall. Fingers Crossed.

Thank you for posting this.

[merlinscribe]

You're quite welcome!

Book Three is coming along nicely: seventy pages into the manuscript, and I'm about to start writing the first big battle scene.

[(Anonymous)]

Quoting and paraphrasing Lewis Carroll here, because I can't say it any better!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
"She" chortled in "her" joy.

I'll be JOYFUL whenever each of the books are available, but of course I hope for sooner rather than later!

Blade of the Empire

[(Anonymous)]

I love reading your books. The stories are rich in detail and characters have depth. I admit that I had a little nerd rage moment in the bookstore when I asked if the book had been released. The clerk seized the opportunity to crush my hopes in one fell swoop. I was stunned with disbelief. She laughed and suggested another book in the meantime. I found this site instead. Thank you for the tidbit. It will keep my impatience at bay for awhile longer and adds to my anticipation.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh that is so wonderful! I can't wait! I LOVED Crown of Vengeance!

[merlinscribe]

Thank you! That's wonderful to hear. When I began CROWN, I thought the task would be much simpler than it turned out to be. I felt I had established the world, its flora and fauna, and knew a bit about the sort of people who lived there. And then I discovered, much to my surprise, that I knew nothing about these Elves or this magic...

Re: Blade of the Empire

[merlinscribe]

Thank you for your kind words. I hope you will find the wait worth it when you read BLADE. I will keep everyone posted here on its progress toward print.

[merlinscribe]

As do I! I'm thirty thousand words into SCOURGE, and should be turning it in before the end of the year.

[(Anonymous)]

Woo hoo!! Happy dance! I will be pulling out all of the books and re-reading them for the billionth time in preparation for the next book. The stories are excellant. Once the rights reverse to you, please publish the full manuscript of crown of vengenence.

These and this

[(Anonymous)]

..... What you're implying sounds very exciting, sir.

Can't wait for Blade and Scourge!

Re: These and this

[merlinscribe]

Thank you! I wish to note that when Jermayan said that his ancestors were "savage and cruel," he was very much understating the case...

[merlinscribe]

I very much hope to do just that!

[(Anonymous)]

i am giddy with excitement! <3 Truly, i cherish these books, and the vivid universe created therein. Thank you so much for sharing your gift of story telling with us. I am going to the Tor website next, to beg them to publish these stories as soon as possible!

[merlinscribe]

Thank you so much for enjoying the story! I would be remiss if I did not mention that in terms of "encouraging" a publisher, emails mean very little. Paper mail gets a lot more attention.

[(Anonymous)]

Snail mail campaign to commence immediately! :-)

[merlinscribe]

Let's hope they take notice!

Something worked!!

[(Anonymous)]

I just found Blade of Empire, and put in my pre-order! I actually yelled "NO WAY!!" and giggled like a madman when i saw it. Thank you for continuing the story, despite the odds. I simply cannot wait to find out what happens next. :-)

Re: Something worked!!

[merlinscribe]

I hope that it exceeds your wildest imaginings. In a good way, of course.