Happy New Year everyone! I’m not even sure I can still say that now as it’s the 16th. However, this is the first production update of the year and in my head it qualifies. I should probably move on to something more interesting.
OK, so this year has started as last year ended. Flat. Out. Our plan for 2026 is an ambitious one indeed and to hit it, we’ve got a lot to get on with. We have books to ship, books to release, and books to design. I suppose that’s business as usual for us…
We’ve got some exciting things on the immediate horizon including the reveal and pre-order of Dan Simmons’ “Endymion” illustrated by Thomas Elliot. After that? Some kind of sci-fi series you might not have heard of called Red Rising or something. We should also be receiving some signed and numbered prints back from various artists over the next couple of weeks and will schedule these things for purchase as soon as we have them.
Our plan at the moment is to do the big Endymion reveal on Tuesday January 27th at 15:00GMT which will be when the Series Rights holder window opens. This will be for all owners of TFOH Deluxe and Lettered Editions with any copies not taken up going up for sale on the public pre-order. The public pre-order is scheduled for Monday February 2nd at 20:00GMT on our website.
But for now, production updates. Books. In Production. Updated.
The Fall of Hyperion
It’s still on here, just. The bindery have informed me that the Lettered Editions should be ready next week for shipping. They’ve had a couple of delays getting the marbled leather together, so hopefully this will be resolved for next week.
I also wanted to address the shipping of the Deluxe Edition via the distributor we have used several times on the last few Standards. There have been considerably more boxes damaged on this shipment than we’ve ever experienced before. We can only apologise profusely for this situation, it is basically my worst nightmare and we’re dealing with every request we get to make things right with new undamaged cases. We have commissioned new cases for those damaged and will get these out to customers when ready. This may take a little time as the bindery are flat out, but this will all be at our expense for those affected.
There are a couple of reasons why this has happened. Firstly, the distributor have not shipped out traycases before, and they come with exposed corners unlike slipcases, which is a particular weak point. This meant the box also wasn’t big or sturdy enough for them and as such a portion of US customers received dented edges (the UK ones were fine). We also believe that the USPS who take charge of these shipments overseas continue to treat packages poorly and as it was around Xmas, it seems like they were treated with even less care.
I visited the distributor earlier this week to get to the bottom of it and put together a new and bullet proof solution going forward for our Deluxe Editions and future double book packages. We will be utilising a much larger and double walled box as well as foam solution on all sides to ensure that any pressure from the outside of the box is not directly onto a case edge. Our plan is to make the packing as strong and protective as possible so it really doesn’t matter if a courier overseas kicks it over the fence, they should still survive (I’m sure there will be the occasional exception from creative posties).
So please accept my sincere apologies to those affected and please be aware that we are going over the top on sorting this out, so we don’t have these issues again. The previous shipments from this distributor had a tiny amount of issues with books damaged in transit (3/500 for Legend and 2/500 for Before They are Hanged).
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Next out the bindery! The face papers are nearly finished by Renato Crepaldi and should be whizzing over to Ludlow for the finishing of the Standard editions. I visited Ludlow last week to see how things were progressing and it was all hands-on deck.
The illustrations by Gary Gianni were phenomenal and the finished bookblock with the interior design done by Marcelo Anciano is possibly our best yet. I’m very excited to get this out the door and onto your shelves as it’s one of my favourite books of all time. I’m estimating end of March for shipping these, hopefully sooner!
Last Argument of Kings
The interior art pieces have been printed and are now at the bindery ready for tipping into the bookblocks and the signature pages are half-signed and should be on the way to Joe for his mark.
This is scheduled to be bound following HHG so will follow immediately afterwards. The bindery will be able to fold and gather the sheets ahead of time, and any delays on HHG will result in a pivot to LAOK.
I have shared some images of what the prototypes look like as a trilogy, and I know there are a lot of people excited to have the finished trilogy on their shelves. They look great and will be a great moment for CK to have a finished series displayed. I am of course carrying on with the books in the first law world, but it would be a trilogy finished at the very least. I’d say May at this point due to the queue at the bindery.
The Martian
Gomer Press is currently printing the colour elements of the Chapter Heads and Title pages which is then going across to Hand & Eye for the letterpress overprinting. We’ve also had the interior colour paintings printed, and they’ll be off to Ludlow waiting for tipping in.
As mentioned previously, I’d be very interested in publishing Project Hail Mary and once this goes out the door I will be making my case to Andy Weir and his publishers about doing another book of his.
I’d like to see this one leave the bindery late Summer ideally. The printing will be done far in advance of this, so will at least be ready as soon as LAOK has shipped!
Assassin's Apprentice
We’ve just proofed the interior artwork for the tip-ins and these will then be printed and sent down to Ludlow awaiting the binding. We’re also halfway through the two-colour letterpress printing and Nomad Letterpress which is brilliant news indeed. The pages of course will be sent across to the bindery sometime in February I think.
All we have left to arrange on this one is the limitation pages being printed and signing, then we have all the pieces. I have a rough signature page design and once I’m happy with it I’ll get it over to the US for Robin Hobb and Lixin Yin to sign.
I’m still monitoring the progress at the bindery in general, but all being well we should see this one shipped in Autumn this year. Again, way too soon to tell, but we won’t be doing the pre-order for Royal Assassin until this is in peoples hands (though we are working on artwork already).
The Obelisk Gate
Progressing nicely, we’ve laid out the interiors for this already and will be sending it for professional proofing very soon. We’ve also requested the marbling of both The Obelisk Gate marbled cloth, but also the marbling of The Stone Sky cloth from Freya at Paperwilds.
We’re also have the stones for the Deluxe and Lettered sanded down at the moment, and the plan with these is to have them sanded down further than the original amethyst stones. This should help them sit more flush against the spine and the front cover respectively.
John Anthony di Giovanni is the artist again on this edition and did a phenomenal job of the dustjacket and is completing the other 9 colour paintings we’re including in this release. We will of course share the occasional tease of the upcoming art as we run up to the release!
Endymion
Up next for pre-order. The reveal and release details will be on January 27th at 15:00GMT with the public pre-order for copies not taken up by rights holders is scheduled for February 2nd at 20:00GMT.
We’ve been ready for some weeks now on the release of the third book of the Hyperion Cantos and we’re itching to show you what it looks like. It definitely fits in well with the first two and sets up the production for the final book nicely.
I’ve taken a few shots of the first three of them together and can confirm, shelf porn indeed!
Red Rising
Oooooooooooh I can’t say much about this just yet. I mean, you know it’s coming and will be pre-ordered in March. We will start releasing bits and pieces of the upcoming production over the next 2 months as we hurtle toward pre-order day.
I’m rather happy with how the designs for the prototypes look at the moment, and they are currently under construction. As with all releases, we may make small tweaks from the prototypes to the final production books.
Keep your eyes peeled for details in the coming weeks and months!
Future Titles
There are a few titles you guys are well aware of. Namely Mythago Wood, Best Served Cold and Wizard of Earthsea. These are all in various stages of development at the moment and we’re hoping to have Wizard of Earthsea available for pre-order in June sometime.
Mythago Wood could make it out this year, but might slip to 2027 depending on a few things. We’re also well underway on the artwork for Royal Assassin which we hope to pre-order this year too. It all depends on how the bindery can keep up.
Our plan is to release 5 books this year, but we may reduce this to just 4 depending on the supply chain. As you can all see we are printing as many books as we can and have multiple artists working on titles too.
I may have something else very exciting up my sleeve that is revealed this year. However it’s far too early to drop a hint, so I’ll just say this… scallywag.