Paul Kemp leaving Forgotten Realms novel line

[Darth Richard II]

Hmm, there was supposed to be a trilogy that follow on Godborn last I heard, but, well, Hasbro and WotC. You think at some point they would learn.

[Maester Llama]

Disappointing. I've been contemplating going back to the Forgotten Realms for a visit to try some of the Sundering novels and was looking forward to more of Kemp's work. There's The Godborn of course, but its unfortunate that its now uncertain whether anything set up in that book will be followed up on, and I'm not gonna lie it has weight on my thinking as to whether a return trip to the Realms will be worth it.

I'm sure there's crazy business sorcery beyond my mortal ken going on here, but, as so often, I just don't get WotC. The Godborn appears to have done well. Kemp is one of their best-selling authors. At a time when their entire Realms novel line appears to be in a major slump and -- Salvatore's longevity excepted -- in some real danger of cancelation, you'd think they'd be all over more of this shit. The age when WotC products -- and, most to the point here, Realms novels -- sold well simply by virtue of being WotC products and Realms novels is behind us and probably not returning, and they have a fanbase to make up to; they shouldn't just be throwing money around, of course, but I feel like they're not running their line with an appreciation for the position they're in and for how much they could use authors like Kemp at this moment. There was a time when the properties Wizards of the Coast owns and runs meant a lot to me, but if they won't learn then screw them. They've now had several opportunities.

[Werthead]

Well, 4th Edition D&D itself was a failure and, even in the context of that failure, 4th Edition Forgotten Realms was a catastrophic failure. As far as I can tell, the novels for 4E mostly bombed (Kemp and Salvatore, maybe a few Greenwoods and Byers, excepted) and the setting itself was completely loathed even by many of those who enjoyed the 4E game itself. It's put WotC in a really awkward position with the novels. They want to undo the damage, but for a lot of the fanbase nothing less than negating all of 4E and returning to the end of the 3E period will do. But these novelists spent a lot of time trying - heroically, in some cases - trying to make 4E work, and I can see they don't want that work wasted by a timeline retcon. The Sundering series does seem to be an attempt to address the problems, but it's like bandaging a decapitation. The situation is too far gone to resolve happily.

One of the problems of all of this is that the money Hasbro and WotC are investing in 5th Edition seems to be risible at best. I remember being six months out from 3E launching and the palpable sense of excitement, with tons of advertising and lots of features in multiple magazines and plenty of optimisim. In contrast, the situation right now is overwhelming apathy and even ignorance. The 5th Edition of D&D (and Forgotten Realms) is out in three months and shockingly few people seem aware of that.

One consequence of this is that there seems to be less money around for the novelists. Kemp has sold a couple of million books by now and is one of the biggest-selling authors on the line. He's not Salvatore - their only remaining superstar until such time as they can lure Weis & Hickman back to the Dragonlance well once again - but he's definitely in the next tier of sellers and they should really be keeping him on side. Refusing to invest the money in him to do that seems rather self-defeating.

I'm hoping they pull it all around for 5E, but at the moment it has the makings of an even bigger clusterfuck than 4E was, and that's really saying something.

[Darth Richard II]

Yeah, Dragonlance is dead. From what I understand Weiss and her Company were putting out fairly decent selling 3.5 d20 Dragonlance books, and then one day WotC said fuck off we're taking the license back, then took said license and buried it in a desert somewhere. I think the last new Dragonlance novel was at least 3 years ago.

Damn, 5th edition is in THREE months? They're fucked.

[Darth Richard II]

Not to mention 4th is so hated they reprinted both 2nd AND 3rd.

I would not be surprised is even Salvatore jumps ship when his contract is up.

