Sunday, 7 March 2010

Service Interruptions

Away in Dubai next week, and during that time the site is being moved across to a new platform, so there may be some lag in posting and interruption to the normal superb service that you have all come to regard as an indispensible part of your internet existences. A somewhat overdue overhaul of the site should follow, however, and with any luck updates thereafter should be a bit more frequent...

Labels: announcements

Saturday, 23 January 2010

Ebooks, Audiobooks

I've been getting quite a few emails about the absence of kindle editions of late, which I am now very pleased to announce are available via amazon.com:

The Blade Itself
Before They are Hanged
Last Argument of Kings
Best Served Cold

An audiobook of Best Served Cold has also recently come out from Tantor Media, which is available as a download from Audible or in oldskool physical compact disk form , though one should be aware it is unabridged and therefore somewhere around 30 hours, or 22 cds, in length. Wow, that should keep y'all busy. This is an American version, and though I haven't listened yet myself, I imagine it's an American reading, which would seem a little strange to me, though probably not if you were American. There are supposed to be some British readings of the First Law appearing at some point, but they've been delayed some time due to contractual wranglings of some kind at a level far above me, and at the moment they're slated on Orion's website to appear in June this year. So we'll see...

Labels: announcements, audiobooks, ebooks

Tuesday, 25 August 2009

The Heroes

With Best Served Cold already three months out (can it really be so long?), perhaps the time has come to talk a little about my next book. Like Best Served Cold it's intended to be a semi-standalone, which can be read on its own (hopefully) but has a few characters and settings in common with the First Law.

It is called:

The Heroes

Both because the action centres around a ring of standing stones called the Heroes, and because it's about heroism and that (meant semi-ironically, of course). It mostly takes place over the course of three days, and is the story of a single battle for control of the North. Think Lord of the Rings meets A Bridge Too Far, with a sprinkling of Band of Brothers and Generation Kill. It's about war, you get me? Principally it follows the (mis)adventures of six assorted persons on both sides and different levels of command, whose paths intersect during the course of the battle in various fateful, horrible, wonderful, surprisingly violent, surprisingly unviolent, and hilarious ways. With the Northmen: a veteran losing his nerve who just wants to keep his crew alive, an ex-Prince determined to claw his way back to power by any means necessary, a young lad determined to win a place in the songs for himself. With the Union: A depressive swordsman who used to be the king's bodyguard, a profiteering standard-bearer, and the venomously ambitious daughter of the Marshal in command. But of course a fair few familiar faces show up on both sides...

I'm just finishing up the first draft of the second part of five, so two fifths of the way through, about 85,000 words in. Which means the whole thing is looking like about 220,000 words - similar length to Best Served Cold and Last Argument of Kings. Really want to write some shorter books one of these days. REALLY want to. Provided I keep writing relatively smoothly (which is by no means a certainty given that we've got a massive building project starting over the next few months), the whole first draft will hopefully be done spring next year. A fair bit of editing will no doubt be required, though, meaning that an October publication is just too tight. For small fry like me November through January is pretty much the zone of death, which means February 2011 is probably the soonest you guys can expect to see it lighting up the shelves, alas.

That'll mean 20 months between books, which is a fair bit more than I'd like in general but, hey, maybe I'll be able to get a head start on the next thing (yeah, right). It also means no book from me in 2010, though I'll have a short story out in an anthology. So, the headlines:

The Heroes. It's about War. February 2011 (hopefully).

Labels: announcements, news, process

Thursday, 2 July 2009

e-books, limited editions, and exciting anthologies

Pleased to note that Best Served Cold, and the First Law Trilogy, are now available on e-book via Waterstones.com:

The Blade Itself
Before They Are Hanged
Last Argument of Kings
Best Served Cold

The prices are a tad disappointing - £10 and change for Best Served Cold when a hardback is selling at £8.50, and around £6 for the First Law books when mass-market paperbacks are available for a mere £4.

My own feeling about e-piracy and so forth is that it's virtually impossible to put a stop to - the more popular you are the more torrents will endlessly spring up, and most of them in places where folks don't respond to a polite email. The only effective way to combat it is to provide people with a higher quality service than pirates do, more easily available and at a price that seems reasonable. Then I think most will be happy to pay.

One problem is that a lot of users somehow think that e-books, since they don't have to be printed, are pure profit for the publisher and should therefore be virtually free whereas, of course, the great majority of the costs that go into making a paper book (commissioning, editing, artwork, marketing, repping, promoting and, erm, paying the author) still apply with an ebook. Champions of a revolutionary future of free-love filesharing where writers and readers will all be liberated from the shackles of publishers tend to forget the vital role they play as gatekeepers and ensurers of a certain level of quality (you may think some books that are published are rubbish but believe me, until you've seen a slush pile you really have no idea).

Even so, selling ebooks at more than the cost of the paper books is going to look just a wee bit like taking the piss to some buyers, I suspect. I'd like to see them retail at most at the same price as the paper equivalents, and ideally somewhat lower. At the moment most publishers and booksellers are still focused on the paper market where heavy discounts are applying more and more widely, making ebooks something of a speciality item and hence relatively more expensive. Hopefully in due course that will change, and I'll certainly be pressing them to lower the price as soon and as much as possible but, hey, it's a start.

In other news, I am delighted to relate that Subterranean Press, purveyors of high quality limited and special editions to the world's bibliophiles, will be publishing a signed limited edition illustrated hardcover of The Blade Itself. If it does well, and let's all hope it does, they will follow up with the rest of the trilogy. Not sure of the details yet - how many shall be the print run, who shall be the artist, how many and what style of plates shall be involved, but they have a great track record of involving the author closely so you will know when I know. Believe me, these guys make some beautiful books.

