Eagles Over the Kennebec

Couple of events of note, for those who like to listen to content:

On Friday, Part One of a far-ranging interview with Steve Miller was featured on the Baen Free Radio Hour.  Here's your link.

Over the weekend, Steve posted a new podcast on Patreon, for patrons only, in which he reads "Cutting Corners."  Here's your link.

Also!  "Block Party," a Liaden Universe® story by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, is still available to be read -- for free! -- at Baen.com.  Here's that link.

"Degrees of Separation," the prequel to "Block Party," will be published as Degrees  of Separation:  Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 27.  You may preoder the ebook now from Amazon , BN, iBooks, Kobo, and Tolino.

On January 15, you may also purchase the ebook edition from Baen.

Sometime RSN, you will either be able to pre-order or outright purchase the paper edition, from Amazon only.

Neogenesis, the 21st novel of the Liaden Universe® was published on January 2, and is available in hardcover, ebook, and audio editions.

If you read the novel and want to talk about it, there is a spoiler thread here.

Also! If you've read Neogenesis, please consider leaving a review at Amazon, Goodreads, or another site where readers read.  Thanks!

For those local(ish) to Waterville, Maine, Steve Miller and Sharon Lee will be signing books and talking trash at the Children's Book Cellar, 52 Main Street, in Waterville, on Saturday, January 13, from 1-3:30 pm.  If you missed your shot at getting a personalized copy from Uncle Hugo, this is your Second Chance.  Call the store ((207) 872-4543) before our signing, or during it, and we will personalize a book for you.

Peripheral to this, Uncle Hugo does still have some signed copies of Neogenesis in stock.  Here's the link.

In convention news:  Sadly, we will not be attending Boskone this year.  We will, however, be Author Guests of Honor at MidSouthCon, in March.

In writing news:  Yep, still working on Fifth of Five, which refuses all titles suggested to it, and shrugs off any attempt to title-shame it.  I told you it was being a tough book.

I think that catches us all up on the business side of things.

Everybody stay healthy.

Amazon has published the paper editions of Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Numbers 25 and 26.  The paper books are not associated with the ebooks, but, yanno, maybe that'll happen at some point down the road.

Right now, however, here are your links:

Cultivar:  Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 25

Heirs to Trouble:  Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 26

Have fun.

Cultivar: Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 25 and Heirs to Trouble, Adventures in the Liaden Universe® Number 26 --  more information here -- have been published to Apple, BN, Baen ebooks, Kobo.

They have not been published to Amazon, and, as this is the last day of Amazon's demand period, Steve and I are not at all confident that they will ever be published to Amazon.  We will, of course, continue to monitor the situation, and will make an announcement if Amazon should at some later point discover in its heart that, indeed, it can publish these two titles.

We are not, however, optimistic.

The short form is that Amazon, having realized that the four stories contained in the two chapbooks listed above already exist in a collection published by Baen Books (A Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume 3) -- which we do not dispute; in fact, we state so in the sell copy -- demanded that Steve and I "prove" we have the right to republish those stories.

They initially demanded a reversion letter, which does not exist, as the rights to the stories have not reverted; in fact, they were never sold.  We attempted to explain that we, the authors and copyright holders, had sold what is called "anthology rights" to Baen -- they can only publish those stories in the form of A Liaden Universe® Constellation, Volume 3; they cannot repackage and republish particular stories out of the collection.  This is all handled in the contract between us and Baen.

This means that we, the authors and copyright holders, retained the rights to place individual stories with other publishers, for other collections, or to publish the stories ourselves.

We chose to publish the stories ourselves.  Which is our right, breaks no laws, and damages no one's copyright, least of all ours, and  certainly does no damage to Amazon.

The last received demand -- understand that we have been corresponding with someone who may only answer via scripted emails; this lends a certain surreal air to a situation already dripping in black comedy -- however, the last email could be read -- and we so read it -- as a demand that we send a copy of our contract with Baen to Amazon.

Now, in the Normal World of Publishing (yes, yes, I know; but let it pass), if we were placing those four stories with another publisher for another anthology or collection, we would receive a contract from the new publisher, and one of the things that we would certify, by signing this new contract, is that we have the legal right to so place the stories.  If, after we sign the contract, it is found that we lied, or in some other way do not have the right to place the stories, the lawyers are loosed and everyone makes popcorn.

