I realise it’s been a while since we’ve had any meaningful production updates. Apologies! I’ve been very busy recently juggling multiple things, but I’ve still been doing bits and pieces in the background so worry not.
The Blade Itself
OK so the first update is about The Blade Itself. The good news is that it’s currently at the printers at the moment, whizzing around Nomad Letterpress’ Heidelberg Cylinder. I’m going to visit the printer next week to take a few videos and pictures (this was supposed to happen a few weeks back but had to be re-arranged).
The bad news is I still don’t have the art, or much of it. Tommy assures me it will be done before new year, and I’ve got binding booked in for Jan/Feb, so should ship Feb/March time. This has taken longer than I’d hoped but has largely been out of my hands.
The Fifth Season
Now to move on to what has been my primary focus recently, The Fifth Season! For those that don’t know, this is the first book of N.K Jemisin’s “Broken Earth” Trilogy. I’ve been working away on concepts and prototypes for a while now, and I’m pretty confident I’ll have an info release for the end of October with pre-order to be taken early November.
The books are absolutely incredible with some amazing themes, and I feel like I’ve had chance to put a bit more creativity into this one. Not that TBI wasn’t creative, it was just more classic. I think this has scents of RPO about it (but don’t know if I’ll ever top that).
I’m hoping to release the dustjacket image at the time of the info release, but again art has been slow coming back on this one, so not 100% if I’ll be able to share then. The funny thing is that I’m loving the standard edition binding so much, that maybe a dustjacket takes away from it? I’ll let everyone decide when I release the info.
I should be able to get a head start on the printing on this one due to some projects moving around with other publishers, which if that’s the case, we should see a much quicker turnaround on this book (providing the art comes back in time of course). I’m going to tentatively say June 2023 for delivery.
Oh and I think I’m doing a Roman Numeral edition. Either 3, 4 or 5 copies depending on a few things. Bar one (mine) these will be for sale, but they won’t be cheap.
Hyperion
On to my latest title, Hyperion! What’s happened with that I hear you ask? Fuck all, actually. I mean I’m giving it some good thought and have some ideas for the concepts of the bindings floating around my noggin, but haven’t put pen to paper yet.
I’ll focus more time into it when I’m happy with my Fifth Season Prototypes, and ensure the insanely good artist Jaime is well on the way by the time I come to release info. I’m hoping for a March info release and April pre-order, but we’ll see.
Et al
As far as other titles are concerned, I’m chasing some down. I’ve had a nibble on a pretty incredible title, which I’d be very very keen to do. The author is not with us anymore so I would need to secure a foreword from someone pretty special to do it justice (I have two people in mind), and I’ve heard this is a hard one to sign up. Fingers and toes crossed for this one.
Anything else while I’m here? I’ll try and get Tommy to move straight on to doing Before They are Hanged so we can have a seamless transition, but we’ll see. So Q2 2023 pre-order I think.
Other than that, Paypal are being absolute incredibly frustrating at the moment and have thrown a spanner into the works recently, which is one of the reasons things have moved back on some projects. I’m very close to deciding not to use them again after what they have pulled, but I do appreciate some people only really have that option for purchasing online.
You may have read Arete’s recent update regarding not taking Paypal, that is in someway inspired by my own story. I won’t bore you with the details, but If things turn out the way I want and I get the assurances I need, then I may carry on with them, but there is a good chance I’ll never use them again.
That’s it for now. Hopefully be able to share some videos and images of the printing process on The Blade Itself soon, and keep your eye out for an info release date!
