Riyria Revelations to be published by Orbit

[Bard]

Hmmm...
Mrs Sullivan, looking back at my previous post 'contempt' may have been too strong a word...
I am a bit miffed, I can't deny that, but your lenghty explanation clears some things up at least...Just would have liked to keep the books, which covers I thought were wonderfully done by the way, as one complete (d) series... And the price for the last one would not have bothered me, if a book is good I will gladly lay down some more money if the size/pagecount of it is larger than previous books...That makes sense....
Waiting doesn't bother me that much either, as an avid reader of George RR, Scott Lynch, P. Rothfuss etc I'm quite used to a bit of waiting for a book to come out
Like I said, I think it is a wonderful deal and certainly a dream come true for any writer, so best of luck with that...
And even if I'm not happy about the whole thing (obviously reading your post you are neither, which is coolling my anger considerably ), there are worse things in the world...I'll see how it plays out in the end...

[newfiesailor]

You get your shot, take it. When the time comes and you possibly have more control and pull with Michael's work, then maybe you can get that sixth book out to finish the series. Hey it's your life and you have to do what's good for you. You can't please everybody all the time.

Until then, I wish you all the success in the world. Like somebody else said, stepping out here and making a public apology for the tiny mishap just goes to show how much you "do" care about your growing fanbase.

And all this confusion seems to be certainly drawing attention to the books, if this board is any indication. There's no such thing as bad publicity.

[Darksbane]

I'm sorry you are miffed...I'm sorry you feel we have contempt for you. Yes, when it came along faster than we thought we could have walked away - and branded Michael as a "diva author" that no traditional publisher would touch again. We could have said, "Oh ... you've made a very fair offer...that's nice...but no thanks...we just wanted to see if we could waste some of your time."

Personally, I blame myself. With 20/20 hindsight I would have waited until after the sixth book was released and "then" tried to get it published. But the publishing world changes fast. And we happened to accidentally time it such that Orbit was interested at this specfic point in time ... if we approached them 6 months later - they might have had no interest. As with many things in life ... if you only knew then what you know now - you would have done things differently.

If I could leave with one final thought. If you need to be mad at someone - make it me...not Michael. To hear people use terms like "contempt for reader..." really is a dagger in his heart. Writing is a tough business. To be honest...I wouldn't wish this profession on my worst enemy...there's hundreds of rejections...hours of writing wondering if anyone will ever read it...nearly impossible to get an offer...and every good review is quickly forgotten when the next bad one comes in.

Michael doesn't write for the money...he doesn't write for fame...he writes to put his ideas out there and hope that they provide a bit of entertainment to people his hope is that what he has produced is appreciated...that people feel that they got something of value for their investment of both time and money. I'm not exagerating when I say that seeing comments like this has put him into a terrible depression. He felt like he finally reached a goal that took him more than 30 years to accomplish and hearing such things really is making it that he doesn't want to write at all.

Anyway...thanks for letting me explain and bend your ears. I don't want to discourage people voicing their displeasure (well maybe a bit of me does because I know how hard it is on someone I love so much). But I wanted to at least let you know that whatever motives you might be attributing to what we did ... I assure you our intention was not that and we will continue to work with Orbit to see if we can get you "the last" in the series.

Thanks again for listening.
Robin Sullivan, wife of author Michael Sullivan.

Thanks for stopping in Robin. I think that you have cleared the air much better than anyone not directly involved in the process could have. I hope that Michael can at least in time look past the negative comments, and focus instead on the numerous positive ones that are out there.

You ask us to blame you and be mad at you rather than at Michael, or that in hindsight you would have done it differently, but I hope you can put those kinds of thoughts behind you. You have helped Michael achieve a great thing. He will be able to reach a much larger audience this way, with his message and his story. Most would never ask you to do it any other way, especially hearing the effort that you are putting into trying to get the last published on its own. I hope you can continue to see the positives of the situation, and help Michael to see it as well, because you guys have been fantastic to deal and talk with. My experience with this series, and with talking with you, Michael, and Ridan, has been exceptional. You are fantastic people, and you deserve the success that you are seeing now, because of all the hard work that you put into this series, and because it is quite clear that Michael's fanbase is VERY important to him.

Michael has my continued support, and the support of a quickly growing fanbase. I'll never begrudge him the success that he has achieved, as he quite clearly has worked hard at it, with your help. And I'm happy to have played my (very) small role to help him get there as well.

