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Having had a final round of “Just fix this bit right here…” from my agent today, Book IV is now with NewEditor. All but that chapter’s work got his approval earlier in the day; the past 8 days have been busy but apparently fruitful. Book IV grew back up to 170,800+ words, as my agent felt I had compressed some parts too much. (Since the book has been, since it’s supposed first-final-length, everything from 180,000+ down to 156,000 [when stuff was clearly missing!] and many, many points in between, a tad under 171,000 is probably a healthy weight for it.)
So…my copies of Echoes having arrived yesterday (when I couldn’t quit working to give them the attention they deserved) I’m now looking at the one right here beside me. Pretty. My Precioussssss!
The deities of distribution being what they are, some of you already have a copy (Sweden and someplace in New York) so it’s time to remind people of Spoiler Rules. I really can’t open a Spoiler Space for discussion yet (we need to be closer to the actual release date here) but I will do so as soon as it’s appropriate. In the meantime, please don’t discuss the contents of Echoes with those who don’t have one yet, or gloat too visibly.
Someone this past week wrote and asked me for a brief description of the book. Ahem. Right. It’s a book with a soldier and a dragon on the cover (in the US) and a soldier with a crossbow on the cover (in the UK.) A lot of stuff happens. Some people die. Some don’t. The characters range in age from mid-teens to really old, like thousands of years old. More stuff happens. Stuff keeps happening. A lot of it surprised me as I was writing it. (What? He/she did that? Why? Which I then had to figure out.)
But Book IV, in which even more stuff happens (lots and lots more stuff happens, also surprising me multiple times) is now with NewEditor and I am facing all the things in the last week that weren’t done, and must be done quickly because I didn’t really plan to spend the first week of February on Book IV, but on Book V and the other stuff.
Comment by Rowanmdm — February 7, 2012 @ 5:07 pm
I have two local independent book stores I frequent and I’m in a bit of a moral dilemma. Should I reserve a copy with the store I know calls and has people pick up their reserved copies as soon as they arrive (though the book isn’t shelved until the pub date) or with the store that actually adheres to the pub date and no one gets their books early? Decisions, decisions…
Comment by Laura BurgandyIce — February 7, 2012 @ 5:09 pm
Oh… Elizabeth!!! Would you like to send me one of your Preciouses?! I would so, so, so love to promote your New Arrival!!!!
I am begging unashamedly, but I have every intention of buying a copy the week they’re out. Regardless.
YAY!!
Comment by Rob — February 7, 2012 @ 5:10 pm
“…a brief description of the book.”
I had to laugh out loud at that paragraph, it sounds just like my 9-year-old son telling me what he just read. (30 minutes or more of reading a day.)
His last response to my question: “Dad, I’m not going to give the story away. If you want to know so bad, just read it yourself.”
The whole time my wife is trying not to laugh.
Comment by elizabeth — February 7, 2012 @ 9:35 pm
Rowandmdm: That’s your dilemma alone….I have no problem with someone getting their copy ahead as long as they don’t then throw it up on the internet and go “Nyah-nyah-nya-nyah-nyah” at me.
Laura: You do realize I have family and close friends with birthdays in the spring months, right? I don’t know how many, if any, will be left.
Rob: I was tempted to do the long form of that, a spoiler-free but otherwise accurate description. “There’s this guy who’s a king, and this other guy who’s a king, and this other other guy who’s a king, and this kid, and this other kid, and…”
Comment by Sharidann — February 8, 2012 @ 3:54 am
Congratulations.
I was one of the lucky ones with “A Dance with Dragons” last summer (which actually didn’t bring me anything as I wanted to do a whole reread first and got caught on the wrong foot…), not yet with Echoes… but c’est la vie.
Can’t wait though.
Comment by Sharidann — February 8, 2012 @ 3:58 am
Ah and another point which surprised me…
On amazon.de you can buy the HC for the usual money but they also offer the kindle version for LOTS less, which I find weird. As usually for a HC, the kindle edition price is higher….
Put the link up. (And yes, I ordered the HC 2 monthes ago! Nothing beats the feel of a good book in your hands)
http://www.amazon.de/Echoes-Betrayal-Paladins-Elizabeth-Moon/dp/0345508769/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328694927&sr=8-1
Comment by Rolv — February 8, 2012 @ 4:22 am
Great news! Must check with the bookstore!Hopefully, what’s good for Sweden is good for Norway as well …
Comment by Jenn — February 8, 2012 @ 7:30 am
I can hardly wait to find out about the king and the other king and the other king. Is there the pseudo king as well? Or does he count as a king now?
