Just learned about this. . .
Harry Connolly recently announced that Del Rey wouldn't offer him a contract to write additional Twenty Palaces installments. You can the read this post on his website. That's too bad, for I believe the series had a lot of potential.
Harry Connolly is the author of Child of Fire, Game of Cages, and Circle of Enemies. I enjoyed the first two volumes, but felt that they lacked some depth. Interestingly enough, some of the shortcomings I elaborated on in my reviews were more widespread among readers than I thought. . .
Sadly, this proves once again just how harsh the publishing business can be. Harry Connolly sold his first three books in a pre-empt to Del Rey. He was pimped as the new Jim Butcher. His debut benefited from a vast marketing campaign, with ARCs and Advance Reader Editions going around to most reviewers out there. The book received blurbs from Jim Butcher, Charlaine Harris, Charles Stross, and even more genre writers. Child of Fire was named one of the “Best 100 Books of 2009″ by Publishers Weekly. His books earned starred reviews from PW. Connolly got terrific reviews from Locus and other print and online venues. It looked as though the man had it made, right? Wrong. . .
Here's an excerpt from his post:
The thing is, I think these books are successful artistically. They’re pretty much what I was hoping to create, and I think I did a good job.
But commercially it’s failed and there’s no one else to blame for that but me. It’s my job as an author to overcome hurdles, not blame them for tripping me. Cover art? Format? Weather? It doesn’t matter. It’s my job to write a book so awesome that it breaks through every barrier. And while there are readers who’ve really loved the series (best people on the planet, no joke) the numbers are irrefutable: there aren’t enough of them.
[...]
“Thank you,” is what I want to say. Thank you to everyone who’s read the books, recommended them to their friends, blogged or tweeted about them, or sent me kind notes. I hear all the time about authors having weird or contentious interactions with their readers, but that’s never happened to me. The fans of this series have been great.
There are no guarantees in writing. You work like crazy on a story that means a lot to you, and when you send it out into the world where it’s met with scorn, or indifference, or casual contempt. There are no guarantees that X will be a great story or that Y number of readers will fall all over it and spread the word. I know as well as anyone that no one owes me anything.
Here's to hoping that Connolly's future projects will enjoy a bit more commercial sucess so that readers are not left hanging like this.
Harry Connolly's post offers some insight as to how the business works. And as such, I think that it's well worth reading. . .
9 commentaires:
It's sad to see the death of a dream like that, but understandable - the books just didn't catch on. As Connolly points out, they sold worse with each new book, with the last book's sales being "really awful" (my guess is that he sold below 500 copies, or maybe below 1000 copies).
Hopefully, he's got some other ideas in the pipeline.
well, i bought the last book , maybe it was realy the last book ?
this series was the best recommendation i got here.
is there any reason why the series won't move into independent or other publication house ?
i mean legal reasons ?
Pat, thanks for writing about this and linking to my post.
And I should mention that, if you have the third book, it's the best one. It's the best thing I've ever written.
Not only is this a good attitude - it's the *right* attitude. Brushing aside other variables and examining what you could have done differently yourself is a key step to learning and then improving, and I hope your results show it. Best of luck with the next projects, Harry.
Good post. It seems to me that the most common career path is a boom of varying degree followed by a graceful descent or plunge into obscurity. I fully expect to be in the bin labelled 'surplus to requirements' in a few years' time. Hopefully in the subsection marked 'has been' rather than 'never was'. Seems to me Harry has the perfect attitude - enjoy it while it lasts, no recriminations. Hopefully his projects will go well and there's another boom ahead!
Damn! This bums me out. I really liked those books!
Unfortunate to hear - I liked the series as it developed, and I was getting around to purchasing the third book. However, the reality of the market is what it is. If he's not getting the audience, not reaching people, then understandably he might have to retool things. (Sad, considering how many bad romances get written year after year after formulaic prose...) I really do hope that he finds his way onto digital shelves again with something new, and retools what he thinks didn't work. Could he feasibly self-publish?
There [b]is[/b] a self-published sequel according to HC's own webpage.
Although he links to commercial sites where you can buy if for the Kindle etc, if you're not tied to a particular e-reader, he also offers it directly in three formats which I think means that he'll get the full fee rather than the crumbs offered by Amazon [i]et al[/i].
I'm glad that he says the third book in the series was his best because I still have that one to buy and will do so on completing the second.
Harry,
loved your books. Gave them as xmas gifts.
It's been a year more or less now, I'll get into twenty palaces soon but is it the end for supernatural books?
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