And finally, I probably mentioned a little while ago that I was writing a short story for a Sword and Sorcery anthology. Just heard a list of names of some of the other authors who will be contributing, and it's a strong line-up. VERY strong. Can't give any names yet, but I think lovers of edgy and interesting fantasy both old and new will get quite excited about this one...

Labels: announcements, news

Friday, 24 April 2009

Exciting News!

Oooooooh.

Looks as if Best Served Cold will be Waterstones sci-fi/fantasy book of the month for June. That's exciting for me, of course, because it means all kinds of excellent selling opportunities like end displays and tables and stickers, and those little tags on the shelves where x says they love y because of z. It's exciting for me because I love sales like Scipio Africanus loved dead Carthaginians. That boy could NEVER get enough, and neither can I. Sales, that is, not Carthaginians.

But maybe you're thinking - "Hold on. I don't know if that's all that exciting for ME. I can see why you're excited, Joe, but why should I be, huh? I already knew the book was coming. I've already been jonesing for the book ever since I finished Last Argument of Kings. My life has been on HOLD, man. I've already ordered the book. I'm not going to get it until the 18th of June when I'll lock myself in the bathroom so I can read it six times and my friends will all think I've died. I don't need Waterstones to tell me to buy it. So just what good is this to me, Joe, huh? Why the hell should I be excited? WHAT'S IN THIS FOR ME, JOE, FOR ME?"

Whoah, there, calm down. What's in it for you is that Waterstones want to make it book of the month for June, right? That means the whole month. That means right from the start of June, not just from the 18th. That means publication comes back. That means the book's going to be out in the UK on June 1st, not June 18th. Imagine how many times you could read it locked in the toilet for those WHOLE EXTRA 18 DAYS.

Now do you see why you should be excited?

Do ya?

Labels: announcements, news

Saturday, 15 November 2008

Best Served Cold Artwork

Take THAT. Pretty much the final cover for the UK edition of Best Served Cold. I should point out it's a hardcover release, though, and you really need to see the whole wraparound, which looks like this:


Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Click on it to see it in all its glorious detail. Go on. Click on it. You know you want to. Even that's a long way from doing it full justice, though, I have to say. The final version will have the title and the edges of the author-name foiled, probably in chilly gun-metal grey, then the sword and coins embossed and the text debossed. Plus it will be printed on that textured paper for which my previous books have won most of their acclaim. You really have to see it wrapped round a book to get the full effect. You have to handle it, stroke it, caress it, lick it. Well, not the last one, necessarily, that's just something I like to do.


And that's not even a proof cover, it's just a good printout. The book isn't actually Best Served Cold, in case you're wondering. It's Julia Gregson's East of the Sun. Long story. Anyway, it's designed to be of a piece with the new covers for the mass-market editions of the trilogy, that they may all beckon to prospective readers from the shelf, together.

In case you're wondering, I fricking love it. I feel that it expands on the tone set by the previous covers, and establishes something of a unique identity for the books as a whole - a brand, even - which has got to be a good thing. It communicates a lot about the feel and the content - and a real sense of action and violence - without straying into the difficult ground of literal cover art. It manages to be classy and pulpy at once. I think overall the covers achieve the extremely difficult trick of being entirely un-generic, striking, and standing out from the crowd of fantasy artwork while at the same time not seeming to be deliberately NOT FANTASY. I think that's what fantasy covers need to try and achieve, these days, ideally - to not alienate the hardcore fantasy fan while still appealing to the more occasional reader.

It involves the work of no less than six people. Original concept from Simon Spanton (I believe), expanded upon by my editor Gillian Redfearn, who then put the brief together and assembled the team to carry it out (kind of like the A-Team, but with more artistic accumen and less mercy), and co-ordinated the project. The sword was painted by weapons expert Didier Graffet, the map was drawn by map-master Dave Senior, adapting my own scrawl, then the whole was combined and made to live by designer Laura Brett (also responsible for the First Law covers), who added the spatter, coins, parchmenty effects, and lettering. At various stages a pedantic asswipe interposed himself and made everyone's lives a misery. I won't say who, but there's a clue on the cover itself...

The sharp-eyed among you may have noticed that it features a map quite prominently. But Joe! I hear you cry. Aren't you the anti-map guy? Is there a whiff of hypocrisy about this blog today? Well, maybe. I've always had a foot in both camps on this issue, and with a tighter and more defined setting for this book it seemed to make sense. Plus I don't hate maps, I just hate rubbish maps, and this time around there was the opportunity to make sure it was done right, both factually accurate and with some artistic flair. But more discussion of this later, maybe, because for those who give a toss, next week will be Best Served Cold artwork week, in which I will discuss the evolution of cover from twinkle in publisher's eye to fully-realised proof in exhaustive detail...

Labels: announcements, artwork, news, process

Monday, 25 August 2008

Aetherica '09

So I'm due to be a guest of honour at a new Fantasy Convention next year, called Aetherica, to be held in Chester, June 19th-21st. Peter Beagle, of The Last Unicorn fame, is currently the other Guest of Honour. Not sure what my involvement will consist of, but I'm guessing probably a Q&A of some description and perhaps even some kind of reading, probably with powerful hand gestures. Plus presumably contributing my ignorance to various panels...

Anyway, further details on their website, and more as I learn it.

Labels: announcements, appearances, news

Sunday, 10 August 2008

Lost by a Whisker...

So I failed to bag the John W. Campbell award for Best New Writer. The really frustrating thing was that I only just missed out...

Well, if you count fourth out of six as just missed out. Yes, if it hadn't been for the more popular half of the field the Campbell would be mine...

But I did get more first place votes than 'No Award'. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, 'no award'! Yes, I am a marginally more popular choice than throwing the plaque in the bin.

Anyway, many congratulations to Mary Robinette Kowal, who was indeed the winner, rightly lifted on angel wings to the heady heights of glory. Commiserations to Scott Lynch, David Anthony Durham, David Louis Edelman, and Jon Armstrong, who share with me the bitter, bitter dregs of failure...

