That’s nearly it for 2025! Can you believe it? I certainly can’t get my head around the fact Christmas is a week away and there are just 2 weeks of the year left…
Unsure as to whether I’ll get around to a big sloppy end of year-round-up before January kicks off. Do I put it here? Do I try and keep this conversation business casual? Maybe I try and hit both tenets.
December has possibly been my favourite month of the year actually! It may or may not have something to do with Dragonsteel Nexus and our official announcement of Red Rising! As you can probably tell I’m immensely pleased to be working on the RR series with Pierce and Lit Escalates and I can’t believe it’s been nearly 2 years since we started discussing the project. We’ll be on the countdown to launch in the New Year, so try and rest up, enjoy the Xmas period then started preparing yourself for the hype.
I could go on about DSNX25 and how much I enjoyed myself, but I wrote a blog about that already. I’ll be putting up the remaining pins and prints up in the New Year – there’s little point now with Xmas next week and the entire postal system completely backed up. We’re discovering this with the shipping from our leftover sale!
Another good thing about December is we’ve started shipping The Fall of Hyperion Deluxe, which is very exciting. It would of course be more exciting if the Lettered was ready to ship, but we can’t have it all can we?! More on that below.
2026 is shaping up to be a good one. The first Quarter looks particularly exciting. Aside from Endymion going up at the end of Jan and Red Rising in March we’ll have a couple of other bits to share. The pins and prints from DSNX of course, but we’re also planning three Cover Print runs in the first few months next year. Hyperion, Before They are Hanged and Legend cover prints are done and being signed/numbered by the relevant artist.
I often get petitioned about my exact release schedule for upcoming years. I don’t like to be too rigid with what titles I release and when, largely down to the supply chain and regular delays these books are subjected to. This allows me to be a bit more fluid and put the more advanced book up for pre-order, rather than the “scheduled” title. This makes sense to me and also adds in a dash of surprise don’t you think? Currently I’m happy to set in stone the first 3 (of 5) releases in 2026: Endymion, Red Rising, Wizard of Earthsea. The other two releases are less certain at the moment and will depend on how shipping goes on our titles in production.
Right, that’s probably enough general waffle from me, if you want to read some production waffle then please carry on below:
The Fall of Hyperion
Currently in transit, well the Deluxe at least! I also wanted to clear something up on the shipping option for TFOH Deluxe, as you didn’t have a choice. It was labelled “FedEx” by the auto name within Shopify, something we didn’t change. We didn’t give an option to change your shipping, and we had always planned to ship the Deluxe with our economy distributor, hence the £40 fee to the US (£5 over the usual economy shipping as the Deluxe costs more to send). So to those who were expecting FedEx, our apologies. We have of course enabled people to choose premium or economy over the last few releases, so preference will be followed on those releases. I am also happy to refund the £5 we added on for insurance for those who genuinely are upset about the mixup with it being called FedEx when it was actually economy shipping at the time. Since that sale we introduced two options for all releases afterwards which we will be adhering too!
The Lettered Editions are being finished up now we finally have the marbled leather for the case/covers. I’ve been advised these should be ready to ship the first/second week of January. Once again this is the information I’ve been given by the bindery and I’m hopeful it’s accurate!
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
We’re well underway on the binding of this one at Ludlow Bookbinders. They’re on with finishing the bookblocks ready for case making. We’ve also approved the new face papers for the Standard Edition by the very talented Renato Crepaldi which will be marbled early in the New Year. I thought I’d share the images of each paper below too as they look incredible!!
Limitation pages are at the bindery too, signed by Mark Wing-Davey (Zaphod) and the artist Gary Gianni. So, we’re hoping this one goes smoothly in the first couple of months of 2026. I’d like to see this one in people’s hands by March and will keep everyone informed as we hit the new year.
Last Argument of Kings
This one has nearly finished folding at the bindery too. We’ve had a couple of small reprints that needed to be done by Nomad, which should be done early January too. The plan is for this to follow HHG, but may move ahead if all the pieces don’t come together on that.
The limitation pages are in transit awaiting their signatures which will be the final piece of that puzzle. It’s no secret there have been bottle-necks at the bindery, but they are doing everything they can to alleviate this for 2026 and I’m very hopeful we’ll get at least 4 books out during the year, ideally more. We shall see! It’s too hard to call at the moment for shipping but definitely within the first half of 2026 and hopefully earlier.
The Martian
I have approved the imposition laydown of the interior artwork and chapter heads for this one and it should be getting the colour treatment in Jan first with the sheets then heading to Hand & Eye Letterpress for overprinting.
Again, we have all the pieces required on this one for binding and the limitation pages are at the bindery waiting patiently. I predict roughly March for the finished pages to land at the bindery which puts the shipping date as early Summer. Again, this hinges on HHG and LAOK getting out the door in a timely manner.
This edition got a lot of love at Dragonsteel Nexus as I brought the Standard and Deluxe prototypes out with me for people to see in the flesh. Also, we saw a good portion of new customers when we released The Martian for pre-order which is very exciting. I hope we don’t let anyone down on this one when it’s done!
Assassin's Apprentice
We’re part way through printing this one at Nomad Letterpress already! We shared a short video on Instagram this week with the black going on. Once the black is finished the second colour is going on via letterpress on chapterheads and title pages. Again, we’ve gone with two colours of Letterpress printing on this, which looks like it could be quite expensive on later novels with considerably more chapters in the trilogy.
