Friday, October 12, 2012

No hardback for Night of the Swarm


[AS STATED BELOW: if you intended to purchase the now-cancelled hardback, please email me and let me know. I'm keeping a running tally of such messages to present to Gollancz. I haven't surrendered yet...]




It's with inexpressible regret that I must inform you that Gollancz has just decided (as of 8 October) to cancel the hardback edition of The Night of the Swarm.

I had no warning whatsoever that this was coming; indeed I found out only after the cancellation had occurred. This would be bad news at any time, but it's just crushing to me less than three weeks before publication of the last book in a series to which I've devoted a decade.

To all the readers who had been waiting for this book to complete their collection: my sincere regrets. I feel awful for you, and extremely grateful for your messages of support. Likewise to those individuals and booksellers who have taken the time and expense to send me hardback editions for signing all the way from the U.K., or to bring them to me for in-person signings at Forbidden Planet or Eastercon.

As for how the decision was made, all I know is that it was an economic decision affecting various writers across the Orion Publishing Group, and involves a decline in library orders for hardbacks. Which is to say that without such orders, Swarm and certain other titles were not expected to sell well enough in hardback to justify the expense.

Is the decision final? Probably. But just out of curiosity, how many of you who read this blog were planning to buy the hardback? If you were, please send me an email [ robertvsredick at gmail dot com] telling me so. I'll share the results with Gollancz, not as a chastisement but just as a data point. And who knows? A limited edition hardback might just be feasible, via Gollancz or another publisher, somewhere down the road.

I'd appreciate any shares of this message you might feel like generating. There are a lot of people out there whose pre-orders have just been cancelled.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is this in the UK only, or will this effect the US Hardcover from Del Rey?

Nathan Washor said...

There is no US hardcover. Hasn't been for a couple books. The only way to get a collectible copy was to buy the UK edition. Now it may become impossible to have a complete set. The UK editions have better cover art anyway :) in my humble opinion.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, I forgot I bought the last bard cover from amazon UK.

Robert....email on it's way!

J said...

Bastards!

Joshua said...

Robert, this is terrible. I'm another one of those from the US who have been importing the UK hardcovers. Use whatever adjectives you must to convey my disappointment to Orion/Gollancz. Per your request, I'll send a little something in email form as well. Gutted.

Unknown said...

I have a U.S. hardcover first edition. It has a different name for whatever reason. Just The Ruling Sea. No rats.

Anonymous said...

Publication date for book 4? Hi. I was searching for book 4 and found out that the british version will be out in October, and the american in January. Can you confirm this? Another thing is that the custom term papers kindle version of Night of the Swarm is wrongly linked to the River of Chaos on amazon.co.uk. Thank you

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