Labels: announcements, news

Thursday, 7 August 2008

In Orbit

Just a quick announcement since there's been a press release, that Best Served Cold will be coming out in the US with the redoubtable Orbit books. In June 2009 (fingers crossed) roughly simultaneous with the UK release from Gollancz.

No bust-up whatsoever with Pyr, who've been my US publisher to this point. I've got nothing but the highest respect for Lou Anders, who runs the imprint - he's a man of high class and he's been doing great things at Pyr over the last few years. Four nominations at the Hugos this week for his books and authors, and for him as an editor, shows the quality of what he's doing, and I remain very grateful to him for taking a chance on my books when nobody had heard of me, putting them out in the States, and making a success of them. Pyr will continue to publish The First Law books, hopefully for many, many years to come.

But the next two books, at least - Best Served Cold and whatever should follow (I know, but I'm not telling you lot yet) - will be with Orbit US. I'm very much looking forward to working with my editor there, Devi Pillai, and the rest of their team of highly qualified industry experts, to ensure that I become immensely wealthy, and as soon as possible.

More as I hear more...

Labels: announcements, news

Friday, 1 August 2008

1 Today

It is August the First, and I am proud to announce that this blog is 1 year old today. This is also its hundredth post. Rejoice, one and all. I should hardly have to tell you there's been an avalanche of high quality content here over the past dozen months. And some not so high, badly worded, or incendiary, but let's forget about that, and instead concentrate on such timeless and thought-provoking highlights as:

Maps, Craps

Zounds! Swearing in Fantasy

and

Big Fish, Little Fish

But let it never be said that my best days are far behind me. Oh no. There'll be plenty to look forward to in the coming months. Indeed, I'm on one of SFSignal's Mind Melds right now talking about one of my favourite examples of worldbuilding along with some proper authors and editors and folks. Check it out. I pour praise on Scott Lynch. I know. You won't see that too often. There should be some more in-depth interviews cropping up here and there over the coming weeks, which I will, of course, direct you toward...

I'm now, finally, after titanic struggles, drafting the seventh and last part of my fourth book, Best Served Cold, although there'll be a lot of work to do when it is drafted. You know. Drawing the strands together. Sharpening action and dialogue. Reducing, simplifying, and focusing. Adding in some worldbuilding elements, would you believe. Consistent-i-fying it, as we say in the trade. Making it good. A lot of work. I'll probably be talking about the approach to revising and editing as it happens.

Various different elements of artwork are gradually coming together, and when they're done, with the permission of the various artists and designers involved I'll hopefully be going through the process step by step, talking about the elements and how I (alright, alright, other people) came up with the ideas.

Occasional discussion of films, tv, video games, and perhaps even books will sporadically continue, and with the imminent release of Last Argument of Kings in the US I'm sure there'll be a few reviews, polls, opinions, and other nonsense, both good and bad, for me to bring to your attention.

There might even be a bit more discussion of genre issues, from time to time, and perhaps a giveaway of proofs of Best Served Cold as there was with Last Argument of Kings, we will have to see...

Oh, and with Worldcon about to happen in Denver, I'm sure there'll be a post in which I bitch about having lost the John W. Campbell award to Scott Lynch or one of the other most worthy nominees...

Labels: announcements

Saturday, 17 May 2008

God of Publication Dates Part 2

Well, here are two publication dates that I'm pretty sure won't move back. Why? Because the book's already written, that's why!


Last Argument of Kings will be out in the US in September, from Pyr books. You can order it now on amazon.com. Before they are Hanged actually shipped a month early, so you never know, this one might do too...


And Last Argument of Kings will be out in Germany in Oktober, under the name "Konigsklingen", which I'm taking a wild guess means something along the lines of "King's Blade". So the series is Kriegsklingen, Feuerklingen, and Konigsklingen, or Warblade, Fireblade, and King's Blade. Old skool, man, but they're doing pretty darn well over there apparently, so you won't catch me complaining. No sirree.

Anyway, it's available for pre-order on amazon.de for any german-speakers amongst you. Although, thinking about it, if you only spoke german you might have some trouble understanding this post. It's paired with the third book in the Eragon series, would you believe - not sure how good a match THAT'll be for the YA fantasy crowd, what with all the explicit violence, sex, and swearing but, hey, Eragon sells shed loads so, again, you won't catch me complaining. I could only find the cover at this rather poor resolution, but it appears to feature a kind of a halberdy thing on blue. I don't remember any polearms featuring particularly heavily in the text, but since the more common epic-fantasy staple edged weapons of sword (on green - Kriegsklingen) and axe (on red - Feuerklingen) have already been used, you know, where do you go? Mace or Warhammer? Blunt instruments. Dagger? Too short. Spear? Not really bladey enough. Scimitar? Too Gurkish. Falchion? Sabre? Estoc? Too obscure. Anyway, I digress. Konigsklingen - Oktober.

Woohoo! I love it when books I've already written come out in other markets. It feels like being paid for doing no work. It is being paid for doing no work! Or, ahem, you know, reaping the hard-won benefits of earlier midnight toil...

Labels: announcements, news

Friday, 16 May 2008

The God of Publication Dates

Gather round, my friends, for I have some (slightly) bad news. Publication Date for Best Served Cold has moved from April 2009 back to June 2009. Only a couple of months, which is probably small fry for some of you folks who are used to waiting for books, but I thought that you should be the first to know. Other than me. And my editor. And some other folks at the publisher. And some booksellers. But I thought you'd want to know, anyway, nice and early, to keep any disappointment as small and far off as possible. Nothing worse than camping outside the bookstore all night in the pissing rain, charging in bright-eyed and sweaty-palmed as the doors open only to be told the book's been put back a year, right?

