Into the Light snippet #12

dvdscar wrote:What he said. And even Baen's perceived nimbleness and flexibility is pretty limited. Eric Flint and I turned in the final manuscript for The Span of Empire at the end of September 2014. They originally told us it wouldn't get onto the schedule until mid-2017, but Eric convinced them to find an earlier slot. It still wasn't published until September 2016.

I'd guess -- as a reader rather than writer (other than small bits of fanfic) -- that Baen's probably rather more willing to move things around for RFC (especially for a mainline Honorverse book) than for others. I've read that back in the day Tor's turnaround for Jim Rigney (better known as Robert Jordan) was much faster than it was for anyone else (sometimes to the books' detriment; some of the middle books in the Wheel of Time clearly needed more editing).

drothgery wrote:

dvdscar wrote:What he said. And even Baen's perceived nimbleness and flexibility is pretty limited. Eric Flint and I turned in the final manuscript for The Span of Empire at the end of September 2014. They originally told us it wouldn't get onto the schedule until mid-2017, but Eric convinced them to find an earlier slot. It still wasn't published until September 2016.

I'd guess -- as a reader rather than writer (other than small bits of fanfic) -- that Baen's probably rather more willing to move things around for RFC (especially for a mainline Honorverse book) than for others. I've read that back in the day Tor's turnaround for Jim Rigney (better known as Robert Jordan) was much faster than it was for anyone else (sometimes to the books' detriment; some of the middle books in the Wheel of Time clearly needed more editing).

Nothing happened in those books! Darned frustrating.

PeterZ wrote:..snip..
Nothing happened in those books! Darned frustrating.

I gave up on that series just because many books was just a diarrhea of words. I rather read the yellow pages, it was that bad in my opinion plus it was clearly a pure money-grab.

Joat42 wrote:

PeterZ wrote:..snip..
Nothing happened in those books! Darned frustrating.

I gave up on that series just because many books was just a diarrhea of words. I rather read the yellow pages, it was that bad in my opinion plus it was clearly a pure money-grab.

Kind of hard to grab money if you're dead, dude ...

Joat42 wrote:

PeterZ wrote:..snip..
Nothing happened in those books! Darned frustrating.

I gave up on that series just because many books was just a diarrhea of words. I rather read the yellow pages, it was that bad in my opinion plus it was clearly a pure money-grab.

drothgery wrote:Kind of hard to grab money if you're dead, dude ...

It started long before that.

PeterZ wrote:..snip..
Nothing happened in those books! Darned frustrating.

Joat42 wrote:I gave up on that series just because many books was just a diarrhea of words. I rather read the yellow pages, it was that bad in my opinion plus it was clearly a pure money-grab.

drothgery wrote:Kind of hard to grab money if you're dead, dude ...

Joat42 wrote:It started long before that.

Yeah, Sanderson's closing volumes started to tie loose ends. Jordan's final volumes spun its wheels. Could be due to his illness, but I think he wanted primarily to generate more words on a page.

I heard that part of the problem was that people at TOR kept making suggestions about what to include and Jordan was taking the suggestions as orders.

His wife (who was an editor at TOR) starting telling people to "shut up and let him write".

At least, he realized that his illness would prevent him from finishing so he made plenty of notes to help Sanderson complete the series.

Oh yes, I got tried of waiting for the final books.

PeterZ wrote:Yeah, Sanderson's closing volumes started to tie loose ends. Jordan's final volumes spun its wheels. Could be due to his illness, but I think he wanted primarily to generate more words on a page.

dvdscar wrote:What he said. And even Baen's perceived nimbleness and flexibility is pretty limited. Eric Flint and I turned in the final manuscript for The Span of Empire at the end of September 2014. They originally told us it wouldn't get onto the schedule until mid-2017, but Eric convinced them to find an earlier slot. It still wasn't published until September 2016.

Since you are here, can I ask if you and Eric Flint are planning any more of that series? It seemed to get left hanging, unless I've missed some books?

(Apologies, Duck, I realise this is off topic)

Randomiser wrote:
Since you are here, can I ask if you and Eric Flint are planning any more of that series? It seemed to get left hanging, unless I've missed some books?

(Apologies, Duck, I realise this is off topic)

Heh. Almost missed this one.

Short answer is, we don't have a contract, so not anytime soon.

Slightly longer answer is, we've talked about it, and we have a rough cut at an outline for the fourth volume, but until we get a contract, not anytime soon.

Don't want to overstay my welcome, so if you want more details, feel free to email me or PM me from Baen's Bar.

David

drothgery wrote:I'd guess -- as a reader rather than writer (other than small bits of fanfic) -- that Baen's probably rather more willing to move things around for RFC (especially for a mainline Honorverse book) than for others.

Probably to some extent.

Baen operates in four month trimesters, which I think is Simon and Schuster's calendar. Pretty much anything in the last trimester before publication is cast in concrete and can't be changed. Books are in printer's hands by then.

Anything in the second trimester before publication is usually considered finalized and they're about to pour the concrete, so it takes an act of the local deity to change the schedule at that point. I think I've seen that happen once in the last 10 years for something other than non-delivery of a manuscript.

Anything in the third trimester before publication is close to being finalized, but there can still be some fluctuation. That's about when they start talking to the distributors, and once those conversations have happened, they don't like to rock the boat again.

That said, if an author doesn't make a drop-dead deadline, all bets are off. That's happened a couple of times that I know of in the last few years.

RFC is Baen's #1 moneymaker, no question. Eric Flint is probably #2, maybe #3, but certainly no lower. They listen to Eric when he asks. Eric, on the other hand, is smart enough to be a reasonable man and not make stupid requests.

David