Game Plans and Other Progress

[rolanni]

kinzel and I have brainstormed a bridge that will get us handily across that ravine and connect up with the next bit of known story, happily using a character who had promised to be on their way, but who I didn't realize could have actually by now arrived. So, ist goot and I proceed toward the finish while kinzel deals with the first 94,212 words and the excitement thereto. This will hopefully net us a completed manuscript in reasonable shape on or very near to March 31, which ist also goot, as kinzel's dental adventure begins in mid-April.

On the signing-and-mailing books front, we've got 131 orders yet to fill. Or -- we've filled the pre-orders through the letter Q (pause while Scrabble jumps in my lap to perform Supervisory Head-butts and other morale building exercises) -- remembering that this year's list was delivered from Meisha Merlin in alphabetical order, rather than the order-received order of years past.

B&N brick-and-mortars remain adamant in their belief that Crystal Soldier is a graphic novel, thus most B&Ns are not stocking it (this information gained through a field study performed by members of the Friends of Liad). They will -- according to reports, grudgingly -- special-order a single copy of the book if a customer insists. The few B&Ns who have ordered in a copy or two of Crystal Soldier are stocking it in the graphic novel section.

Several indie SF/F bookstores are carrying Crystal Soldier: Uncle Hugo's; Borderlands; Mysterious Galaxy; Pandemonium Books; Dreamhaven. All of these stores do mail order.

Comments

Re: B&N

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Bizarre. Also frustrating. We spent a half-hour or so at our local B&N, talking to the nice man who takes care of the SF section, who knows us and who kindly makes sure that our books are always in. Except not Crystal Soldier, because -- it's listed in the in-store database as a graphic novel and somebody else takes care of that section.

He could back-track the graphic novel listing through the in-house database to the Ingram database. At this point, though, the genie's loose and there's no getting it back into the bottle. Particularly sad, as it is the first book of a matched set, so even if they get it right for Dragon, nobody'll be able to find Soldier.

*Headdesk*