Now I hang around some forums, so I see people get quite irritated about shifting publication dates, and I entirely understand. So in the interests of full transparency, let me attempt to explain a) what's going on with my writing process that has caused the publication date to be moved in this case and, b) why it is that you seem to get considerable delays even once you hear a manuscript has been handed in.

So, Best Served Cold. It's a simple story, in a way, a lot less complicated than The First Law, certainly. So why's it taken me a good few months longer to write than I expected? New characters is the main problem. New characters mean new approaches, new feels to create. For me the characters are the essence of the book, so getting them properly realised is key. That's taken time to a degree I didn't entirely aniticipate. The characters in the First Law had fermented in my mind over the course of years, then I'd taken two or three years with no pressure to happily work the approaches out in the first book before I ever got a publishing contract, and long before anything was printed. You know, when it was a hobby and fun, rather than the hideous drudgery of actual work. These new characters, particularly the central one, have had to be worked out from scratch and that's been (and still is being) a challenge.

Plus I'd got used to the pace I was working at with Last Argument of Kings, and foolishly extrapolated my likely writing pace from there. That was pretty damn fast, took about 14 months including all the editing. But that was writing the third in a trilogy, the characters, plots, endings long established in my mind and ready to be vomited out onto the page. This new project has proved more difficult. In a sense, since the trilogy was one long story, this book has felt much more like my "difficult second album" than the second book did, which was only really a continuation of the first. I am beginning to understand why people end up writing endless series...

Partly in order to make my life easier, and partly because I like books that tend toward the shorter and more concise end of the epic fantasy spectrum, I'd aimed for something tighter than the previous three (which were 195,000, 200,000, and 230,000 words respectively, oh yeah, real short and concise, Joe), somewhere in the region of 150,000-175,000, which I thought I could knock off in 12 months. Slight errors at the planning stage (chronic overambition, incompetence, failure, that kind of thing) have led to the book getting quite a bit longer than that - I'm guessing it'll work out about 220,000 now. Longer books take longer to write, you'll be surprised to learn.

Then there are the distractions and pressures that come with having books out there in the marketplace and (relatively) successful. Interviews, blogging, responding to email, endlessly searching for anyone talking about you, checking your amazon sales ranks every hour in four different countries, etc. That vital work all takes up time and energy one could have expended writing. And though I'm doing a lot less of the day job these days, it's funny how the pace of writing doesn't necessarily increase to match (more on this in due course, perhaps).

Then, given that this is a standalone book, I decided to take a different approach. With a series, one would desire to write the entire thing before the first book is published, so if some brilliant idea occurs while writing the last you can just alter the first here or there to match. In the real world this tends not to be possible, since a man's gotta eat and so on, and generally you'll have to publish the first book before you've written the rest, which means you need to be pretty damn sure of where you're going if you want your last book to be any good. It means a lot of revising and thinking as you go along. An awful lot, in the case of The First Law. Because Best Served Cold is a standalone I thought, aha, I'll just Bosh out a first draft quick sharp, not worry too much about getting it right, then revise and edit much more heavily than usual en masse, giving much greater economy of scale! The shackles are off! I am free! Free! Problem is I know I've left a lot of stuff that needs a lot of work behind, and that's going to mean more editing than with the previous books, which is going to mean more time after the first draft is finished to get things right, and etc.

So cut the sh*t, Joe, can you just tell us what authors will never bloody tell us, and say where are you actually up to with this book? Well, er, yes, thanks for asking. It's in seven parts, and I'm just finishing the first draft of the fifth part, so about three quarters of the way through. Well, that doesn't seem so bad, it's only May, a whole eleven months before the original pub date! True, I still hope to have the first draft finished and then thoroughly revised to my own satisfaction maybe end of August. Two months for some furious editing, polish and tidy up, and a month for copy edit and back and forth, have the bastard well and truly nailed by the end of the year. Proofs out, all hail my genius, unprecedented combination of critical and commercial success, buried under an avalanche of cash and awards, no, no, not another Hugo, I couldn't possibly, oh alright then just one more, mansion in the country with pool shaped like a magic sword, right?

But I know what you're thinking now. If it's all finished before the end of the year, why the f*ck does anyone need to move the pub date from April to June?

Come closer, closer. No, even closer. Not that close, I can smell you. And attend, as I reveal to you the hidden mysteries of the dark arts of publishing.

There's a lot more to it than just getting it typeset, proof-reading for errors, then boshing it off to the printers and counting the cash. For one thing the production department of a big publisher may have dozens of books going through at a time, from many different imprints, and everything has to take its place in the queue. They can't just be twiddling their thumbs waiting for that one author you like to finish their manuscript. These things can take some time.

But there are much more time-consuming processes than the obvious ones of physically producing the product. If you're going to give a book the best chance of selling well then booksellers need to know when it's going to appear some time in advance. The more warning they get, the further in advance they can plan their buying, the better chance of getting better display space and support. Editors need some time to get folks in their own company enthused about a book - the publicists, the reps who will try to sell books on to booksellers, the rights department who may be trying to sell the book to other markets. The longer you have and the firmer the date, the better chance of prising some marketing cash from the gripping fingers of the soul-less money men (I don't mean it, I really don't). The more time you have between finishing the final edit and publishing the book means more time to get proofs out to reviewers and more time for them to read the book, which means more chance of it getting reviews, of there being some buzz, or at least some awareness of the existence of a book before it comes out. All of this is going to help sales. Indeed, for a little known author it could make the difference between some exposure and none, between some sales and very few.

Then there is the question of scheduling. A publisher doesn't want to be releasing two similar books too close together, because they'll end up competing with each other, not only for the generous cash of the book-buying public, but also for the attention of the marketing within their own organisation, the reps who go out and try and sell the books to booksellers, and the booksellers themselves who need to fill their shelves. They don't want to be saying, "this book is the most important epic fantasy released anywhere this month ... apart from this one which we also have, which is just as good if not better, well, not better, but ... where are you going?" Schedules get filled up, books have to be moved around other books, and the later the delay occurs the worse the problem, which is why sometimes a small delay in delivery can mean publication has to be shifted months later, into the next free slot.