Comment by LouiseH — February 8, 2012 @ 8:08 am
Really? Sweden? That’s interesting. It is soooo pathetic that having waited nearly a year I cannot wait another two weeks. Let’s see if Holland can do a quick delivery as well. With checking around I found that there is this online store that swears (I called customer services to make sure)that even though they do not have it in stock their supplier can get it to them tomorrow and then they can get it to me on Friday. I caved and ordered. Let’s see if it works out.
Comment by elizabeth — February 8, 2012 @ 8:17 am
Pricing on Amazon in the US is so peculiar many writers want to do an Occupy Amazon Boardroom to make them explain what they’re up to and why they think it makes sense. And I’m told it gets even stranger in the Amazons overseas.
Comment by elizabeth — February 8, 2012 @ 8:25 am
Jenn: The pseudo king is really very pseudo. Very, VERY pseudo. But yes, he makes a cameo appearance. The other other king makes a bit longer appearance. But I teeter on the brink of breaking my own rule about spoilering (the sentence just deleted stepped off the brink into free-fall…) So I had best quit playing around with that crumbling edge.
Comment by Mike D — February 8, 2012 @ 9:00 am
Sharidann and Elizebeth
Thanks for the link to Amazon.de
The PL III hc is of course from EM’s US publishers (EUR 20.99)
The pb from her UK publishers at EUR 5.49
Each produced a Kindle eBook
(21 Feb) at EUR 10.53
(23 Feb) at EUR 5.49
It is unusual to see both on sale in a 3rd country area since contracts seldom assign anything but exclusive rights so probably a slip on someone’s part. The only example I am aware of anything similar for a recent book is that Lois McMaster Bujold’s Hallowed Hunt is also available in two Kindle editions from Amazon.de, Amazon.fr etc.
Update! A refresh shows only the 5.49 Kindle edition, another shows them both !
Due to the good fairies of Luxembourg who decided that VAT on eBooks should be at the printed books rate (3%) Amazon’s European prices fell from 1st Jan (all Kindle eBooks are sold from Luxembourg).
Mike D
Little Egret in Walton-on-Thames
Comment by Annabel (Mrs Redboots) — February 8, 2012 @ 11:26 am
My copy will come when Amazon decides to send it; and I do wish it were here tonight as I am not feeling well and Bed with a Good Book is called for.
Comment by Daniel Glover — February 8, 2012 @ 3:39 pm
Hooray!
Not good to be a week or more behind on Book V. But glad to hear IV is off to NewEditor.
Comment by PocketGoddess — February 8, 2012 @ 7:45 pm
I find that the closer I am to a good thing (a new book or game, dinner with a friend, etc.) the harder it is to wait.
I’ve already preordered the Kindle edition, and will be waiting up for midnight on the 20 so that I can start reading. I tend to race through on the first read, since I’m so excited I can’t help myself, and then read it again more slowly, so I catch every detail.
Being a reader and a gamer (and, let’s face it, an all-around nerd and proud of it!) I’m very glad that I was able to get a first edition bundle Sony PS Vita that will arrive on the 15th (a week before the official launch on the 22nd).
Otherwise I would have had a real dilemma: to read or to game? I strongly suspect that the book would have won!
Comment by Marit — February 9, 2012 @ 3:20 am
I was one of the lucky ones to find a copy in a local bookshop (in Uppsala, Sweden) a few days ago. Strangely enough, some of the Swedish webshops don’t even have it on pre-order yet.
The hours at work have felt unusually long this week, as I have been impatient to go home and continue reading. I finished the book last night, but will soon read it again, as I usually read books I like several times. My “significant other” thinks this is peculiar, and he is sure that it would spoil the books for him. For me, the repeated reading enhances my reading experience. (I sometimes wonder if others share my opinion or if I am alone in this.) Anyway, Elizabeth, thanks for yet another well-written and exciting book – now I’m impatient to read the next one!
Comment by Richard — February 9, 2012 @ 4:15 am
Marit, you are not alone in your opinion. Far from it.
Jenn (#8): no, it is Andressat who Counts. (Sorry everyone, couldn’t resist)
Comment by Sharidann — February 9, 2012 @ 5:56 am
@Marit : agree with you. I enjoy rereads and my girlfriend wonders time and again how I can NOT get bored by a second reading, considering I usually have a quite ok memory. 🙂
So.. as Richard said, you are not alone.
Comment by Jonathan Schor — February 9, 2012 @ 7:10 am
I am waiting for the audio edition of Echoes.
Hopefully, the money will start rolling in for you once the books are actually out.
I realize that you have no control over pricing, but the really high cost of the kindle edition is quite disheartening.
Comment by Jenn — February 9, 2012 @ 7:26 am
Occupy Amazon board room!!! I had to stop and wipe my glasses they were all teared up.
Richard #17 GROAN! It is a good think we have yet to meet any of the Barons who are childless.
Comment by Rolv — February 9, 2012 @ 8:36 am
Marit, Richard and Sheridann,
Agreeing completely on the re-read. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, a book not worth re-reading wasn’t worth reading in the first place.
