Eagles Over the Kennebec

So, I'm in receipt of several emails, and one crazily placed blog entry (read about it here, go over to a Whole 'Nother Website, to a page that has nothing to do with the topic, and post the question.  Why would you do that?). . .asking when the short stories Steve and I have recently placed with anthologies (not magazines), will be "available," by which they mean, as a chapbook from Pinbeam Books.  These folks don't want to buy anthologies filled with stories by strange authors, just to get our new story, but they want the new stories Pretty Dern Quick.

Now, here's the Thing.  Actually, a couple of Things.

Writers, including Steve and me, write to earn money.

Anthology gigs pay money up front.

One of the things that anthologies purchase with their up-front money is publication exclusivity, anything from 6 months to 2 years (to forever, but we turn those down; there isn't enough up-front money in the world).

The purpose of anthologies, besides making money for the publishing house, the editor, and, maybe, some more money for their contributing authors, is to (1) draw in readers of Author A with the promise of a new story, and (2) introduce the readers of Author A to other cool writers those readers may have missed.  Anthologies are not inherently evil, honest.

Now, this is how the whole anthology publication works from the author side:

Invitation comes in --> Author rejects or accepts

If Author rejects, Author does not have to write a story to theme and deadline.  Author also does not get paid.

If Author accepts, Author receives contract from publisher.  Author writes story to theme and deadline, whereupon, sometime before publication of the anthology, a check will arrive in Author's mailbox.

The contract issued by the publisher spells out things like rights purchased, desired word count, payment per word, how royalties will be computed, deadline for submission, deadline for publication, and!  exclusivity periods.

Once more, in short form, here is that process:
Invitation-->Author Acceptance-->Contract Arrives-->Author writes and submits story to Anthology Editor -->Revision letter arrives-->Author revises, resubmits-->Story accepted-->Payment received-->Anthology published

Some of these bits can be switched around, but these are the steps to publication.

When the anthology is published -- that is when the exclusivity period starts.  Exclusivity is exactly what it sounds like -- the anthology holds the exclusive right to publish Story A anywhere for:  6 months, 9 months, 1 year, 2 years (forever, but see above...)

After the exclusivity period is over, Author may sell the story to a reprint market, reprint the story Author's self, or stick the story in a drawer and forget about it.

What we here at the Confusion Factory do is -- After the exclusivity period is completed, we will cause Pinbeam Books to reprint Story A as an echapbook/paper chapbook.  Sometimes, there's a little extra time built in before we get around to that, due to other pressing business, and whether we have at least two stories available for reprint (or have spontaneously generated another, free-range, story in the interim) so that we give value to our readers.

We also collect those stories into a big pile, and lately Baen Books has been kind enough to print those collections in the Liaden Universe® Constellation series.  So far, that is three volumes, with Constellation Four coming in Summer 2019*.

What all this means for the "availability" of the following stories: "Dark Secrets," "Command Decision," and "Vestals of Midnight," is!

"Dark Secrets" will be published in Infinite Stars: Dark Frontiers, which is now scheduled to be published in September 2019.  The exclusivity period for that story is 18 months.  So, it will be "available," sometime in mid-2021.

We have not yet been informed of the exclusivity period for "Decision," and "Vestal," but assume a year from publication (November 2018), since that's an average period.

Advertent readers will see that "Revolutionists" and "Excerpts from Two Lives," will be collected in Constellation Four.  Sometime after, Pinbeam Books will collect them into a chapbook. The reason for that timing is also exclusivity, the period for "Revolutionists" doesn't go over until next July, scant weeks before we can expect to see the next Liaden collection.

I trust this answers everyone's questions -- and really!  Try an anthology, why not?  You might find some new favorite authors.

____________________
*A Liaden Universe® Constellation Volume Four, coming from Baen in Summer 2019.  This reprints eight shorter works: 2 novellas, 4 novelettes, 2 short stories from 2016-2018.  Titles included are:  “Street Cred,” “Due Diligence,” “Friend of a Friend,” “Cutting Corners,” “Block Party,” “Degrees of Separation,” “Excerpts from Two Lives,” “Revolutionists.”

We've had some queries about upcoming publications, and upcoming appearances, and, and -- herewith an attempt to get them all in one place, for you, and for us.  Please note that the list is probably not complete; it's only as complete as far as we know, as of Right Now.