So you can see there are a compelling stack of reasons why it's in the best interests of a book to have 9-12 months between delivery of a first draft and publication. With the really big, well-established authors it's less important. Booksellers, reps and readers aren't going to say no to A Dance With Dragons because it doesn't turn up on time, for example, but if you push it down to less than six months you're limiting editing time, proof-reading time, putting added pressure on everyone involved and taking some risks with the quality of the output. Ever wondered why books that are long-delayed may seem sloppily edited? Wonder no longer...

Phew. So that's why we've decided to move the publication date of Best Served Cold back a couple of months at this early stage, to reduce the pressure on the writing somewhat, to ensure the editing time isn't squeezed, to give the book the best chance as it goes through the pipes of marketing, repping, selling and so on. The God of Publication Dates is a jealous god, and it's best to upset it as little as possible. Best to move the book now, nice and early, to avoid disappointment later. Yours and mine. We all want the best possible product, after all.

So, as I say, Best Served Cold, June 2009, stick it in your diaries. I'm entirely confident it won't have to go back any further than that.

Honest...

Labels: announcements, news, process

Friday, 21 March 2008

Gongs

No longer will I be able to refer to myself as a "multi-award nearly-nominated author", as today I have actually been nominated for the John W. Campbell award for best new writer. My grovelling thanks to anyone who put my name forward for this utterly undeserved honour.

But Joe, I hear you cry, have you not written three books and are you not half way through a fourth? It's an odd selection criteria which allows for anyone who released their first professional work in the genre within the last 2 years (2006-7), so I was eligible last year but, like, Joe who? Patrick Rothfuss, I'm sure, would have been an absolute shoe-in for this, but due to a short story published way-back-when he's not eligible. David Anthony Durham, on the other hand, is eligible despite having some successful historical fiction under his belt, because Acacia is his first sf/f work. Them's the vagaries of the selection process, I guess. The absence of Rothfuss probably means that I can get urinated on from a great height by Scott Lynch instead. Well, bit of urine never hurt anyone, did it? Perhaps the benevolent God of Release Dates will come to my aid in this time of crisis, but I doubt it, and it's great to be on the ballot, in any case.

Sweeping my eye over the rest of the nominations I cannot but notice my US Editor Lou Anders, of Pyr, up for best Long Form Editor. He's a man who believes in, and puts great effort into, every title he publishes. It's testament to the great work he does that, even though Pyr is a small outfit compared to some and puts out less than twenty titles a year, he's got a nomination for the Best Novel Hugo via Ian McDonald's Brasyl, me AND David Louis Edelman in the Campbell section, and himself in the Best Editor. Round of applause for Lou, please.

You spend five years waiting for a bus to come along, then two come at once, because I've also been nominated for the Compton Crook Award which is given for the best first novel of the year written by a new author by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society. But Joe, I hear you cry, was your first novel not written and released years ago? Ah, well, not in the US, you see. Better yet, this award actually comes with a cash prize. Worse yet, that fiend Rothfuss no doubt will be eligible for this one. Enjoy your Compton Crook, Rothfuss! Ha ha! I'll enjoy being ... pissed on ... by ... Scott Lynch. Hmmmm.

In other news, there were some fifty folks at the signing at Forbidden Planet last night, my thanks to anyone who turned out in inclement weather to be there. I've done one of these for each book, and the attendance has more or less tripled for each one, which is great. There was actually something you could reasonably describe as a queue this time. Astonishing. Also signed a big heap of 100 hardbacks for Goldsboro books as well, so if anyone has ordered books from them they should be on their way. Lined and dated half of 'em too. My hand hurts now. Off to Eastercon. Maybe see you there...

Labels: announcements, news

Saturday, 15 March 2008

Last Argument of Kings

Gather round, my friends, for I have great news! Fans of edgy yet humorous yet action-packed yet deeply inventive and moving fantasy fiction rejoice! I note that Last Argument of Kings is now shipping from amazon.co.uk. At the time of writing it resides in fact, at an amazon.co.uk sales rank of 12. 1200? No. 120? No. 12. In fantasy? No. In fiction? No. 12, in all books. It is, for this glorious hour at least, amazon uk's 12th highest selling book. It may also be found in the foremost bookshops of the land, though at this stage probably on trolleys in their stock rooms, rather than actually on the shelves.

What's that? You need more of me basking in self-aggrandisement? I am to be found discussing the book at the Genre Files, along with such issues as my response to negative criticism (I float effortlessly above it, don't you know).

Fortunately, no such floating will be necessary with regard to my review in March's edition of Death Ray, who have rewarded me the bare acceptable minimum of 4.5 stars. Admittedly, they called it "The Last Argument of Kings." There is no "The", but I'm pretty sure it is my book they're talking about:

"Abercrombie is a fantasy writer who can really write. No, really. As with the previous two books, Last Argument of Kings is tightly plotted, has wit and style to spare, and in the barbarian Logen and the Inquisitor Glokta it has two of the best fantasy creations of recent years ... Forget the sterile battles of modern fantasy: here we have brutal medieval realism in which bloody teeth fly and guts are clutched at in one of the most heroic sieges since Helm's Deep."

Mmmmmm, bloody teeth. There's an interview in March's SFX, also, with a full page picture of me, debonairely let challengingly leaning against a whitewashed wall, as I often am to be found doing. They've also managed to paint out all my boils and photoshop my missing eye back in. Amazing, what they can do these days. Aidan at A Dribble of Ink has had the honour and privilege of reading the book in advance, and you know what? He kinda liked it:

"Last Argument of Kings is without a doubt the strongest novel in the cycle and, indeed, one of the strongest finishes to a trilogy I've come across in a long time. It’s refreshing to find an author who can not only finish a story in three books (a rarity in the fantasy genre these days, it seems) but to also do so in a satisfying manner ... The First Law ends much as it begins: raw, gritty and full of humanity."

