announcement: Melusine and The Virtu OOP: what next?

[truepenny]

So remember a while back, I said I had an awesome piece of bad news?

I can tell you about it now.

The bad news is, Mélusine and The Virtu are out of print.

The AWESOME news is, Ace has officially returned the rights to me.

Which means I can finally finally finally do something about getting them BACK in print.

Plan A is to find a small press that would be interested in publishing them, either separately or in an omnibus edition. (Although there is the whole second half of the series, I think the first two books actually stand together very nicely, so it's not as crazy as it sounds.)

If that fails, Plan B is to self-publish them, through lulu.com or some such POD service, so that at least people who want to read them can get ahold of them. Yes, obviously, I would vastly prefer it if there were a way for these books to continue to contribute to (a.) my career and (b.) my income, which is why we're going with Plan A first, but if Plan A fails, I'm not going to sit on them like a dragon with a very small hoard, but will find a way to make them available.

In any event, I've been frustrated and unhappy about the situation, particularly wrt The Virtu, for a long time, and I am extremely happy that I finally have the ability to do something constructive about it.

Comments

[keyboardcouch.livejournal.com]

That's great, there's a gaping hole on my bookshelf between Melusine and Mirador. I'll be jumping at the chance to fill it with The Virtu.

[jenavira.livejournal.com]

Yaay! I have been doing my best to get people to read these books, as I love them so dearly, and this will make it much easier.

[inizitu.livejournal.com]

Good luck! And, yay. I have Virtu in ebook, and the rest in paperback. I'd like to have them all. =)

[alice_montrose]

I truly hope Plan A works, not because of the lack of a The Virtu volume on my shelf (thank the gods I could still purchase the ebook!), but because these books deserve to be published. They are made of win!

[cassandraterra.livejournal.com]

They are made of win! And so is your Shinobu Tanno icon. I love that art book!

[alice_montrose]

Thank you! I love that art book as well, and this particular image especially. There's just something about it...

[cassandraterra.livejournal.com]

My favorite picture is on page 6. The man in the water. The color and the look on his face, so sad, it's beautiful.

[teriegarrison.livejournal.com]

While I'm not generally a fan of self-publishing, I would suggest that you look more seriously at it in this case. You'd get to keep a greater percentage of the profits, and since you have an established reader base, there's a strong possibility (possibly bordering on probability) that going with a small publisher won't sell any more copies than you'd sell on your own; or, to put it conversely, you could sell as many on your own as a small publisher would, and by self-publishing, you'd make more money.

Can I just say, though, that it could be worse? My publisher took books 3 and 4 of my series OOP, and I can't do diddly squat with them without having the rights reverted on books 1 and 2. Sigh.

[saltypepper.livejournal.com]

That really is the best bad news I've heard in a long while! I have the whole series, but I've been trying to talk them up to others. This will make it easier.

[libskrat]

LMK if you'd like any assistance getting them into .epub. I'd be happy to lend a hand. You can ask Cory Doctorow whether I'm any good at it. *g*

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I will remember that.

[libskrat]

No worries! My LJ email works.

[glinda-w.livejournal.com]

Oh, excellent!. I've only got Corambis; I'd prefer trade paper or mmpb, just because my book buying budget is so, so small, but I'd probably forego other books to get these...

[cassandraterra.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you have the rights back! I'm so sorry to hear that Melusine and The Virtu are out of print. I've just re-read them for the billionth time and now reading The Mirador and not I still can't bring myself to read the part where they find you know who you know what.

I'd love to have an omibus. I hope that plan works out! Good luck! Yay!

And BOO on Ace. BOO I say!

[txanne.livejournal.com]

ECR! But I'm very glad you have the rights back.

[lepusdomesticus.livejournal.com]

I agree with the comment above that this is the best bad news ever. I think this kind of situation is the perfect use of the print-on-demand technology. Count me as someone who will buy the books either separately or in an omnibus edition.

[rchan.livejournal.com]

You're right, that is kind of awesomely bad news. O_O Then again, I would totally buy them again if you get them back in print. ^_^ And it will make it easier to hook other friends! :D I don't know if you need the names of any small publishers, but another of my favorite authors is published entirely in small press and he uses Padwolf (http://www.padwolf.com/). They seem to run a nice little business. *shrugs* ^_^ Just my two cents.

[casacorona.livejournal.com]

Oh, seriously consider publishing ebook editions yourself, through Amazon and BN etc. If you've got clean files, you can get them into epub format and go. Consider talking to the folks at Baen about it, too.

I'm suggesting going through those people, rather than selling them yourself, because of the issue of collecting the money.

[marycatelli]

Commiserations and congratulations.

[ephemera.livejournal.com]

Is it odd to be saying 'congratulations'? Here's to brave new futures, and being able to sell and share the stories once again!

[hagsrus.livejournal.com]

You mightcheck out Lightningsource too - so far I've had very good experience with them, and they are hooked into the major distributor Ingram.

[midnightsmagic.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay! I have been absolutely scouring used book stores looking for a copy of The Virtu to complete my set, with no success. I just can't bring myself to pay $20 for a battered old paperback, which is what it would cost me to get it online (including shipping). Luckily, libraries exist.

[braddr.livejournal.com]

Print on Demand isn't a bad idea at all. Take a look at CreateSpace in addition to Lulu if you decide to go that route.

[bluestalking.livejournal.com]

I will buy them! Several times! In pretty much any form! Like, photocopies, I would still send to people. Good luck!

