Jump to content

Publishing lead time


Col Cinders

Recommended Posts

If a publisher were interested in having a hard cover book out in time for 2017 black Friday shopping, and if they expected the initial order to sell 2+ million copies, how long in advance of black Friday would they need the book in a finished electronic format?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Based on precedent - Dan Brown books, Robert Jordan, Martin's last couple of books, it'd be about 3 months from receiving the final, finished, copy-edited and proofed manuscript.

For a smaller market you can shave a bit off that. The UK got ASoS out about 2 months after hand-in, but the Americans had to wait several months longer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
On 10/2/2017 at 4:34 PM, Col Cinders said:

If a publisher were interested in having a hard cover book out in time for 2017 black Friday shopping, and if they expected the initial order to sell 2+ million copies, how long in advance of black Friday would they need the book in a finished electronic format?

winds will not be out this year. GRRM stated that he MIGHT have a book published next year but if he does he is not sure if it will be winds or the targ history novel. winds seems more likely to be 2019 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎11‎/‎6‎/‎2017 at 0:07 PM, Dorian Martell's son said:

winds will not be out this year. GRRM stated that he MIGHT have a book published next year but if he does he is not sure if it will be winds or the targ history novel. winds seems more likely to be 2019 

 

On ‎10‎/‎2‎/‎2017 at 8:11 PM, Werthead said:

Based on precedent - Dan Brown books, Robert Jordan, Martin's last couple of books, it'd be about 3 months from receiving the final, finished, copy-edited and proofed manuscript.

For a smaller market you can shave a bit off that. The UK got ASoS out about 2 months after hand-in, but the Americans had to wait several months longer.

TY for the replies.  I will probably bail out on the book series.  There's only so many times Lucy can pull the football off the tee for me.

I'm looking forward to HBO finishing the story for me albeit at a reduced quality.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Col Cinders said:

There's only so many times Lucy can pull the football off the tee for me.

Hard to argue with this.

13 hours ago, Col Cinders said:

I'm looking forward to HBO finishing the story for me albeit at a reduced quality.

And in many ways that are fundamentally different from the books.

We know for sure the show has already been fundamentally different for years now and it's not suddenly going to morph into an accurate reflection of the canon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
On 10/2/2017 at 4:34 PM, Col Cinders said:

If a publisher were interested in having a hard cover book out in time for 2017 black Friday shopping, and if they expected the initial order to sell 2+ million copies, how long in advance of black Friday would they need the book in a finished electronic format?

Seeing how this did not happen, coupled with the show not returning until 2019, I have a small shred of hope that the targ history novel is on the back burner and winds will show up so we only have one book left by the time we know how the whole story ends. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Dorian Martell's son said:

Seeing how this did not happen, coupled with the show not returning until 2019, I have a small shred of hope that the targ history novel is on the back burner and winds will show up so we only have one book left by the time we know how the whole story ends. 

That is exactly what I think. Because if we take into account the amount of commitments grrm will have in 2019 because it is the last year of GoT, the prequels will start to be a thing and because he will at least publish fire and blood then in 2019 he won t have time to write.

Even 2020 with the premiere of 1 or more prequels will be a bad year for him... I think this has to be the year of winter...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10.01.2018 at 11:40 PM, divica said:

That is exactly what I think. Because if we take into account the amount of commitments grrm will have in 2019 because it is the last year of GoT, the prequels will start to be a thing and because he will at least publish fire and blood then in 2019 he won t have time to write.

Even 2020 with the premiere of 1 or more prequels will be a bad year for him... I think this has to be the year of winter...

But unlike in 2011, the publishers are in no position to demand anything from GRRM.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎1‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 0:48 PM, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

But unlike in 2011, the publishers are in no position to demand anything from GRRM.

Exactly. There is nothing they can hold over his head.

I think we won't see Winds until 2020 personally. We'll get Fire and Blood possibly this year or next and likely Winds in 2020.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 03.10.2017 at 2:11 AM, Werthead said:

Based on precedent - Dan Brown books, Robert Jordan, Martin's last couple of books, it'd be about 3 months from receiving the final, finished, copy-edited and proofed manuscript.

