We’re already in May, hard to believe as this year has just flown by so far! As I’m away with the family next week I thought I’d send the production up now rather than when I get back. Lots to catch up on, and the really exciting thing is the first copies of The Fifth Season are being shipped today!

Should hopefully be a productive month ahead (following my return from Wales), and I’m really excited with our roadmap for the next few years. Anyway, on to the specifics:

The Fifth Season

It’s being shipped as we speak!! Please bare with us as it will likely take a few weeks to get them all finished and out the door.

The Standard is going first, then we’re following with the Deluxe, then Lettered, then Roman Numeral. Please remember that if you purchased multiple tiers then you will have to wait until each edition has been finished (for example; if you purchased Standard and Deluxe, you will need to wait until the Deluxe is ready before the shipment will go out).

All of the editions look great in production, and I’m very pleased with how the dustjacket of the Standard has turned out. There is subtle gold foil stamping to the spine with the title and author.

I will have a few Standard and potentially one or two Deluxe to go up on the website once the first round of shipping has been done. So if you missed out first time round, then I will inform everyone of their chance to purchase. I will put a time and date up on the newsletter and social media when I know numbers. I’ll give people a few days notice to prepare.

Really excited to see people’s reactions when they receive them. I think this a lovely edition!

We will also be releasing a cover print of this (without the text) at some point in the next couple of months!

Hyperion

We’re making great progress on Hyperion, all of the art has been turned in as is being colour proofed at the moment. Both endpapers are also being proofed for colour and these will be ready soon. Jaime has done a phenomenal job and can’t wait for everyone to see how they’ve turned out.

The Consul will be the first endpaper, with the Shrike as the back endpaper which seems apt as they are the first and last scenes of the story. These are the first proofs and think they\’ll need some work on the colours as they’re a bit dark at the moment.

Pat and Ellen at Nomad Letterpress are printing away at the moment. There was a significant delay getting in on the press as the platemaker had made some errors and these needed to be rectified. After receiving some feedback from The Blade Itself we have also asked Nomad if they’ll leave a deeper impression on the paper with our books going forward. So I’m hoping they will all start having a very tactile press, and judging by the early pages I’ve had sent to me, it’s looking great!

Not only that, I’ve had the pen and inks done for the Roman Numeral enclosure and I’m really pleased with them. They’ll be winging their way over in the next week or two for including within the box.

Summer shipping on these. As mentioned previously Jaime is doing the art for Fall of Hyperion and is already on it.

I also may have a couple of extra Shrike lids from the Roman Numeral for sale. Just the front piece. Price would be £900 (my cost price) if anyone is interested?

Before They are Hanged

The interior layouts have been completed and are at the platemakers for letterpress printing. This is scheduled to print late Summer with binding to follow afterwards.

I’m hoping to have these in peoples hands by Christmas but we’ll see how well the supply chain holds over the next few months (in my experience, these things tend to go backwards), so it may well be Q1 2025.

Vance is making good progress on the interior art, and this will be complete far in advance of the binding which removes a delay on that side of things.

Legend

David Gemmell’s masterpiece is picking up some steam now too with pre-order on the horizon. The concepts are basically finished and we’ve started testing at Ludlow with the aim to finish the prototypes for June.

Justin Sweet has been busy and I’m so pleased with the work he’s done so far. He is a great match for this book and his rendition of Druss is looking fantastic. Druss features fairly heavily in the design of these bindings, and Justin’s Druss really fits!

The plan is to move to pre-order for this towards the end of June providing no major issues with the prototypes. Printing is scheduled for later this year with Hand & Eye Press, with binding at Ludlow to follow.

I’ll be able to release some teasers of the prototypes over the next few weeks as we run up to the pre-order day. I will be letting everyone know the exact time and date of the pre-order via newsletter and our social media channels (facebook and Instagram).

Another thing to mention is I am increasing the Standard Edition to 500 copies as I know David has a cult like following, particularly in the UK. This should hopefully mean everyone who wants one, will be able to secure one.

Very much looking forward to seeing the finished prototypes on this, I hope to do the story absolute justice.

Fall of Hyperion

We’re working on Fall of Hyperion already! Art and the design of the bindings is underway already, and we’ve also commenced some testing at the bindery. As soon as Jaime has  completed the B&W images for this, we will be able to go to print. There will be just two tiers available for purchase on Fall of Hyperion, the Lettered Edition and Deluxe Edition.

Our plan is to pre-order in September on Fall of Hyperion with shipping pencilled in for H1 2025.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Very excited with how this one is turning out. It’s been a dream to work on this project and I genuinely believe I have the right people on each stage. Gary Gianni and Marcelo are making great progress with the interiors and I’ve seen some of the finished colours and B&W’s already and they’re perfect. Gary has really captured the charm of the story and characters.

Binding design is next on the list. We’re waiting on Gary for a couple of bits, but we already have several concepts outlined for the editions. I’m considering just doing the three tiers on this edition now, and not going forward with the Roman Numeral Edition. Small chance I may do a very limited run of 5 copies.

Currently we’re planning to do 42 Lettered Editions, 200 Deluxe Editions and 750 Standard Editions. All editions are planned to be letterpress printed two colours by Phil Abel at Hand & Eye Press. These will then be hand bound by Ludlow Bookbinders.

Our aim is pre-order in November this year for Hitchhikers, with shipping planned for H1 2025.

Future Titles

Regarding the series we’re working on, I thought I’d give some updates. Last Argument of Kings is being printed immediately after Before They are Hanged, and I’m hoping to be able to announce the artist soon. Once again we should be in the great position of having art way ahead of printing/binding, so should be smooth once the printing has commenced.

People may have noticed The Obelisk Gate has disappeared from the list. John Anthony di Giovanni is once again illustrating book 2 of the Broken Earth Trilogy. Due to John’s schedule we’re pushing this back to 2025, as we don’t want to pre-order too far in advance of the binding process. Don’t worry though, we have plenty to schedule in while we patiently wait.

We’ve been very successful recently in securing future projects. We currently have a standalone Sci-Fi novel we’ve just had the nod on, and we have two fantasy series in the works. These are all at the art stage, which means next year we should have several books we look to publish. We are also working on another VERY exciting series which looks promising – we’re just at the contract stage at the moment but we already have an artist attached to the project (they are absolutely incredible).

I will likely announce the standalone Sci-Fi and one of the fantasy series later this year when more progress has been made on the art and concepts.

Our roadmap currently states 5 books for next year, with quicker times for shipping post pre-order.

I could give out some hints about the future projects, but you guys are so good at guessing these things, I’ll save the hints for a future newsletter!