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

I APPRECIATE YOUR PLANS TO FIND A WAY TO SHARE THEM WITH US. Seriously. Immensely. I look forward to having a way to add these books to my library. :D

[kitgordon.livejournal.com]

This is good news; I really hope you find a publisher. It's always a pleasure when I'm volunteering at my local library and see your books on the shelf.

[tkie.livejournal.com]

I think those two would make an awesome omnibus edition. I tend to think of Melusine as "there" and The Virtu as "and back again." :)

[britmandelo.livejournal.com]

Great bad news!

Good luck with all the potential ventures. I'd love to see these in print again.

[beautifuldorian.livejournal.com]

createspace.com has been great for selling copies of my book and still making a decent bit of profit for each copy sold! Good luck and once it IS in print again I can get my hands on it! YAY!

[stephanieburgis.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you've got the rights back. And I think those two actually do work beautifully as a complete story together (not that I'd give up the later two books for anything!), so that would make a perfect omnibus edition.

[heresluck]

Oh, hurrah!

Also, forgot to mention last night: saw Mélusine, Mirador, and Corambis at Dreamhaven on Friday and beamed at them. Old news, I know, but they still make me happy every time I see them, especially when they're faced out on the shelf, as in fact they were.

[smills47.livejournal.com]

So happy to hear you are finally getting the rights back. It felt like the books were being held hostage or something.

The best bad news

[katy cooper (from livejournal.com)]

This is awesome bad news. I'm truly sorry this happened--the books are so fabulous, it just deepens my conviction publishing is slowly losing its mind--but it means when I tell people, "This is tremendous," they'll be able to find it without paying crazy money (that you don't get).

[pameladean]

I think you already had the bad news, when only The Virtu was out of print, which was just ridiculous and insupportable. You're right that the first two will make a dandy omnibus; there is a real flow between them. And an omnibus would be a very good way of luring people into the series. I rub my hands gleefully. Good luck with finding the right small press.

P.

[cynseris.livejournal.com]

I love reading your blog but don't usually comment, but this is awesome news. The Doctrine of Labyrinths is my favourite series ever and as I work in a bookstore it drive me crazy that I can't rec it properly. Hopefully it'll be back on shelves soon. :)

[(Anonymous)]

Just a thought, if you release epub editions, try Fictionwise or Smashwords, those are both good places for ebooks

[girlpunksamurai.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you got the rights to them back

If they're not willing to front them properly then they should just give them back to you, so the fact that they hadn't, up until now of course, actually pissed me off. Either way, I'm looking forward to adding them to my collection. I'm also very, very choosy about which books I buy to keep outright so wanting your whole series on my shelf is my highest compliment. :]

[aj-pina.livejournal.com]

Congrats on getting the rights back! I have all of the books already (and signed -- thanks again <3), but I'll buy new ones too if they have pretty covers, since they are favorites. :D If you are seeking a small publisher, Blind Eye Books might be worth a look, they publish fantasy and do good-quality paperbacks and ebooks.

[clhollandwriter]

Yay, congratulations! Now I can stop glaring in the general direction of Ace.

You know, I'd be tempted to buy them again in small press or PoD, just to have copies I wasn't afraid to take out of the house....

[ex-kaz-maho.livejournal.com]

I know this is ridiculously late, but I just wanted to say how happy I am that you're able to do this for books 1 and 2. Especially for book 2, really. I love The Virtu and have long felt disappointed that more people can't share that love. I'm normally generous with my books, and do lots of giveaways online as well as giving in person, but I've been a bit of a dragon guarding my OWN tiny hoard of your first two books. :)

My first novel comes out in 2 months, and I'm learning a lot of very... interesting things about publishing. Not all of them good. I can only imagine how frustrating this whole thing has been for you.

[theladymoon.livejournal.com]

I wish you the best of luck with any plan that works out, because, firstly, I believe that these two are truly excellent works that deserve everyone's attentiona and, secondly and very selfishly, I want to buy them for a few people (or make them buy them themselves). I was lucky enough to get both, the first through an expansion of my interent knowledge as far as online bookshops are concerned and the second through the kindness of friends (god or any ontehr power bless them). Anyway, enough babbling, and hope everything works out in the best possible way for you

[(Anonymous)]

I remember it was hell on earth trying to get my copy of the Virtu after it came out. I finally had to order it, none of the bookstores in my area had any in stock. Which is a shame, because it's such an excellent book and I wish that Ace hadn't made it so hard to get one's hands on.

[orannia.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

I completely lucked out and managed to snag copies of the entire series in hardback, including The Virtu (and then a MMP copy of The Vitru tumbled into my lap). But, I want everyone else to be able to read your amazing series sooo much so fingers crossed for Plan A.

Will they be released in eBook format? I definitely vote for that :)

[rchan.livejournal.com]

So... I don't know if you check comments on old posts, but a friend of mine was recently introduced to DoL and got me excited about the books all over again. Anyway, being the proud owner of a mini-tablet, now, I like to take all of my favorite books with me wherever I go and it occurred to me that I didn't have any of the DoL books in ebook editions. So, I downloaded the Mirador and Corambis... and then couldn't find Melusine or the Virtu, anywhere. :(

I vaguely remembered you mentioning this, so I came back to your LJ to look... which brings me to my question. Since you DO have the rights back (Yay!), would you consider releasing ebook editions? Or has that ship totally sailed?

Anyway, I hope you're well and thank you for these lovely, wonderful and AMAZING books! I'm indulging in a reread to keep up with my friend and am loving them just as much the twenty-first time as I did the other twenty. ^_~

Kindle book

[darkjin]

I actually own both the print and ebook of the entire series, but I want to recommend this series to friends, but sadly they are still out of print. Any update on getting this published again?