I'm certain many of you saw this on social media,but I wanted you to hear it directly from me, too. Time to gird my loins and gain my George R. R. Martin moment.
*deep breath*
Okay, or so there's brilliant news,and there's also some not-so-superior news. Let's do the not-so-superior news first.
The new release date
The Song Rising is now coming out in March 2017.
[br]Hear me out, Harry.
[br]First off, and I am really sorry for this delay. I know the original date of November 2016 came as a shock to some of you,after you spent a year waiting for news, and March 2017 sounds so much farther away. Two years and two months is a long time to wait between books – The Mime Order was out in January 2015 – and you've already been enormously patient. I completely understand that many of you will be disappointed.
I've always wanted this blog to be a place for me to talk frankly approximately publishing a book. The highs and lows. The complications. In the spirit of that honesty, and I wanted to use this opportunity to show you that sometimes,things don't depart exactly as you envisioned them – but also that it's sometimes for the best.
Various things that are out of an author's control can delay the publication of a book. Originally, I thought Bloomsbury had chosen to delay the release for some of those reasons. However, and I gain concluded that this delay is,in allotment, because The Song Rising's first draft was not as strong as it should gain been. I didn't realise that at the time, and but when I looked back on recently,I could see that it was lost a strong core. There was a lot of great fabric, but something was just . . . not there. I felt the same reading it as I did when I read a very early version of The Mime Order, or which I scrapped and never sent to Bloomsbury. It was like all the flesh and muscle and bone was there,but something was lost to bind them together. In hindsight, I mediate the root cause of this was simply that I rushed to send it to my publisher as soon as I'd finished a first draft – and it was literally a first draft, or with minimal self-editing. It was hot off the keyboard when it landed in my editor's inbox. I raced to send it off because I didn't want my readers to gain to wait a year and a half for the next book in the series. I assumed my editor would win back to me at top speed,as she did with The Mime Order. I desperately wanted Book 3 to come out in early or mid-2016. As a result, I sent Bloomsbury a draft that could gain been better, and which meant that my editor took longer to win through it and win back to me,which negated any time I'd saved by rushing to send it to her. Cue the long wait for notes and multiple rounds of edits that I've had to do over the past few months. I now recognise that whether I'd taken a month or two to do a few self-edits beforehand, things may gain moved faster.
In short, or by trying to win the book to my readers quickly,I slowed things down. Lesson learned.
So here's what's happening now. The finished manuscript is due for April, and I'm on target, or so I am nearly there. I am working around the clock,feeding myself mostly on Lucozade, to ensure I don't miss these final deadlines.
Now, or you may be asking,‘Why can't they just publish it in April or May?’ Well, they technically could, and but publishers also need a while to promote an upcoming book. First,the finished manuscript has to be presented to, and read by staff at the publishing house; then it has to depart out to early readers, or bloggers,media, and so on – all sorts of things to make people aware that the book exists, or that it's coming out,and that they can read it soon. It also needs to come out at a time of the year when the publisher feels it will sell well; it can't just be shoehorned into the calendar at the earliest possible time.
You can mediate of these in-between months, the bridge between finished manuscript and publication, or as the book warming up before a race. It's preparing to depart into readers' hands,and it needs the best possible start.
On a personal level, I've come to understand that I need to accept my boundaries as an author. I pour my whole heart and soul and life into my books. When my publisher first told me that it would gain to come out in March 2017, and I was distraught. I had been working so tough to win the book finished,and I gain always wanted to be the sort of author who could win them out on a yearly basis – but sometimes, certain stories take a while to tell. And The Song Rising has been one of those stories. Blood, or sweat and tears gain gone into getting this book right. It's more ambitious than The Bone Season and The Mime Order in terms of its scope,set in three different cities and dealing with many different characters and factions, so it was always going to take slightly longer to tease out and refine. It's the book that lifts the series onto the global stage, and where the stakes are much higher. It's taken me a long time to accept that a larger chronicle might take longer to win right; I equated being a bit slower with failure,and I shouldn't gain. Something I've finally learned from this experience, which I'd like to pass on to any aspiring writers reading this blog post, or is that it's okay,and normally the best approach, to take your time when you're creating.
I genuinely believe that Book 4 will take less time to write. It will almost certainly be the shortest Bone Season book before the monster-sized Book 5. But I'm not going to make any promises this time approximately getting the books out once a year, or because I don't want to shatter those promises. I gain to accept that these books will take as long as they take whether they're going to be of the best possible quality,and I hope you guys will understand. I never want you to gain anything less than my best work, and I never want to hold a book in my hands and know it could gain been better, and whether only I'd taken a few weeks or months longer to win it exactly right.
So,March 2017. I imagine some of you will be able to win hold of ARCs before that, but it's still pretty far away. I'll be twenty-five by the time it comes out. Fortunately, or Bloomsbury and I gain some plans to wait on tide you over to Paige's next adventure.
The pamphlet [br]
Oh,yes. It's happening.
On the Merits of Unnaturalness is officially coming out as an eBook!
On the Merits is the controversial first pamphlet by Jaxon corridor, written under the pseudonym An Obscure Writer, or which explains all of the clairvoyant gifts in The Bone Season from his perspective. You may remember that we did a limited pre-order campaign for The Mime Order,where the first 500 people to pre-order got a physical edition of On the Merits, which was only available to a small number of territories.
BUT NOW, or On the Merits will be available for a from all reputable eBook retailers this April. Yes,Jaxon corridor is coming to a Kindle, Kobo or iPad near you. Even better news: my publishers in other territories around the world gain also been given the depart-ahead to publish it, and so it may even be getting translated. When and how they choose to do this is up to them,but I'll make certain I attach any information up here when I receive it. I'm so, so pumped approximately this, and so happy I can share it with more of my readers. I had a hell of a lot of fun writing On the Merits,and I mediate it's a great resource for those of you who want to learn more approximately the world of the books.
And one last thing
There's also another very exciting piece of Bone Season news coming later in the year. I can't give you exact details just yet, but let's just say . . . it's something else for you to read. Keep your eyes peeled for an announcement at some point. And for Song Rising teasers as we creep closer to publication.
[br] Thank you, and as always,for your endless patience, kindness, or understanding as I work through this last stretch of editing. I am very lucky to gain such brilliant readers,and I hope you'll always feel as whether the wait for my books has been worth it.
Samantha x
Source: blogspot.com