So, from me, Congratulations! And good luck going forward. I'm sure that you both have a lot of work ahead of you.

[Leona Wisoker]

This couldn't have happened to a nicer guy and a more deserving one. I'm so happy about Michael's success, and I hope all the supportive notes here help him stand up out of that depression....he's worked very hard to get to this point (and Robin has worked just as hard, so she deserves some thanks herself)--I love seeing determined people succeed! I can't wait to see the new editions. Thanks, Robin, for explaining the situation--you did a very clear job, and I found the backstory very interesting.

[dsw13]

I agree with the general sentiment that you have nothing to be sorry for. I also wanted to express my thanks to Michael for taking a chance on himself and, as a result, giving me the opportunity to read a wonderful story. I am normally very hesitant to read independent publishers through amazon, but tried out the sample of Crown Conspiracy based on the overwhelmingly positive reviews. I knew within the first few pages that the book was worth a shot. I have now, about two weeks later, finished the third book and the series has far exceeded my expectations. Based on my usual pace of reading, this is quite fast. From a plot and pacing standpoint, I put this right up there with Lynch's work. Well done.

I have now purchased book four, but instead of continuing on as planned, will probably hold off on reading it until some point between now and when the third omnibus volume is released so as to increase my chances of keeping the books somewhat fresh in my mind.

To those that have already purchased print editions of the first five books, try to look at the glass as half full. If the series takes off, those suckers will be collector's items worth well more than what you paid for them.

[Heather Myst]

Robin,

I hope the book deal works our great for your family. I just wanted to say how much I am enjoying the series and please let Michael know that Riyria kicks ass! Your post was a classy move and I hope everyone here will give the books a look.

[rsullivan9597]

Great series of books, truly in the spirit of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, an old D&D style campaign and The Lies of Locke Lamora. I was really surprised how much these books slipped under the radar of a lot of fantasy readers. Maybe the new publication and covers will draw more attention.

That being said, the books would do well with some tighter editing.

Good News! I'll definitely be picking up this collection and look forward to it.

"Tighter editing" is definitely one of the reasons for going traditional. I've heard nothing but great things from authors regarding the valueof having "the professionals" edit the book. Orbit assigned their Senior Editor (Devi Pillai) to the project and she mentioned that Michael's books were very clean (from a story standpoint) - she was not addressing copy edits.

[rsullivan9597]

I haven't kept up on the series as well as others, so I'll be looking forward to the omnibuses. Will Michael's cover art still be used? The covers have been some of my favorite in recent memory.

Thanks - I'm glad you liked Michael's covers - many people have said nice things about them. As they are primarily "landscapes" Orbit felt that it tended to indicate an emphasis on world building when the reality is the books really are more central around Royce and Hadrian. They have already completed the cover designs and they look very professional (bu I would expect nothing less).

Besides the issues with landscape vs characters, there would be no way to decide "which" of the six covers would be used for each of the 3 books. I think they want to give the books the "Orbit treatment" which I fully support as they have done very nice covers in the past (some of my favorites actually even before we submitted to them.

[rsullivan9597]

Mrs. Sullivan,
I don't post particularly often (or ever really) but after reading your post I have a few things I would like to say. First off, it was extremely classy of you to come on this forum and explain the situation. It also, to me, seems very unnecessary. Anyone could Google you or your husbands name and find examples of you two reaching out to your fans, taking the time to read their thoughts and respond. However, since this is the internet, apparently there are a few people out there that feel it is necessary to make mountains out of mole hills, and remind everyone that they are in fact the center of the universe. So let me congratulate you on such a wonderful turn of events for you and your family. Hard work deserves to be rewarded, and I know a lot of work has gone into making Riyria a success.
It's also interesting to hear that your free offering of the Avempartha e-book had an effect on your good fortune. I am pretty sure that promotion led directly to myself and my brother reading your series. It actually was the genesis of the most pleasantly surprising and fulfilling long weekend in my adult years i.e. very recent memory. My brother and I were turned on to the series and realized pretty quickly that it was promising. So we went, chopped a whole bunch of firewood, and started a fire. We proceeded to read each of the released works, in order, sitting by the hearth with an occasional Irish coffee mixed in. We read at remarkably similar rates, so we would typically finish within half an hour of each other; A discussion would then follow, where we would exhaust any ideas or theories that particular book had raised. Once this was done we would move on to the next volume together. We did this for 4 days or so. It was some of the most fun we had had together since we were children; Since we don't get to see each other all that often, much less bond, it was pretty special. So truly congratulations! Don't let any nay saying get you down, and definitely don't worry; Considering a lot of us also read Martin, Jordan, etc. 8 months or so just doesn't seem that long.