Upcoming Appearances
May 1:  Ask Me Anything, Reddit, starting 12 noon
May 13: Meet 'n Greet and book signing, Barnes and Noble, at 9 Market Place Drive, Augusta, Maine, from 1 - 3pm
August 4-6:  Confluence, in Pittsburgh, Lee and Miller will be writer Guests of Honor
March 9-11, 2018: MidSouthCon, in Memphis, Lee and Miller, writer Guests of Honor

Upcoming Interviews
April edition of The Intergalactic Medicine Show: Lee and Miller interview, reprint story, and! sample chapter

Upcoming Publications
April 15 +/-: "Cutting Corners," Baen.com
May 2: The Gathering Edge, hardcover, ebook, audiobook, Baen & Audible
June 6: "Wise Child," in Year's Best Military and Adventure SF, Volume 3, Baen
August:  "Dawn's Early Light," in All Hail Our Robot Conquerors, Zombies Need Brains
December 15 +/-: Short Story, Baen.com
January 2, 2018:  Neogenesis
TBA: "Excerpts from Two Lives," in Ships of the Line, Baen

First of all, there's been a scheduling change.  Due to my protracted and debilitating bout of depression, the delivery date for First of Five has been moved to September 2014.  (I'm telling the truth, here.  If the truth makes you uncomfortable, then please replace "depression" in the foregoing sentence with "illness," and feel comfy again.  I had thought of using "illness," but then I read this article in our local paper, and I realized all over again that mental health issues are never going to be dealt with on par with other serious illnesses as long as "depressed/bipolar=crazy, scary, and completely unreliable in every aspect of life, forever and always" is a convenient equation for lawyers, and that it falls to those of us who suffer from these illnesses to be truthful about it.)

Also!  I am behind on my email.  I think at this point it's safe to say that I will never, ever in this lifetime catch up on my email.  If you have sent me something that I must deal with else Babies Will Die, please resend, and I will do my damnedest to cope.  If you have sent me something below that level of urgency, I thank you very much for your interest, and your care.

For those who have not seen the news, there is a new story up at Splinter Universe, "Roving Gambler."  Here's your link.  Also, "The Rifle's First Wife" is still up, so read it while it's free.  Here's that link.

Fans of Jasmine Sprite, Princess of the Night, sometimes called both Bubbles and Boopsie, though she answers to nothing save the moople of the Trooper and the siren hiss of The String...Sprite went to see her fan club at the vet's office yesterday.  She now weighs fifteen pounds, and enjoys robust good health.  The trip to the vet was necessitated by a drippy eye (she has had eye infections in the past, and we didn't wish to Take a Chance).  An examination revealed that someone might have clocked her one (not impossible, given her. . .enthusiastic interest. . . in the lives and doings of all of her subjects, but most especially Scrabble, who is Endlessly Fascinating), or she came up against some other irritant.  There's no scratch on the cornea, nor any infection.  She came home with Soothing Eye Drops, which she is astonishingly good about accepting, and the situation is improving already.

Fans of Mozart will wish to know that he continues to Take an Interest in the Daffodils, and will occasionally play a short game of Twizler from the comfort of his hammock, when he is awake, which isn't very often.  He continues to require a regimen of Special Gooshy Food, which he is more than willing to share with Trooper, and which is kinda not the point of the exercise.  The grandcats continue to be very respectful of grandpa, checking in several times a day, and cleaning his ears and the top of his head for him, as required.

A Reader of Liad has undertaken to read all of the Liaden stories and novels extant to date, in order, and chat about them.  (Full disclosure:  Paul told me about his intention to pursue this project before he started and I was. . .appalled probably doesn't overstate my reaction.  I have since taken a look at what he's doing, now that the project is fully underway, and have adjusted my reaction from appalled to interested.)  If you are interested in reading along, or have insights to offer, or are just curious, the project is Reading Liad.  Here's your link.

* * *

Progress on One of Five
57,004/100,000
OR
57% completed

He grinned, to show he got it, and offered a piece of street smart.
"Contracts're made to be broken."

Good morning.

I hope everyone's weekend is going well.

Here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory, we're shredding and cleaning, and getting ready for the book tour -- you've heard about the Trade Secret Book Tour, right?  Here's the link.   Hope to see you at one or more of our stops!

So, last week the ebook edition of Trade Secret hit virtual bookshelves at Baen, BN, Amazon &c.  This means that a number of people have read the novel; and that, of that number of people, a smaller, but very eager, number have written to me wondering when they can read (choose one) the sequel/the next Theo book/the next book in the REAL timeline/what happens to Daav/fill in the blank.

I'm answering those questions here in part because I don't want to have to answer every single one of those emails individually, and also in the hope that all the rest of the people who are wondering these same things will read this before they feel compelled to shoot off an email.