Care to put a number on it, Aidan?

"I decided I wouldn't attach numerical values to my reviews, but if I were to thrust such an arbitrary label upon Last Argument of Kings, it would probably look much like a 9.9/10"

Someone, somewhere, is taking the piss. In all seriousness, the response to the book so far has been extremely gratifying. Numerical ratings are essentially tosh, of course, but (since you ask) the ratings for Last Argument of Kings from blogs and magazines so far have been: 4.5 stars, 4.5 stars, 5 stars, 9.5/10, 9.75/10, 9.75/10, and 9.9/10. Oh, and 8 from Pat, though he shall pay for that slur upon mine honour, oh yes, he shall pay. You can find some details from those reviews here, should you not quite be convinced.

Probably you want to find out what all the fuss is about, hmmmmm?

Now you can, my friends, now you can...

Labels: announcements, interviews, reviews

Wednesday, 5 March 2008

Gonzo Fantasy

First, some announcements. Worlds of Fantasy tonight, on BBC4, at 9pm, will include footage of me, saying stuff. About Peake, and Tolkien, and the "EPIC IMAGINATION", apparently. Possibly. Not to be missed. Anyone who sees it, by all means come back here and tell me how much I sucked ass.

Secondly, the good people of Romania will soon have the opportunity to join the fantasy craze that is sweeping the globe. Patrick Rothfuss, you ask? Well, no, not him, he's going there already, probably, but-- Scott Lynch, cry the crowd excitedly? Well, actually, I think he went there a while ago now, but-- Brandon Sanderson, Brian Ruckley, Alan Campbell, Tom Lloyd, Daniel Abraham, Felix Gilman, Robert Redick, or, or, or-- No, none of them. It's the First Law, I'm talking about. Yes, courtesy of Nemira, one of Romania's foremost genre imprints (Martin, Robinson, Herbert etc.), The Blade Itself should be coming within six months, with the other two books following about six months apart. Magic.

Now to some reviews. Do you remember Beezer? After reading The Blade Itself, he was left in two minds about my writing skills. "Mr. Abercrombie does show a knack for writing a solid tale. I think once he hones his craft and is able to correct some of these deficiencies he will truly be a name to watch in the fantasy genre." Well it looks like some honing went on some time last year, because of Before They are Hanged he says:

"However, in this novel, there seems to be an exponential growth in both his writing and his overall story. If this type of growth continues with the next novel (and any future stories after that) I think readers will be more than pleased ... The First Law trilogy seems to be taking on the mantel of a fine painting. Taken piece by piece each book is solid. However, taken as a whole, as the entire trilogy, the true beauty of this work begins to stand out."

It is, indeed, a positive Sistine Chapel ceiling among fantasy series. Internet humorist Elena, meanwhile, who earlier in the year was so taken with my phrase "a face as red as a slapped arse" has also checked out Before They are Hanged. She begins by voicing her amazement that I apparently know everything that is said about me on the internet, almost before it is written.

"I think he must have written a program to email him the URL of any website that speaks his name."

Luckily, someone else has written it already, and gifted it to the world in the same way that a crazy biologist might gift the world a lethal mutated virus. It's called Google Blog-Search, the most dangerous piece of technology since the a-bomb, and with it I waste 90% of my writing time. Elena has some interesting thoughts on the book too, though:

"I find myself wondering if this new sub-genre of fantasy--Abercrombie, Lynch, Martin et. al.--should be termed gonzo fantasy after Hunter S. Thompson's gonzo journalism. Consider: Filthy language? Check. Copious amounts of weapons for every occasion? Check. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong--hilariously? Check. An unlikely and perhaps unaware hero who stays alive against all odds, including his own activities? Check. Drug/alcohol use/abuse? Check. Written by someone you can see hunched over a typewriter smoking a cig without bothering to ash, slogging whiskey instead of caffeine, and not bathing for days on end? Check.

Gonzo fantasy. Goddamn brilliant."

I do wash, though, you know. Going back to where it all began, Larry, from Wotmania's Other Fantasy board, has finally run his critical eye over The Blade Itself.

"it is due to the strength of Abercrombie's characterizations and the rather up-close and personal approach to the storytelling that manages to keep the plot just interesting enough for readers to want more ... The "action," such as it is, is more of a set-up for the following two volumes, but with the promise that what follows after will make these oft-meandering plot threads into portents of something rather moving."

By no means a slating, but I will hold off on my assesment of Larry's reviewing capabilities until I have read the entire trilogy ... of reviews, apparently due to culminate in a piece of something they call professional criticism on Strange Horizons. Keep your eyes peeled for that. Long established blogger of the sci-fi and fantasy scene, Joe Sherry, had a more positive first reaction to The Blade Itself:

"There is so much going on in The Blade Itself. There are fascinating characters, political maneuvering a plenty, sword-play, action, a dash of romance, class politics, a variety of cultures, more action, magic, empires and feudal warlords, still more action, foul language, inventive language, something called action – all this, and more. The Blade Itself has something for everyone all wrapped up in a violent, action packed, sometimes profane package.

And I like it.

A lot."

However, he then goes on to refuse me my due of a perfect 10/10 score on the paltry bases that a) the book has no ending, and b) he does not give books numerical ratings. As if such feeble excuses will save him when my righteous wrath descends like a crimson tide upon the reviewing community...