[Jussi]

Information from Erik Scott de Bie:

As for where the "fear" of the vanishing Realms comes from, well, WotC has been steadily trimming down its fiction department for years. They've been pruning down their editorial staff, and as far as I know, the department is down to two people--one editor and a story manager--for all the fiction they put out. Currently, as far as I know, Ed, Bob, and Erin are the only authors writing for the Realms right now. The Sundering has brought a flood of readers, but it remains to be seen if WotC will effectively capitalize on that.

http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?whichpage=0.8&TOPIC_ID=19005

[Noroldis]

Great. I enjoyed the FR novels of Paul Kemp and Erik Scott de Bie far more than anything Salvatore or Greenwood have published in a decade. In fact, it was de Bie's Shadowbane novels that lured me back to the Realms after a long absence, and that interest led me to buy Kemp's recent FR works, as well as those of Erin Evans. Now, it looks like both Kemp and de Bie are being abandoned at a time when, according to de Bie and Werthead, both WotC's fiction department and its upcoming launch of 5th edition are growing messes. No wonder Paizo Publishing is apparently outselling WotC. :(

Ah, well. At least Kemp has found a sweet gig in the Star Wars universe, in the form of the Lords of the Sith tie-in novel that will be published in March of next year.

[Darth Richard II]

Oh more than Paizo is outsellig WotC, just about everything is. IN the realm of RPGs anyway, I'm sure Magic is still printing gold.

[Werthead]

No wonder Paizo Publishing is apparently outselling WotC.

So are Fantasy Flight, and the likes of Green Ronin are not a million miles behind, which is insane give how much smaller as a company they are.

If WotC didn't have Magic, they'd be in big trouble right now.

[Maester Llama]

Wow. I knew they were in big trouble -- I knew, for instance, that [so far as we know] the only authors who currently have Realms novel contracts are Greenwood, Evans, and Salvatore, who will be writing Drizzt until the sun goes out -- but I didn't know it was this bad. Two employees running the entire fiction department? WotC, once the absolute undisputed king of the tabletop RPG hill, regularly being outsold not just by Paizo but by little Fantasy Flight? Even back when I was really into their stuff in 2008, and very very bitter about the changes the Spellplague was making to the Realms, I'm not sure I would've predicted this. All very interesting information by the way; thanks. I had gotten the impression that 4th edition had sold a bit crap, yes, but didn't know the 4th edition Realms in particular had been a disaster. On the one hand it was a terrible idea and, even with "hindsight is 20/20" taken into account, they should have known better. On the other hand, I find it genuinely regrettable that the ship is proving so hard to right.

Do we *know* that 5th edition is coming in August? Or do we just strongly suspect?

I just don't understand why, given the beating they've taken, they're not being more proactive about winning ground back. How do they expect 5th edition to sell if nobody knows about it? How many readers do the Sundering novels have to bring in before they devote serious resources to getting the Realms novel line back up and running? I have no idea of course, but given how well the novels seem to shift on Amazon -- inaccurate metric though that is -- I'm sure there are publishers who would fall on their knees and thank Torm for the sales WotC gets even in these latter days; why won't they just take it and commit to continuing to build back up? Could it be things are going so shitty that they literally cannot afford to market properly? Or perhaps their corporate overlords at Hasbro see it as throwing good money after bad?

[Darth Richard II]

From what I've heard from people that, er, used to work at WotC, a lot of the fuck ups come from Hasbro just not knowing(still) what D&D is, and how to market it. This was in maybe 2008 though, so just about everyone I knew who worked or knew someone who worked there has jumped ship at this point(alas, Eberon, I barely knew thee).

I was in B&N a few days ago looking at the tie in section and the tiny amount WotC stuff takes up was shocking to someone who grew up reading fantasy in the 80s/90s. They had one shelf, consisting entirely of Drizzt/Weiss/Hickman reprints. Meanwhile Warhammer practically had its own case and Dr Who and Star Trek was given more room.

Also, Fantasy Flight isn't so small anymore. Heck they got the Star Wars licensee now...which WotC decided not to renew...I still can't get my mind around that one.

[Jussi]

Kemp replied last month:

Just wondering if you and Wizards made any agreement on a deal and if we readers can expect another Cale book anytime soon?

Nothing at the moment, Cam, though I remain hopeful.

http://paulskemp.com/the-chronicles-of-erevis-cale/the-cycle-of-night/comment-page-1/#comment-23497