For a smaller market you can shave a bit off that. The UK got ASoS out about 2 months after hand-in, but the Americans had to wait several months longer.

What about Kindle/ electronic versions? That shouldn't take very long. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

What about Kindle/ electronic versions? That shouldn't take very long. :)

The time-consuming stuff is the final edit. The actual printing I think they can do quite quickly (a couple of weeks for a few hundred thousand copies), and of course they launch all versions on the same day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ahh...Winds. I look online every few days with hope in my heart that there will be an announcement, but I've come to the point where I'm coming to accept that Martin will never finish the series, and the tv show fan fiction is the only closure we will ever get. I even have serious doubts that Winds will ever see the light of day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, IronBars said:

at this point the only thing you can theorise on is when winds will be out and why the delay, everyother topic has been exhausted

Not really... there are still untapped theories out there, see my signature for example. Plenty of things to discuss for another year or two, if people are willing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, The Coconut God said:

Not really... there are still untapped theories out there, see my signature for example. Plenty of things to discuss for another year or two, if people are willing.

Untapped theories ? Can you give a specfic example?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎1‎/‎18‎/‎2018 at 6:44 AM, The Coconut God said:

Not really... there are still untapped theories out there, see my signature for example. Plenty of things to discuss for another year or two, if people are willing.

You've been on this forum for about 7 months and posted 79 times. This forum has been around for many years with hundreds of thousands of posts. Trust me. Just about every theory has been put out there. And most of them are stupid. GRRM said years back that some people have already guessed the ending correctly. The only real mystery left at this point will be when and if we get either of these two (three?) final books.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, IronBars said:

Untapped theories ? Can you give a specific example?

I did. The thread I made about it is linked in my signature, but the main idea is that the Others cannot be stopped. They will roll over most of Westeros quickly, forcing the main players, starting with Jon, to lead their people across the Narrow Sea, where their story will eventually merge with Dany's conquest of Essos. The "Dream of Spring" will be about Essos trying to achieve a new balance after a refugee crisis, a continent-wide slave revolt and a brutal, Dothraki & dragon powered unification, with Westeros nothing but an icy cautionary tale.

I searched for similar theories on and off this site, but I couldn't find any - if they are there, they are buried - and people here didn't show much interest, which is a shame, because I would really like to explore this scenario more. Most theories I've seen involve all the main characters returning to Westeros and a climactic conflict with either Dany, the Others or both. Those topics have been done to death indeed.

@SuperMario I've been lurking on this forum long before that. Don't judge a poster by his join date. If you read my theory and think it is stupid, I'd be delighted to hear a few arguments and maybe offer a retort, preferably in my thread, since I don't want to derail this one more than I already have.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Took a break from these forums for a year or two, just jumping back in since I saw GRRM advertising the new ASOIAF calendar.

 

If TWOW didn't come a few years ago then its not coming out. The fact he has zero problems writing 4-5 prequel stories for HBO tells us his work on ASOIAF has ground to complete halt. He has been struggling to write this book for 10-15 years now, letting slip he had not even wrote the part about Shireen yet on his blog when the show spoiled it. 

 

So much potential for an epic 7 book series but he really began to lose his way by the 4th book and has struggled since. Just being a realist but there is minimal chance of seeing TWOW in 3-5 years time, let alone the final move if that can even tie up the story. :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So they need at least a few months of lead time from when they get the final version out of GRRM's clutches, to when they can release the final product to stores and into customer's hands. What is that, 3-4 months? Roughly? This week, the big rumor was that the publishing date might have accidentally slip and it was a September date. I have real doubts that was real and could have been for the first half of the two Taryaryen history books instead.

My fear is that Martin has emotionally moved on from ASOIAF and will continue to make pitches for other tv shows, and sprinkle more satelite ASOIAF projects like the short stories he has done in recent years. That somewhere in his house under a pile of clutter lies his abandoned work on Winds, and he never made it past 200-300 pages.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...