Gauging the Market

So if I were to offer for sale an 18″ x 24″ poster of the simplified map of Ethshar of the Spices (the map area itself would be roughly 16″ x 12″) and additional material, would anyone be interested in buying a copy?

If so, how much would you be willing to pay? What other material would you want on it? Book covers? Explanatory text? My old drawing of Wizard Street (though I think that’s Wizard Street in Ethshar of the Sands, not Ethshar of the Spices)?

Are there other Ethshar-related posters you’d prefer? Other maps, perhaps?

If there’s serious interest, I’ll go ahead with this — I found a supplier who looks reasonable. The price, though, will be very dependent upon how many I’m sure I can sell.

So if you always wanted a map, speak up now!

The Next Step

I mailed the manuscript of The Vondish Ambassador to the editor yesterday.

No contract as yet, though — Wildside was not happy with sales of the trade paperback of The Spriggan Mirror, which complicates matters.  (None of the big chains wanted to carry it.)

The regular-sized paperback from Cosmos Books is just now shipping, and we’ll see if that helps.

Chapter Eighteen has been posted

Chapter Eighteen is up.

Chapter Nineteen is about one-third paid for; I don’t think I’ve written a third of it yet, though. Again, I have a week.

In other news, I have now sent out all the copies of The Spriggan Mirror I’d promised, except for two where I can’t locate the intended recipients, and a few where I’m waiting for more money to arrive, either because the donor paid in less than $15 initially, or the donor is overseas and I’ve asked for another few bucks to cover shipping.

There are maybe three extra copies. Maybe. I won’t be offering any more for sale until I’m sure I won’t need these. You should be able to get copies from Amazon, though.

Chapter Seventeen has been posted

Chapter Seventeen is up.

I’ve collected about $40 toward Chapter Eighteen so far. Alas, Chapter Eighteen isn’t actually written yet, but I hope it will be by next week.

I think I should probably warn everyone — the protagonist’s name is likely to change soon. I’ve decided “Vengar” was a bad choice. Haven’t settled on a new name yet, which is why it hasn’t changed yet.

I got my copies of The Spriggan Mirror last week, and have packed up all the ones I’ll be mailing to last year’s donors. Maybe a third of them were mailed out before the three-day New Year’s postal holiday; I hope to get the rest on their way tomorrow or very soon thereafter. This has been an educational experience; I now know what a book weighs, what overseas shipping costs, and so on, and can therefore say this: $25 donated now will get you a finished copy of The Vondish Ambassador when it’s ready if you live anywhere in the U.S. or Canada. If you live elsewhere, $30 should cover it.

I messed up several details; out of about 180 copies packed and mailed, I screwed something up on maybe a dozen. If you were one of those, and got an unsigned book when you’d asked for an autograph, or your book went to your old address, or whatever, I apologize; it was my first time doing this, and there were a few bugs in the system. I hope to do better next time.

I’m still trying to locate Richard Russ and Robert Allen. (A third missing person has been found.)

A happy new year to you all!

Chapter Sixteen has been posted

Chapter Sixteen is up.

Nearly half of Chapter Seventeen is paid for. Unfortunately, with the holidays and other commitments, that’s more than I’ve actually written so far — but hey, I have a week.

In other news, concerning the long-awaited distribution of The Spriggan Mirror and the chapbook of “Sirinita’s Dragon” to last year’s donors, I’m pleased to report that the illustrations did show up before the books — by about an hour. Both are in hand, and I’ll be sending stuff out as quickly as I can get the chapbooks printed, collated, stapled, and packed. Which is not, frankly, all that quickly — the dry winter air has been causing static problems with my heavy-duty printer, making two-sided printing difficult, as I sometimes need to hand-feed the individual sheets in.

Bear with me; they’re coming.

A request for information

I’m trying to locate two people who are owed copies of The Spriggan Mirror, but who didn’t provide mailing addresses and whose e-mail addresses now bounce:

Richard Russ
Robert Allen

If anyone knows anyone by either of those names, drop me a line.

And no, I don’t actually have the books in hand yet, but in theory UPS does and they should be here by the 29th, so I’m getting the mailing labels ready.

Alas, the illustrations Kiri did — three of them — appear to have gotten lost in the mail somewhere between Shanghai and here, so unless they turn up unexpectedly, the chapbook of “Sirinita’s Dragon” will not be illustrated.

Chapter Fourteen has been posted

Chapter Fourteen is up.

Chapter Fifteen is about one-third paid for.

Chapter Sixteen is written; Chapter Seventeen is not.

Latest word is that The Spriggan Mirror will ship from the printer on or around December 21st; this probably means I’ll get my copies and start distributing them on the 27th or so. I’m sorry they won’t be there for Christmas.

I’ll be sending an e-mail to everyone on my list of people who are due a copy, to verify addresses and ask whether you want your copy signed. If you have a book coming and haven’t received such an e-mail by Friday, drop me a line. The default, if I don’t hear from you, will be to assume that you want an unsigned copy sent to the shipping address you gave me last year.

Three illustrations for “Sirinita’s Dragon” are in the mail to me; if they arrive in time, as they should, and are suitable (I haven’t seen them), I should be able to include a chapbook of the story with each copy of The Spriggan Mirror.

Thanks for your contributions and your patience.

Chapter Eleven has been posted

Chapter Eleven is up.

Chapter Twelve was about seven dollars short of being paid for when I sent out e-mail and posted notices elsewhere, but as I was writing this another donation came in, so it’s paid for and will be posted on November 29th.

Chapter Thirteen is written. Chapter Fourteen isn’t finished.

Latest word on The Spriggan Mirror is that it really is at the printer now, but there was another brief delay while Wildside tried to convince the chain bookstores to order more copies while there was still time to adjust the initial print-run. It may be out in time for Christmas, but I can’t guarantee anything at this point. I really hope it will be.

A happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the U.S. who’s reading this!

Update on The Spriggan Mirror

So I’d said The Spriggan Mirror should be out the second week of November, right? Which would be now?

Well, it isn’t. My apologies. It is, however, making progress — I finally have my last set of proofs to check over, and should have that done later today. It should still ship in time for Christmas, though just barely.

There’s another issue that’s come up, as well. I said it would include the short story “Sirinita’s Dragon,” but it turns out that would push the page count up into the next price bracket, which the publisher is very, very reluctant to do. So the current plan is to put that story online instead, and give the URL in the book.

I had told people who contributed $15 or more that they would get the short story, though, so I’ll also be printing a chapbook of it that will be included with the copies I send out to those donors. The chapbook will also be offered for sale through my website, details to be determined.

Thanks for your patience.

More on The Spriggan Mirror

Latest word from Wildside: The delay in publication of The Spriggan Mirror was because Wildside changed printers, and the new printer uses a different standard trim size so that it was necessary to reformat the book, causing some setbacks.

The latest word is that it’s scheduled to ship the second week of November.

When I have anything more definite I’ll post it here. My apologies for the delays.