Reader Question Day #57 – print books, DEMONSOULED, and the number of moons
Manwe asks:
Seriously though, why not just release all your major series in paperback? Why only do a few of each?
Eventually, I would like to have all my major series in paperback – three of DEMONSOULED and three of THE GHOSTS is the minimum goal I’m setting for myself to reach by November and the start of the holiday season. So if I can do more (and I think I’ll be able to, as I’m getting the process down) that would be excellent.
That said, ebooks sell way better than print books, and in the time it takes me to do layout for a single print book, I could probably write about 20,000 words of new fiction, which is almost a third of a short novel. For all that I’ve talked about print books, I’ve so far sold a grand total of one copy. By contrast, GHOST IN THE FORGE sold something like 150 copies in ebook form during its first three days. So simple math dictates that it’s better to spend more time writing new books than turning old books into paper form.
That said, my goal is to have all my books available in all formats, which includes paper. I just have some work to do to get there. 🙂
Ciphas asks:
I don”t like to think that the next book will be the “end of Demonsouled ” I hope Mazael wil have many more adventures.
The next book, SOUL OF SWORDS, will be the last book in the DEMONSOULED series. That said, I do think I will revisit the setting and some of the characters at some point. So while SOUL OF SWORDS will be the last of the DEMONSOULED books, it won’t be the end of the DEMONSOULED world.
Also curious if you can make like a category in this site for “Books” – Books that you are reading right now or you plan to read , books that have an influence in your writing or plain simple books that you like to read.
If you scroll down far enough on the right sidebar, there will be a category for “book reviews” – that will take you to all the book reviews I’ve written since I had this site.
ladysaotome asks, concerning Choose Your Own Adventure:
Old Earth had only one moon?
Andomhaim has nine moons, and their position can cause or change certain magical effects. I don’t think this will be a plot point in Choose Your Own Adventure, but it will definitely come up when I write the first novel in the setting. Especially since the position of the moons potentially makes it much easier to open magical gates to other worlds.
All the humans in Andomhaim came through one of those magical gates – specifically, a magical gate to post-Roman Britain, where the survivors of King Arthur’s realm fled through the gate to get away from the Saxons. (Ironically, there are things in Andomhaim much nastier than the Saxons. 🙂 ) So in all the books the refugees brought with them – mostly the Bible and various Roman and Greek authors – there would be references to how the Earth had only one moon. At the time of the story, humans have lived in Andomhaim for 1500 years, so for many of them, Old Earth seems almost mythical, which is why the idea of having only one moon instead of nine seems so odd to them.
-JM
I realy like this Reader Question Day Corner thanks for taking time and answering us !
About paperback – before ebooks i would only buy a bunch of books from warhammer because they had promotions and it would have been cheap to buy like 30 books with one or more friends and it would have been free shiping. But for me to buy just one book over amazon in paperback it will cost to much ( I am from Romania ) when i was younger me and my friends used to print books at a laser printer using tea for ink 🙂
So Ebooks are the future i think .
Now i have my question for the Reader Question Day #58 post.
Will there be a new book/series for the Tower of Endless Worlds series ?
I just finish all 4 books and i like them all but to be honest i was hoping we can see a ” reconquista ” of the world.
Also if the serie was about how would a gun change a world and how would a knight see a more advance city i think we can see how a king that was at school on earth and knows about democrachy or about minimal wage and so on …I am thinking about a “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” by Mark Twain but in our case we can say A Yankee King in his Court .
In the end i want to say i am sory for the long post and i hope i did not bored you with it.
“So Ebooks are the future i think.”
I agree. They are so vastly more efficient and cheaper. I don’t think paper books will go away, but I think people will generally limit themselves to books they really like or want to read offline.
“Will there be a new book/series for the Tower of Endless Worlds series?”
