For 2014: GoH at Fantasycon 2014 (York, U.K.) I’m super stoked! If you can make it, do! (September 5 – 7)
I also plan to attend Loncon 3 (London Worldcon), which is shaping up to be quite an event.
It’s unlikely I’ll be attending any conventions in the USA in 2014.
As it happens, 2013 was a remarkably packed year for me, publication-wise:
February 2013:
Apex Magazine‘s Shakespeare-themed Issue 45 included a reprint short story “My Voice Is In My Sword” and an interview.
May 2013:
Fearsome Journeys edited by Jonathan Strahan (Solaris/S&S) with an original novelette for this sword & sorcery/epic fantasy anthology, “Leaf and Branch and Grass and Vine.”
June 2013: (the Big Event of my publishing year)
Cold Steel: Spiritwalker Book Three (the final volume of the trilogy)
Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review and said “Elliott pulls out all the stops in this final chapter to a swashbuckling series marked by fascinating world-building, lively characters, and a gripping, thoroughly satisfying story.” Yes, that makes me happy. There are a number of reviews of the novel I really adore but I will spare you quoting them all because I am humble and polite that way.
July 2014:
Open Road Media published 8 of my backlist novels in ebook form. Whoo!
(The 4 Novels of the Jaran, the Highroad Trilogy, and The Labyrinth Gate)
August 2013:
The Secret Journal of Beatrice Hassi Barahal.
[The link is to the PDF version. The print version is currently out of stock BUT more copies are in and it should be available in the print version again by January 10.]
An illustrated short story, text by Kate Elliott and AWESOME black & white illustrations by the spectacular (and Hugo-nominated!) artist Julie Dillon. This was a blast to write and I love the illustrations SO MUCH. Let’s call it “Bee’s version of the events, with a coda.”
Fall 2013:
The audiobook for Cold Magic came out from Recorded Books.
October 2013:
Unexpected Journeys, edited by Juliet E. McKenna, an anthology of fantasy stories for the British Fantasy Society. An original novelette, “The Queen’s Garden.” This anthology is only available to members of the BFS, but I hope to reprint the story elsewhere in the upcoming year.
Also: ALL of the Crown of Stars novels (DAW in the USA and Orbit UK in the UK) are now availlable in ebook versions as well as print. Because The Crossroads Trilogy is also in e-format, all my published novels can now be easily obtained. E-books are changing the field in massive ways whose fall-out we cannot yet predict, but in terms of a backlist it has been a great thing.
That covers publication of fiction. My favorite posts of the year (ones I wrote):
The Creole of Expedition: Part One and Part Two
Charles A Tan kindly did a Storify of my tweets about “SF Civility”
Love and Infatuation in the Spiritwalker Trilogy
Spiritwalker Inspirations and Influences.
The Status Quo Does Not Need World Building
On Fan Art (and how it inspired The Secret Journal).
I’ve missed something I should have listed but if I’d remembered what it was I wouldn’t have missed it.
Liz Bourke did an interview with me on Tor.Com that I quite like.
And Aidan Moher (A Dribble of Ink) and I did a re-read of Katharine Kerr’s excellent DAGGERSPELL that I thought went really well.
What’s ahead for 2014?
The two convention appearances in the UK. And a lot of writing.
Forthcoming projects:
A short story collection with Tachyon Publications. (2015)
A YA fantasy (Little Women meet epic fantasy with a dash of Count of Monte Cristo) from Little Brown Young Readers. (2015)
An epic fantasy with Orbit Books.
I’ll keep you posted.
I have two more Julie Dillon illustrations, these in color, that I will be releasing into the wild ASAP.
Most importantly, thank you to all of my readers. This can happen because you are all reading/listening/etc, and I treasure each and every one of you.
You keep writing them, I’ll keep reading them 🙂
Wow, that *is* a great year! Always looking forward to more from you, and I’m so glad that your backlist is available to folks now–those early books were pretty good, too, and I’m glad that I was able to get them and read them back then.
Thanks, Ellen. Yes, the backlist getting into e-format was huge.
Thank you so much for all your support, Paul.
Created my “read in 2014” list and realized that in 2011, 2012, and 2014, the first book I read in each of those years was a book by you; An Earthly Crown, Cold Fire, and Cold Steel respectively.
Also was overjoyed to see the Jaran novels available for Kindle. Happy new year!
Emily, thank you so much! I’m honored. And I hope in all cases it was a good way to start out the year.
Yes, I was thrilled to see the Jaran books released in e-format. Ebooks have changed backlist forever now that old books long out of stock or out of print can be fairly easily made available again.
My question is: do you still benefit from eBook sales? Are you seeing any of the profits from the Jaran novels now being available on Kindle?
In a less mercenary tone: Are readers still able to support authors well by buying eBooks?
Emily, that’s an excellent question.
I do benefit from ebook sales. Just as I receive royalties (a small percentage) of the cover price of each print book that is sold, I receive a slightly larger percentage from the sale of each ebook. So I do receive monies from the Kindle (and other ebook) editions of my books now that they are out in e-format. Electronic editions are either part of my original contract or (in the case of the new Open Road Media e-editions of the Jaran and Highroad books) come from a new contract I’ve signed with the publisher/distributor.
So it does help authors to buy both in print and in eboook format