In no case does Publisher 2 demand that the authors provide them with a copy of their contract with Publisher 1.

Now, Amazon is in a strange situation; it cannot itself decide if it's a publisher or a distributor, but in either case the demand for a copy of our contract with our publisher is out of line, and Steve and I will not comply.

What does this mean for you?

Well, if you have all of your Adventures in the Liaden Universe® echapbooks in Kindle format, and you don't wish to break the shelf, so to speak, you can go to Baen Ebooks and download Numbers 25 and 26 from them in Kindle format (there are instructions on how to do this on the site).

Baen also offers these titles in other formats, for those who diversify.

Or, you can, of course, purchase the titles from one of the distributors who do carry them -- BN, Kobo, Apple. . .

For the paper-book folks. . . Given the on-going circumstances here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory, we can no longer do the production and mailing of paper chapbooks from the house.  It seems as if the best (or only) way to produce paper chapbooks is through Amazon's paperback program.  There will simply not be paper copies of 25 and 26, unless we can locate another source for taking care of all the administrative work involved in producing paper chapbooks.  Steve and I are very sorry about this, but -- see above.

Right now, the paper chapbooks available from Amazon are:

Liaden Universe®:  Due Diligence #24, Change Management #23, Sleeping with the Enemy #22, Technical Details #21, Moon's Honor #20

Lee and Miller:  The Tomorrow Log

Sharon Lee:  Barnburner, Gunshy, The Gift of Magic, Spell Bound

We will, eventually, convert all of the electronic backlist to paper, but as this is being done between Life and Pay Copy, it will take some time.

Those who are interested in purchasing the two new chapbooks containing four old stories that I talked about in this post, may purchase them as of Right Now from Baen eBooks.

Here's the link for Cultivar.

Here's the link for Heirs to Trouble.

Since Amazon has not yet cleared these two ebooks to be published, and there is a chance that they will not do so, I have released them for publication to Apple, BN, Kobo, and the rest of the Usual Suspects.  The titles should be showing up in online catalogs within the next 24-36 hours, so!

Watch the Skies.

The drive to Bridgton was pleasant in a bright and sunny, but very blustery, day. We did the interview for “What are you reading?” in two segments, and are promised a copy of the final show.

Out again into the day and home by an alternate route, battling the wind the while. Stopped at Best Buys in Augusta to try out the Nook and the Kindle, but was defeated by the two-inch anchor cords and the lack of any sales associate sufficiently interested in selling ebook readers this afternoon. One thing that I did determine during our messing about and self-tutoring was that I was Really Not Happy with the whole Kindle keyboard thing and the navigation ring (discovered by Steve — I could’ve looked at it all day and never recognized it as an Important Manipulative Component) made me buggy.

While we were in that part the world, we took the core-board-mounted cover art for Mouse and Dragon to A.C. Moore, hoping to be able to find the frame segments that snap around odd-sized art. Alas, A.C. Moore was not able to accommodate us, but the young lady who waited on us took one look at David Mattingly’s wonderful art and said, “Where can I buy a copy of that book? Can I download it to my Kindle?” And so we had a lively conversation about B&N, if she wanted hardcopy, and Webscriptions if she wanted it on her Kindle above all else, and she recommended Michaels for the segmented frames.

As it happens, Michaels is right next to Barnes and Noble up on the other side of Augusta, and BN was our next stop. We arrived to find that, indeed, the very segmented frames that we were looking for were to be had at Michaels, and have them we did. We then repaired to BN where, after a demo of the NookColor and the eInk Nook by a patient and capable Kate, Sharon committed eInk Nook, which is charging even now on the kitchen counter. I also purchased the easel Nookcover, though I have yet to purchase a book. Tomorrow, surely, is soon enough for that adventure.

I want to thank everyone for their input on electronic reading devices. The discussion helped clarify what was most important for me in a Device of My Own, and also gave me very useful pointers.

I’m very excited about my new toy, and hope that we’ll have lots of time together and share many good reads.

Now, I guess I better go download Calibre.

What did you do today that was exciting?