I don’t know. I have a couple of ideas, but I haven’t really fixed on them. The thing is that the world of Carlisan will be very different, because Marugon brought so much stuff over from Earth, and technology can be reverse-engineered. So I think Ally, Lithon, and Arran will return to find that people have figured out at least an early industrial level of technology – steam engines, single-shot rifles, and so forth. And I’ve always found the idea of technological change coming to a fantasy world to be an interesting one (hence the Tower of Endless World series), especially since you have supernatural creatures like the winged demons that can use the technology effectively. For that matter, Marugon’s soldiers could have brought ideas back with them from Earth – democracy or fascism or Marxism or whatever, and those could show up as well.
So there are any number of potential plots, but I need to think up a overarching plot to link them together first.
“At the time of the story, humans have lived in Andomhaim for 1500 years, so for many of them, Old Earth seems almost mythical, which is why the idea of having only one moon instead of nine seems so odd to them.”
Thanks for the info on how long they have been there for, I was wondering that.
Also, since there exists the ability to cross between worlds…might we ever see new additions to Andohaim from Old Earth? Or vice-versa? 😉
Another thing:
Since this is the post for questions, how about these:
1.Have you seen, or are you going to see “Jack the Giant Slayer”?
I just saw it today. Another fairy tale turned into an epic, like last year’s Snow White and the Huntsman. That film was a mixed bag, the beginning was slow, boring and dull, but it picked up at the end. Overall it was alright. Jack was a bit different however. While Snow White was a dark reimagining of the fairy tale, this one was much more in keeping with the fairy tale feel of the original. So naturally it felt quite different than Snow White. It was fun I thought, still not great, just like Snow White, but it was entertaining. While the beginning was slow, the end was alot of fun! Never really seen a giant army besieging a castle before, at least not on screen. If you didn’t see it, and don’t mind the price, I’d say it was a fun ride. Just don’t expect LOTR. Otherwise just wait for dvd.
2.Speaking about shows…will you be watching “Vikings”, the new history channel television series (yes a tv series, not a documentary)?
I was excited when I first heard about it, especially when I heard that it was History channel, and not HBO/Showtime/Starz, that was doing it. The first thing I thought was “Thank you God”. Finally, I’ll be able to watch a historical drama that does not have it’s ancient/medieval characters acting like nasty, jaded moderns, i.e. spitting out modern day profanities, literally screwing everything and anything that moves, all in explicit detail, walking around naked everywhere for no other reason than to arouse the audience, killing everyone to move the plot, wallowing in nihilism of one sort or another, etc, etc you know the drill. Rome was The Tudors, was Spartacus, was Camelot, was The Borgias, was Game of Thrones (ok, that last one was fantasy…but it was still MEDIEVAL fantasy 😉 ). It’s nice to finally get a period piece that HBO and friends can’t screw up! 😀
Well, actually they can still screw it up, just in different ways. D’oh! 🙁
Let’s hope that’s not the case with this one!
Watched the first episode, and I enjoyed it…I do hope it will be a good series, and perhaps spawn other, non-HBO/Starz/Showtime etc. I’d like that very much.
3.This links with the last one. If you could have another tv drama set in a past setting, what would it be?
And the same goes for a fantasy series (including those based off books)? It can be more than one of course.
1.Have you seen, or are you going to see “Jack the Giant Slayer”?
I wasn’t planning on it, but from what you’ve described, I might go see it if I need an outing one night. Barring that, there’s always Netflix in a year or so. 🙂
2.Speaking about shows…will you be watching “Vikings”, the new history channel television series (yes a tv series, not a documentary)?
It might be one of those things I watch on Netflix. I don’t actually have a TV, just an old desktop computer with a DVD drive, a network connection, and a big monitor. And the History Channel’s stuff tends to turn up on Netflix in relatively timely fashion.
3.This links with the last one. If you could have another tv drama set in a past setting, what would it be?
And the same goes for a fantasy series (including those based off books)? It can be more than one of course.
I’d vote for either the Year of the Four Emperors in 69 AD or the Gothic War and the Battle of Adrianople in 378 AD. Both would make good TV series, and some of the details around the Battle of Adrianople are sketchy enough that there’s lots of room for fictional embellishment.