To be fair to Joe, I don't really expect any perfect scores for The Blade Itself - too many unanswered questions, too much set-up, too much that depends on how the series develops and concludes for anyone to be throwing top marks around. It's the forthcoming Last Argument of Kings that'll get me the big scores, if I'm ever going to get them. We'll just have to wait to see how the mainstream print media responds to ... what's that you say? Early copy from next month's lead review from Dave Bradley in SFX?

"You should always end with the best. Wow them in the final act, make the last chorus a belter, build to a climax and get them on their feet applauding when the curtain falls. Last Argument of Kings is the textbook example of this theory in practice."

Oooh. That looks promising. What else?

"The third in Joe Abercrombie's debut fantasy series, The First Law, reveals everything a finale should: conveys some answers, ties together the loose ends from various plot strands, knocks over pieces painstakingly set up in the preceding stories, and in the aftermath delivers character development that surprises as well as delights."

Better yet. Final thoughts?

"It builds to a tense final act which fulfils every facet of the phrase, 'leave them wanting more'"

And how did the world's biggest selling SF magazine rate the book, I wonder?

Well, 5 stars, as it happens.

5 stars, you say? Out of?

Why, out of 5.

5 stars out of 5? You mean the maximum possible score? The best score? Top marks, as it were?

That's right. 5 stars. Read 'em and weep. I bet Pat Rothfuss never got none of that 5 star top marks shit from SFX!

Yes, yes he did.

Bastard. Well, I bet Scott Lynch never did!

Yes, yes he did too. Both of them did. First books. Five star debuts. Right out of the blocks.

Right. Great. I'll just go, then, shall I?

Labels: announcements, news, reviews

Thursday, 14 February 2008

American Edition

Jeez. You spend all week waiting for Joe Abercrombie to make another post, and then three come at once. But it's good news, folks, it's good, good news.

The US Edition of Before They are Hanged wasn't due to be available until March 25th, but I'm delighted to announce that due to the heroic efforts of the folks at Pyr, it is shipping NOW from amazon.com. Not sure when it will appear in olde-fashioned bricks and mortar bookshops, but probably over the next couple of weeks. Deprived citizens of America, your wait is over!

In order to whet your appetites, I must just quote a bit of opinion on the books from a member over at the Westeros boards which quite tickled my funny bone:

"I actually don't care for Abercrombie as a whole but I do think he writes very accessible work. It is snarky in a not so clever way and it has a great patina of being gritty without actually having characters do gritty things (bar one good slightly gritty but still moralistically heavyhanded moment in the second book). Abercrombie is solid easy to read fast food fantasy. It comes off as filling but ultimately I found it empty ... Abercrombie is fastly turning into the Big Mac of the genre and you might as well take a bite along with everyone else."

Abercrombie is fastly turning into the Big Mac of the genre?

I LOVE IT! I'm getting in touch with my editor now to see if it's not too late to get it on as a cover blurb...

Labels: announcements, news

Saturday, 2 February 2008

Bonjour, tout le monde!

For everyone's safety, I think that's about as far as my French should ever go. Yes, today is French Publication day for The Blade Itself, or, as they say across the channel, "L'eloquence de l'epee," the first book, of course, of "La Premiere Loi". Ha ha. Is it sad that I get a kick out of just hearing it in French? Yes, yes it is. "La Premiere Loi." Ha ha.

The publisher is J'ailu, a long established imprint who publish Mass Market editions of such well-known fantasy names as George RR Martin, Robin Hobb, Neil Gaiman etc. etc. This is a new project for them, though, in that they're making a move into trade editions. So the book is first available as a hardback, but will later, I believe, appear in trade paperback and mass-market editions. Because it's a bit of a new endeavour for them they're giving it a big push, which is always very nice to see. If there were to be any French speakers among you (and as far as I can tell there's not that many among you who can manage English to that high a standard), there's actually an interview with my French Editor, Thibaud Eliroff, online about this very collection.

The cover is an interesting one. It's the first representational artwork I've seen of anything from the book yet, and that kind of thing is always going to be surprising for an author. The whole style is just a long way from my first, vague conception of what the characters might look like. Still, the purpose of a cover is to sell the book, or perhaps more accurately, not to deter people from buying the book, and the tastes of different readerships, in cover and in content, differ widely. Witness the black covers with a hint of red/green/blue that seem wildly popular in Germany. My job is writing the books, the selling you have to leave to the publisher, and that's especially true of a foreign market where you know even less what the rules may be. I haven't actually seen any copies myself, yet, but I'm guessing it will be done to a pretty high standard. Even on the proof, the internals are very nicely done.

More news as it appears and my Google translator allows me to make some kind of sense of it...

Labels: announcements, news

Monday, 31 December 2007

Happy Birthday to Me

Happy Birthday to Me, Happy Birthday dear Meeee-eeee... You get the idea.

Yes, I'm 23 today.

Raconteur, bon vivant, and pillar of the sfnal community Joe Mallozzi has finished Last Argument of Kings, and gives his opinion on the First Law over on his blog:

"Readers who have appreciated the likes of Lynch's roguish Locke Lamorra and Martin's amoral Jaime Lancaster and wily Tyrion are sure to connect with Abercrombie's characters who, while certainly unsavory in some respects, are at heart human, vulnerable and, yes, despite surface impressions, very likable ... You grow to love 'em over the course of Abercrombie's vast and accomplished narrative as they face tragedies, triumphs, and more than a few surprises along the way. And the biggest of those surprises are saved for the third book, Last Argument of Kings, in which traitors are revealed, unlikely alliances struck, and a secret plot comes to shocking fruition, all amidst the backdrop of one of the most epic battles ever chronicled. A superior book in a superior series."