Comment by Rolv — February 9, 2012 @ 8:41 am
Richard,
Since “Counts” are plural, shouldn’t it be Arcolin and Andressat? 😉 (neither could I resist …)
Comment by Rolv — February 9, 2012 @ 8:42 am
Jenn,
Luckily, you can’t inherit barrenness …
Comment by elizabeth — February 9, 2012 @ 9:02 am
Annabel: Hope you’re feeling better by now, and found another good book to take to bed (I always read when I’m sick, and if I’m too sick to read, I’m REALLY sick.)
Charles: I cannot imagine why B&N had stocked Kings in non fiction. Someone at that store may have disliked me or the book–I’ve heard of things like that happening–or maybe it was confused with a history book (!!!)
Daniel: And no sooner was Book IV in the hands of Editor than I started getting “now write us x-words for the publicity people” requests from both publishers. No worries–it’s fun.
PocketGoddess: That’s exactly how I read a new fiction book I’ve waited for: I cannot slow down on the first read so that’s a full-out race to the finish. Then back through it again…and again…usually 2-3 reads before I can let go of it and give it some shelf time before picking it up again.
Comment by elizabeth — February 9, 2012 @ 9:49 am
Marit, Richard, Sharidann, Rolv: I’ve been a re-reader since childhood. I don’t mind reading some books once (if they were “shrug” books that simply filled an hour or so on a plane or waiting room) but the books I have in the house are books to re-read multiple times. I’m not the same person when I come back to a book after a year or ten or twenty…I read it differently and it has new insights for me. If it doesn’t, then it goes into the giveaway pile. With many books (nearly all fiction) my first reading is fast–zip through, get to the end–and than an immediate start back, to linger over and savor the bits I particularly liked on first reading. Then a third, because the second reading offered some new really good bits to linger over.
I’ve never understood people who discard all books after one reading with “I’ve read that.”
Comment by Jenn — February 9, 2012 @ 11:23 am
Elizabeth,
That is exactly how I read books. Usually, the second read explains what I may have missed in the first read or shows all the subtle hints that give the book away if you take the time to pay attention the first read through. Also, if it is a book/author I have been waiting to read, the first read is next to impossible to put down. A book must be read in the first 24hrs of opening the front cover even if I lose sleep and turn into a bear (Kodiak really).
Comment by Daniel Glover — February 9, 2012 @ 12:08 pm
@Jenn
I’m really split on second reads when I’ve gotten into a character. Totally broken-spined and loose paged Pride & Prejudice but Emma I cannot get into rereading, “I missed …. THAT!?! How could I have been so think? etc.
So even my favorite “not with us” author I’m ambivalent with rereads.
But, I agree, in general, rereading is usually a good thing for a good book.
Comment by Rolv Olsen — February 9, 2012 @ 2:29 pm
Elizabeth and Jenn,
Me too. I have long since lost count of how many times I’ve reread Gimli’s account of the Glittering Caves of Aglarond, or of Lord Peter Wimsey ringing in the New Year, to take two glorious examples.
Other such magical moments happen when Master Oakhallow raises the highfire for Paks, and when she relates the incident to the Marshal-General.
Comment by LouiseH — February 10, 2012 @ 3:34 am
Elizabeth, Jenn, Rolv,
Definitely. If I do not reread a book, it goes into the recycling pile. I always find new things to wonder at in a book and it’s also like visiting old friends. You do not need to start from the beginning, you can revisit particular parts and skip over others and sometimes I just really need to read a certain book at a certain time. The last is what got me into buying books even when I was barely a teenager with hardly any pocket money. I’d read a book from the library, love it, hand it back in again and when I wanted to reread it, it would have been lent out to somebody else which would be really frustating. So to save myself and my nearest and dearest from an absolutely foul mood, I started buying the books so I could lay my hand on them whenever I wanted. And I learned to be very choosy in who I lend books to as even with writing down who I lent it to I would usually have to chase people.
Comment by LouiseH — February 10, 2012 @ 3:34 am
Elizabeth, Jenn, Rolv,
Definitely. If I do not reread a book, it goes into the recycling pile. I always find new things to wonder at in a book and it’s also like visiting old friends. You do not need to start from the beginning, you can revisit particular parts and skip over others and sometimes I just really need to read a certain book at a certain time. The last is what got me into buying books even when I was barely a teenager with hardly any pocket money. I’d read a book from the library, love it, hand it back in again and when I wanted to reread it, it would have been lent out to somebody else which would be really frustating. So to save myself and my nearest and dearest from an absolutely foul mood, I started buying the books so I could lay my hand on them whenever I wanted. And I learned to be very choosy in who I lend books to as even with writing down who I lent it to I would usually have to chase people.