The printed sheets should be with the bindery in February I predict, maybe March. Then it’s down to the bindery to work their magic and get this one into the hands of the collectors who purchased. When? Summer most likely. There are a few books needing to go out before this one is bound, but again things could move around depending on any potential delays.
I’m looking forward to this one leaving the nest. Probably the most anticipated title from us in a couple of years and one we cannot mess up. Worth mentioning we won’t pre-order on Royal Assassin either until this one is firmly in everyone’s hands.
The Obelisk Gate
Book 2 of The Broken Earth is about to enter platemaking with Nomad Letterpress in the New Year. The platemaking is of course the precursor to letterpress printing, which is of course the precursor to binding, which is of course the precursor to ship… you get the idea.
A few eagle-eyed collectors noticed I haven’t released images of the Roman Numeral of this one and whether it’s actually going ahead. Well, the answer is YES we are doing a Roman Numeral of this one after contacting the owners of TFS RN. The box is finished (actually the boxes for all three are done now) and we’ll hopefully have the prototype book for TOG ready early in the New Year for sharing, so keep your eyes peeled.
Another book we sincerely hope to ship in 2026. This one hinges on whether all the art is handed in on time as we know John Anthony di Giovanni has a tight schedule but is doing all and sundry to get the interiors finished.
Will we see The Stone Sky in 2026? Unlikely at this stage due to bottlenecks at the bindery and with the art. Early 2027? More likely the case. We will of course prototype TSS next year anyway, but only release when TOG has been shipped and we’re on course for a sensible turnaround on TSS.
Endymion
Once a 2025 release, now an early 2026 release! This was definitely the right call as the bindery weren’t able to get TFOH out the door in time to do it this year. I said I wouldn’t release a book until the previous one in the series has been shipped and I’m sticking to it.
The good news is we have the prototypes done and finished, so we’re ready to go on that front. Thomas Elliot has been doing a fantastic job of the art on this one and will hopefully have the remaining colour pieces done by Spring ready for printing.
We’ve gone with a different colour for the final two books of the Cantos and I have to say the prototypes look great. I may have even taken a picture of the first three books together. They look phenomenal. I’m very much looking forward to finishing the Cantos now, they’re going to be formidable on the shelf that’s for sure.
Printing in Spring for shipping by Q4 2026 is the plan. Again, many moving parts and will know more as time marches on.
Red Rising
Hah! It’s got its own section now! Course it does, we announced it right? The worst kept secret in fine-press I know, but you guys are very good at working out titles from hints. I think my favourite thing building up to the announcement of this one was my accidental red herring involving the word “belting”. I know most of you don’t believe me at all when I say it was an accident, but it was. Belting is a word we use in the UK to mean brilliant or great. Personally, I blame my assistant Fio for italicising the word as it did look a bit more “hinty” than normal…
Anyway, it’s out there now! I can stop trying to deflect questions about it and talk about it with gusto. Definitely one of my grail books to publish and it’s very exciting we have an Artist Edition on this one instead of the Standard. Whilst I appreciate hardcore Standard collectors may have some issue with an offset/machinebound Artist Edition, it will be the first time I’ve been able to produce a way more accessible tier and give as many people as possible the chance to purchase it (it has a purchase window of 3 weeks). This won’t be the norm at all, but felt right for this title.
We’ll be using one of the best offset printers and machinebinders in the UK that regularly work with the likes of Folio Society. We’re going to price this one really competitively too as I’ve always been a little bit bugged by the price of some offset printed special editions in the past. The price isn’t set in stone yet, but in the realms of $100-$150 with a slipcase included.
You’ll have to wait until the new year to start hearing more about this release but believe me when I say it’s going to be HUGE. Or don’t, it’s fine. I’ve been wrong before!
Future Titles
Sadly, I feel like the Wizard of Earthsea has taken a bit of a back seat since the announcement of Red Rising. What a bloody TRAVESTY! We only pushed it back due to logistical reasons with Lit Escalates on RR, but it means it should be further in the production process when we take the pre-orders on it around June.
I’ve made some good progress on the design of the bindings and interiors which is positive and Tom Kidd has handed in a good portion of the art already (it’s some of the best I’ve seen). So hopefully early in the New Year this will be in hand and I can get the prototyping done earlier for sharing.
What comes after that though? Anybody’s guess at this stage I think. There will be no more than 5 releases in 2026, so that leaves two. One I think we’re likely to definitely do in 2026 is Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb. We don’t want to fall behind on this series. Other titles could include Best Served Cold and Mythago Wood. Art is underway on both of those novels so we’ll make a decision closer to the time which one makes the cut!
Anything else while I’m here? No. Want a hint? Bongo’s. See what you make of that one! Spoiler alert, it isn’t a hint at all, it’s a silly word I italicised to keep you talking. OR IS IT? Hahahah. It isn’t a hint. Please.
I may get around to doing a full round up 2025 over Xmas/NY. I mean if you were really hardcore you would read all 12 production update blog posts to receive your round up. But seriously, who has the time to read through that drivel?
Have a wonderful Christmas period if you celebrate it. If you don’t, have a nice few winter weeks. Adios.