Wow - I'm speechless and anyone who knows me knows that's not an easy feat to pull off. What a nice story - and thank you for sharing it. I was very moved.

[rsullivan9597]

Hmmm...
Mrs Sullivan, looking back at my previous post 'contempt' may have been too strong a word...
I am a bit miffed, I can't deny that, but your lenghty explanation clears some things up at least...Just would have liked to keep the books, which covers I thought were wonderfully done by the way, as one complete (d) series... And the price for the last one would not have bothered me, if a book is good I will gladly lay down some more money if the size/pagecount of it is larger than previous books...That makes sense....
Waiting doesn't bother me that much either, as an avid reader of George RR, Scott Lynch, P. Rothfuss etc I'm quite used to a bit of waiting for a book to come out
Like I said, I think it is a wonderful deal and certainly a dream come true for any writer, so best of luck with that...
And even if I'm not happy about the whole thing (obviously reading your post you are neither, which is coolling my anger considerably ), there are worse things in the world...I'll see how it plays out in the end...

Hey Bard - thanks for this. Hang in there - we'll get something worked out I'm sure. It might take a bit of time to figure out all the ins and outs but I'll keep you posted of the final outcome. Things are moving fast ... the announcemnet was just a bit ago and some of the "decision makers" are not in the office. But the wheels are churning.

[rsullivan9597]

Thanks for stopping in Robin. I think that you have cleared the air much better than anyone not directly involved in the process could have. I hope that Michael can at least in time look past the negative comments, and focus instead on the numerous positive ones that are out there.

You ask us to blame you and be mad at you rather than at Michael, or that in hindsight you would have done it differently, but I hope you can put those kinds of thoughts behind you. You have helped Michael achieve a great thing. He will be able to reach a much larger audience this way, with his message and his story. Most would never ask you to do it any other way, especially hearing the effort that you are putting into trying to get the last published on its own. I hope you can continue to see the positives of the situation, and help Michael to see it as well, because you guys have been fantastic to deal and talk with. My experience with this series, and with talking with you, Michael, and Ridan, has been exceptional. You are fantastic people, and you deserve the success that you are seeing now, because of all the hard work that you put into this series, and because it is quite clear that Michael's fanbase is VERY important to him.

Michael has my continued support, and the support of a quickly growing fanbase. I'll never begrudge him the success that he has achieved, as he quite clearly has worked hard at it, with your help. And I'm happy to have played my (very) small role to help him get there as well.

So, from me, Congratulations! And good luck going forward. I'm sure that you both have a lot of work ahead of you.

Thanks Darksbane, this means a lot to me. And thanks for your support in telling others about this little series that I really think will catch on with others once they discover it exists.

[rsullivan9597]

This couldn't have happened to a nicer guy and a more deserving one. I'm so happy about Michael's success, and I hope all the supportive notes here help him stand up out of that depression....he's worked very hard to get to this point (and Robin has worked just as hard, so she deserves some thanks herself)--I love seeing determined people succeed! I can't wait to see the new editions. Thanks, Robin, for explaining the situation--you did a very clear job, and I found the backstory very interesting.

Wave Leona - Been a long time se we've talked - I hope things are going well with your book(s). Has the second one hit the street yet? I know it was being worked on.

[rsullivan9597]

Robin,

I hope the book deal works our great for your family. I just wanted to say how much I am enjoying the series and please let Michael know that Riyria kicks ass! Your post was a classy move and I hope everyone here will give the books a look.

Hey Heather. Thank you -- and thank you for telling others about the series - I've seen you posting on it in the past - and I'm sure it is because of people like you helping to spread the word that helped to get this series to the next level.

[henderson]

Great news! Can't be more happy for Michael and Robin! I can wait for book 6, if it comes out in a timely fashion.

Just wondering with this new deal with Orbit, does this mean there will be more Riyiria Revelations novels in the future? Hope so! Thanks.

[KatG]

Publishing doesn't shut down during that time -- it's their biggest sales season -- but the acquisitions side gets slow because meetings are hard to schedule. Luckily that was surmounted and the deal was done. Now, Darksbane, Bard, intrigue us about what the series is about, please.