July 2024 – Production Update

July 2024 – Production Update
Hello everyone, me again! Bringing you the latest in Curious King movements and activities for the month of July.
It’s been a hell of a month, that’s for sure! So much has happened in the last few weeks, including the incredible reception to Legend by David Gemmell and various trips and meetings. I was really pleased with the feedback from our release of Legend, particularly the Deluxe Edition (it has quite a few admirers I believe). 
Where have I been this month? Mainly to and from Ludlow on the prototypes for Legend, but I also had a very interesting meeting with Matt from The Broken Binding. I’d been meaning to meet up with Matt for some time, mainly to link up with another UK Publisher to discuss issues and bottlenecks in the industry. I have to say, what a nice chap Matt is! We spent a couple of hours over a pint discussing our publishers and how they worked, and I was really impressed with what he’s achieved since starting TBB. The good news is I’ll be making a trip down to Matt’s warehouse and unit in the West Mids in a few weeks time. The better news is, he may be able to solve my expensive shipping rates! It’s early days, but I’ll be exploring other methods which should make postage and packaging cheaper than the rates I currently offer (this should please everyone outside the UK immensely)!
In other news we have a new member of the team! Some of you may know James Macnamara from his popular Instagram @fantasyphile or the facebook collecting groups. Well, I’ve been working with James for the last 6 weeks now on our social media strategy/execution and he’s been doing a wonderful job. We’ll be getting James set up with his own email soon! Oh and don’t pester him for information on future releases, I have one of his children hostage and I’ve told him I’ll go all bloody-nine on them if he shares any secrets…
Well I best talk about my books then eh?! Read on.

Hyperion

Reaaaaaaaaaaally close to finishing the printing now. Slight delay due to a section not going to plan at Nomad Letterpress but we’re on it and will have the pages done and dusted soon. Once this is done, the pages go across to Ludlow Bookbinders for the last piece of the puzzle – this should be in a week or so!
We have all the art in hand, as well as the signed limitation pages so there’s nothing to stop this one going straight to binding and shipping. Very exciting indeed, and I’m looking forward to seeing this one come together.
Expecting shipping at the end of September or early October, but we’ll see how the land lies once Ludlow receive the pages.

Before They are Hanged

Moving very nicely at the moment! Plates have been made, ready for printing after Hyperion which is great news. I also have all of the art handed in too! All that’s left is to get the limitation pages signed, and there’s nothing to hold this one back. Here is one of the interior images done by Vance Kovacs:
Glokta and his practicals by Vance Kovacs
This is a fairly big book as far as the print job goes. There are 480 pages, and around 50 second colour pages to print, so Nomad have their work cut out. Paper is also on the way to Nomad and once the printing is done, this will also go straight into binding! Feel like we’re on a roll here.
Planning to get this one out before Christmas, but again, too early to tell with any genuine accuracy.

Legend

Well, this one went down well, so thank you to everyone who bought a copy! As far as progress goes, we’re waiting on the B&W interior images by Justin Sweet so we can commence printing. The layout has been completed and we’re just waiting for the art to embed within the text. Then Justin is moving on to the dustjacket, and it looks like we’re on the same page regarding how we see it looking. We’ve had a couple of early cancellations, and we’ll release these when we have the dustjacket art in hand! We’re likely to do a giveaway around that time too, heralding the release of the dustjacket.
We’re printing this one with Phil at Hand & Eye this time, and he’s geared up to start printing late August. We expect this process to take a couple of months at least, and then it goes on to binding with Ludlow as per usual.
Will this one make it out before Christmas? I sincerely hope so, but we’ll need the art in by the time the binding process starts to hit that date. The good news is Ludlow are geared up to put out a project a month at the moment, so if this lands around the same time as BTAH then it won’t get pushed back (at least that’s what I’m told).

Fall of Hyperion

Currently still next on the pre-order list with a planned pre-order date of mid-September! We’ve started the prototype process and testing, so hopefully no rushing around last minute for the project detail-release.
Jaime as usual is doing a fantastic job and he’s ploughing on with the hero image and B&W line drawings. This is a slightly larger book than Hyperion and requires a lot more second colour pages than the first (I wish this one only had 8 chapters…).
There is no Roman Numeral for this one as was always the plan, so we’ve just got Deluxe and Lettered Editions to worry about. We’ll be able to go to print once we have the finished B&W art, but as we want to use the same printer as Hyperion this may not print until January. We shall see how they get on.
Aiming to ship Summer 2025 on this one, but I’ll keep you posted on a monthly basis as usual.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Coming together nicely so far! We’ve already started the testing on the prototypes as we want to make sure it’s perfect when it comes to the pre-order. This one will come in Standard, Deluxe and Lettered tiers. 
Gary Gianni is well on with the artwork and has been for some time. The colour artwork in this one is not being tipped in, but printed onto the page. Whilst working with Marcelo Anciano (interiors) and Gary Gianni we really wanted the colour art to pop out from the page. So we’re having both colour and B&W art nestled within the text throughout the book. We’ve gone to town on the artwork and it’s only 250 pages, so it will really feel like an illustrated edition (you just have to with a title like Hitchhikers!).
Hopefully all editions come out as nicely as I hope. Though I’m not sure if we’re doing a dustjacket on this one yet. If this will enrage anyone, then please get in contact.
Still yet to announce contributors, but hopefully can do that in the next month or so!

Future Titles

We’ve only announced the Farseer Trilogy so far (well, someone did). But we have lots on the go as usual! We currently have another fantasy series underway with the artist on it already. We’re also working on a standalone Sci-Fi, and the artist is due to start any day now too!
Last Argument of Kings is being printed immediately after BTAH, and we’ll be pre-ordering that in February with a quick turnaround for shipping. As mentioned previously Greg Manchess is illustrating this one, so we’re expecting art to be done before printing has finished.
Spring 2025 for shipping on this one currently!
Oh yeah there is also the big sci-fi series I mentioned on the live with Petrik. We’re publishing the first of these in 2026 due to some book anniversary commitments, but the artist is already underway (and what an artist!!!).
That’s all the hints you’re getting from me this month. Oh and we’ll be doing a giveaway in September for N.K. Jemisin’s birthday, so keep your eyes peeled for that one.
Until next month, gang.
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