Regarding the title of the new next book to be published by an Author of the Confusion Factory -- that will be, to the best of my knowledge, Carousel Sun, in February 2014.  (Yes, I do realize, as a couple folks have pointed out, that Carousel Sun is not listed on the Baen website as an upcoming book UPDATE:  A kind friend points out that Carousel Sun is, indeed, on the Baen Publication Schedule.  Here's the link. I take the word of the young man who told me that it was not listed as being part of any "bundle," since the ways and means of "bundles" are obscure to me.  I don't know why any of these things are so -- or not so.  My information is this:  Carousel Sun is listed on Amazon and BN as a February book.  Further, I'm told by Baen that the galleys will possibly be ready for me to read when we return home from the book tour.  That's all I got.)

OK, so:  Carousel Sun, February 2014 is the next "new" book; after that -- perhaps Carousel Seas (which was turned in in August, so it could possibly appear in the Spring of 2014 -- this is, please note, pure speculation on my part; I don't make the Baen publishing schedule.)

After that?  I dunno.  The next book set in the Liaden Universe® is due on Madame the Editor's desk in May 2014.  Again, pure speculation, and assuming such variables as a very clean manuscript and space in the schedule, it could, maybe, appear at the very end of 2014.  Could.  Maybe. See above re my involvement in making the publishing schedule.

For those who are "turned off," as one correspondent put it this morning, by the Carousel books -- you've got, yes, a long wait before you.  While I know you may be disappointed, I will ask that you please keep your disappointment to yourself -- done is done.  The particular set of delivery schedules that created this inconvenience for yourselves was set years ago, 'k?  And I happen to like the Carousel books, and hearing how they're minor, or disappointing, or whatever, makes me sad.  It's far more difficult for me to write anything when I'm sad.  Just sayin'.

So, moving onward, what can the longtime readers of the Liaden Universe® expect?

You can expect, eventually, five books.  I can say with complete confidence at this point that NONE of those five books concerns the doings of Jethri Gobelyn ven'Deelin, so those of you who are jonesing for a third (!) Jethri novel are going to have to find solace elsewhere.

Will any of those five books be in the REAL storyline?  Well, that's more difficult to say, there being a number of definitions of what, exactly, the REAL storyline is.  Steve says all of them are in the REAL storyline (he can say so, if he likes; after all, he was there at the beginning), but some readers interpret the series differently than he (and I).

Let's put it this way:  The books -- as pitched, and purchased -- concern the ongoing adventures encountered by members of Clan Korval as the Clan tries to settle into its new role, on Surebleak, and in the wider Galaxy.  The next book -- the book we've started work on just recently, is not a Theo book, by which I mean that Theo is not the main character.

Those of you who have been with us since September 2012, at least, will recall that these five books -- The Five-Book Dash, as we've been calling it -- are, in their entirety, the "sequel" to Dragon Ship.  I am made to realize, from email, and other comments, that this is, in essence, "pulling a Wheel of Time."  Which is apparently a Bad Thing.  Whatever*.

The way we look at is that the five books coming are sequels to all the books preceding them:  Agent of Change, Crystal Soldier, Fledgling, and all the etceteras of them -- every one of the seventeen prior Liaden novels feed into the action of the melded storylines you'll be seeing.  Remember how we say, over and over again, that the Liaden Universe® is not a straight-line series?  We really mean that.

Think of it this way:  The Books of  Before are a short road that intersects and flows along with another little street, The Space Regencies.  That combined street makes a slight bend and suddenly we're on the main thoroughfare of the Agent of Change Sequence, down which we proceed for quite a number of blocks until it crosses The Theo Waitley Sequence, with which it runs parallel for a time, eventually merging with it onto the interstate -- The Five-Book Dash.

If this seems unnecessarily complicated to you -- well. . .it's the way our shared mind-space works, so we're all sorta stuck with it.

Now!  Not to belabor the point, but in the interests of Absolute Clarity, I offer here the publication schedule as it is known As Of This Moment:

November 2013: Trade Secret
January 2014:  A Liaden Universe® Constellation Volume 2
January 15, 2014:  "The Gift of Music," free short story, Baen website
February 2014:  Carousel Sun; Necessity's Child mmp
March 2014:  Necessity's Child mmp

Here is the delivery schedule for the next five Liaden Universe® novels (aka the date that each novel is due in Madame the Editor's hands):

May 15, 2014:  First of Five
February 15, 2015:  Second of Five
November 15, 2015:  Third of Five
August 15, 2016:  Fourth of Five
May 15, 2017:  Fifth of Five

* * *

OK.  Who has questions?

________________

*The published Liaden Universe® is almost exactly two years older than the Wheel of Time.  Just so you know.