Timewaster's Guide Archive
Local Authors => Brandon Sanderson => Topic started by: Swiggly on October 14, 2006, 11:14:44 PM
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Well, I was just sitting there at my crappy laptop [do not fear, internet goers, I shall get a new computer soon. I can be very foolish when picking out electronic sorts of things.] drinking my snapple white tea. [Nectarine, if you were wondering] and I went on Brandon's page. I looked at what Brandon was babbling on about for yesterday. And I saw the cover art sketch teaser. Now, is that Vin, and could that be...a broadsword?
No, child, it can not be a broadsword, for Vin is scrawny, and couldn't possibly even pick one up. Nor could she use metal, for she is a Mistborn and it could cause her injury if she were to bump into an enemy...
Just speaking the weird interworkings of my brain. I just woke up so all of this is quite jumbled, but if I do not even try to get your opinions on it, I will not rest easy for the rest of my life. Perhaps for all of eternity...
Anyways....
http://brandonsanderson.com/blog.php?date=1160722800
Needless to say I became increasingly depressed when I learned that the book wouldn't be out 'till around next July. I suppose it will be a good birthday present.
Though I will rest assured that Tamora Pierce's book is coming out very soon, just about a week. I have been waiting for Terrier to arrive for what seems like forever.
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Who knows maybe it's a Sanbatou, EUOL did love Sanotsuke's sword from Kenshin (and it was stone I think).
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Keep in mind, Vin has pewter to enhance her muscles. And perhaps the broadsword is made of something other than metal. Regardless, it looks pretty sweet, and if it is in the hands of a Mistborn or Feruchemist, it also looks pretty scary.
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If I wasn't so lazy, or well...cared that much right now, I'd look up what it was in my electronic version. But I'd rather be surprised when I read the book next year.
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I completely forgot about pewter, and its only been about a month or so since I last read Mistborn. Perhaps I should read it again. And it does look quite awesome.
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welllll....
*SPOILER*
It's a Koloss sword, with which she is killing numerous Koloss
*END SPOILER*
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Sorry the book won't be out for so long. It's not my fault, it's Tor's! I wanted it out in March or April, then the final book out in November, but that isn't going to happen.
The sword is, indeed, a koloss sword. You're right that it wouldn't normally be a good idea for a Mistborn to use a metal weapon--it could just be Pushed out of their hands. But, in the book, you'll see why she ends up using one.
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Wow, yeah. That would be extremely fast.
[I started to say something about how your much longer books would probably end up being a more complicated editing process, but then I read it over and realized I'm making little sense and should probably try to say it again in the morning.]
But I do think I made sense with this part--
Then you have to account a lot of time for production, design, and all that (to get all that stuff in time for the sales team), especially if you're going to do ARCs. Plus the time for blurbs, reviews, etc. We're getting ARCs done a good 9 months or so before publication date for the first book so that the sales force will have it in time. Not sure how Tor's timeline works on that end, but I'm assuming it's similar from distributor to distributor (given what I know about how it worked when we worked with Tor's distributor).
Building back from publication dates, that ends up being a longer time than most would expect.
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Wow, yeah. That would be extremely fast.
[I started to say something about how your much longer books would probably end up being a more complicated editing process, but then I read it over and realized I'm making little sense and should probably try to say it again in the morning.]
But I do think I made sense with this part--
Then you have to account a lot of time for production, design, and all that (to get all that stuff in time for the sales team), especially if you're going to do ARCs. Plus the time for blurbs, reviews, etc. We're getting ARCs done a good 9 months or so before publication date for the first book so that the sales force will have it in time. Not sure how Tor's timeline works on that end, but I'm assuming it's similar from distributor to distributor (given what I know about how it worked when we worked with Tor's distributor).
Building back from publication dates, that ends up being a longer time than most would expect.
I don't know what an "ARC" is (please explain? :) ) and you, of course, know the industry infinitely better than me. I did, however, read Tor's "Robert Jordan" FAQ" (http://www.tor.com/torfaq.html#jordan) where they say that it typically takes them six weeks to go from final manuscript to print on his books.
This led me to believe that for less popular authors the long stretch between final manuscript and publishing had more to do with marketing (i.e. finding an optimal time to release it among other books in the genre) than production time. Am I wrong? Is Tor lying about 'six weeks' just to keep fans quiet?
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ARC=Advance Reader's Copy. RJ books don't do that, for one.
Also, RJ takes so long to write his books that I'm sure the art department has plenty of time to work on what they need to do prior to his turning in the final manuscript. Artists need anywhere from a month to several months to do cover art. I'm not sure how long Darryl Sweet takes.
The six weeks that Tor is talking about is just the time it takes to usher the manuscript through a copyeditor, a proofreader, and off to be printed. Everything else that needs to be done will have been prepared beforehand.
However, RJ is an anomaly. For one, his wife is his editor, so he really does have a longer editing process than that six weeks implies. For another, most editors and art departments need a finished (draft) manuscript in hand so they know what the book is about. I also have a feeling that when RJ turns his manuscript in, his editor in the Tor offices (the one who isn't his wife) drops everything and works only on his books, which if every editor did that for every book we'd have the most erratic schedule on the planet.
So no, six weeks is definitely not typical, and that number probably (I don't work at Tor so I can't say for sure), *probably* doesn't reflect the time people in the office spend on the things like cover copy, catalog copy, sales conferences, art, design, etc. Plus, being a series, they do have some of those as a given, since they're not going to change the design in the middle of the series.
I'm sure it took a *lot* longer for Eye of the World to be published than it takes for book 13.
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Stacer, what EUOL meant when he said it was Tor's fault is that after he sent in book 2 it sat on a desk for months without being worked on at all. He had it in well in advance, within a very reasonable timeline for the previous tentative release date, but it took a very long time for them to get correction suggestions back to him.
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I get that. I'm saying from a publisher's POV, schedule-wise, it sometimes takes a while to do the other things, and sometimes a manuscript *does* sit on a desk for a while (I've got one sitting here for the last two months because I've been behind on something else).
However, once we make our schedules here we stick to them unless we're making a decision to change based on sales, so no matter how long I take, I still have to have this book ready for a July 2007 release.
But like I said above, I was trying to answer as I was dozing off, so I might not have made myself entirely clear or even directly addressed a point. ;)
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Our schedules here are very strict and also set months in advance. It takes a lot for a book to get pushed back at all, and that unfortunately means that when something does manage to get behind, it still comes out on time, just in crappier shape. :-/
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Same for us.
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So it's good to not get behind. :)
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Thank you for clearing things up for me.