Thanks, Joe, and welcome to any visitors from the land of Mallozzi. Some of you may have looked at the author photographs and thought, "hmm, a rugged and well-seasoned 23." Fair enough, you're right, I am in truth a fresh-faced 28 today. That's right, I'm an adult (kind of), and I can handle negative opinions. So, in the interests of review karma, and with all the enthusiasm of a man about to snorkel through a swimming pool of shit, I feel I have to point out a slightly less complimentary comparison to George RR Martin from my latest one-star review on amazon.com:

"Uninspired, Third-Rate Martin
essentially a duller version of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books. Without too much effort it is probably possible to match up each character in Abercrombie's book with one of Martin's characters (Abercrombie's tortured torturer Sand dan Glokta and Martin's beloved imp, Tyrion Lannister, are only the most obvious). The setting of a British isles inspired medieval land is also generally the same, as is the vague menace in the North and a variety of other plot parallels. Usually a comparison to Martin would be glowing praise, but in this case, Abercrombie does a C or C- job of mimicry at best. The dialogue fizzles, the plot is ponderous and without twists, the villains are not particularly compelling and neither are the heroes. In fact Abercrombie, despite packing his novel with torture, blood, romance, swordplay and magic, manages to turn out a boring and completely forgettable addition to the fantasy genre."

Aaaaargh! Get it off! It burns! It burns! I actually re-read A Game of Thrones recently for a piece I've done for SFX, and while I'm a great admirer of Martin's books and would undoubtedly count him an influence, within the context of epic fantasy, I don't actually think my stuff is that much like Martin's. But hey, this is a democracy (amazon, that is, not my blog, which is a benificent dictatorship, obviously) and I guess everyone's entitled to their opinion. I wonder what he'll make of the second book. What's that you say? You don't think he'll make it to the second book?

Shame.

Alright, I know what you're thinking. How could someone in their twenties talk so mature as what I do? I confess it. I am 33 today, and I know what you're thinking again. How do I keep so young looking? The answer is simple. Only hunch over a keyboard all day, then come home and do it all evening, then have a 1 year old kick you in the face all night. Get up and repeat.

Soon you'll look just as young as I do.

Labels: announcements, reviews

Wednesday, 12 September 2007

Germany on FIRE...blade

The German language edition of Before They are Hanged is available on amazon.de - Feuerklingen (or Fireblade for the Engish-speakers amongst us). This is, of course, the breathlessly awaited sequel to Kriegsklingen (or Warblade to you and I).


You will note immediately that the German publisher, Heyne, have gone for a much more "straight ahead" fantasy approach with the covers. I actually really dig them of their type, though - lean, sharp, and graphic, and managing to remain quite classy. Plus they have my name in big letters, which never gets old. They're actually massive books compared to the English language versions - at 800 pages a piece they have a Robert Jordan level of heftiness. Apparently you usually gain about a third in length with a translation from English, which gives them some problems when you have a book that's already at a Robert Jordan level of heftiness, I imagine.

The slightly-abstract-titles-derived-from-quotes approach evidently doesn't work for our cousins across the channel. The Spanish The Blade Itself has become La Voz de Las Espadas (The Voice of the Swords) and I believe the French publisher, J'ailu, are thinking of something similar for when they publish in February. The Germans have gone stripped-down and ready for battle with Kriegsklingen, Feuerklingen, and I don't know what they're planning to call Last Argument of Kings, but I bet it's got Klingen on the end of it. Not enormously closely related to the content, but looking at titles and covers of current German fantasy series, there does seem to be a trend over there for these simple, punchy, repetitive series titles and these dark, graphicy covers. A linguistic thing? A cultural thing? Who knows, but one can only assume that the publishers know their own markets, and brand their products accordingly ...

Labels: announcements, news

Saturday, 25 August 2007

Hello America

Although the US edition of The Blade Itself isn't actually due in stores until 6th September, I'm delighted to report that amazon.com is stocking it from today, and at a generous discount. Only think, you could order that bad boy right now and crack the spine ten days before publication date. Only imagine: for those 240 hours, your friends will worship you like a god.

Simultaneously, a review from the appropriately titled Blood, Blade & Thruster, the magazine that mixes speculative fiction, satire, and self-deprecating humour (it's like they made a magazine just for me). They say, among other things:

"A fantasy novel full of enough ironic and slightly self-deprecating humor and Scorcese-esque violence to make the average hipper than thou non-fantasy reader want to learn more about the genre (my favorite kind to convert), yet filled with enough touchstones to make your average Tolkien weaned fantasy reader quite happy indeed ... This book is highly recommended by BBT Magazine!"

So any Americans out there, fantasy fans or otherwise, keen to find out what all the fuss is about?

You know what to do ...

Labels: announcements, news, reviews

Wednesday, 1 August 2007

Up and Running

Welcome one and all to joeabercrombie.com, the website of fantasy writer, film-editor and bon-vivant, Joe Abercrombie. That'd be me.

Welcome, specifically, to the blog section, the beating heart of the entire enterprise, where I will be writing and updating regularly (and not at all five times in the first week, once a week for the next five weeks, once more six months later saying "hey, I'm back, everyone!" and then never again). Apologies in advance for the inevitable examples of dodgy formatting, shoddy writing, and incomprehensible nonsense that will no doubt occur as I try to fumble my way to competence with the interface (and, indeed, with life itself).

I'll be bringing you the latest news about my work, of course - new books, new editions, new translations, public appearances even - straight from the horse's mouth, as it were.

I'll be trawling the internet for those nuggets of gold and nuggets of poo that people write about me and my books, bringing them to your attention and discussing . . . how they make me feel, deep down in my rotten, shriveled little remnant of a heart.

I may well be adding my worthless opinion to the already impossibly vast amount of worthless opinions out there, when some hot topic sweeps through the blogosphere like a forest fire of fury. We will see if at a single stroke I can irritate and alienate half or more of my potential readership.

I might even discuss a few entirely unrelated topics, like food, the London underground, TV series, video games, and so on. If I happen upon anything I love, you'll be among the first to find out. I don't hate everything, you know.

Just 99% of everything.

Labels: announcements, news