The forthcoming PRE-ORDER date for Song of the Mysteries will go live in SEPTEMBER, this year!
PUBLICATION DATE: will be MAY 2024
You have a year to catch up, snag new readers, and speculate like crazy before the finale ride drives it home. I have created TWO graphic promotional images for this announcement…if Brian can add them here, they are very pretty (and mysterious!). Various reviewers and youtubers and podcasters and bloggers will be posting them in book circles on social media, and they will appear on Facebook. You are encouraged to share and pass them along!
Thank you all for this journey - you have Amazing stuff in store in the pages to come!
And: this will not be the end of all things. I have completed the long requested MAP of Dascen Elur, and on the drawing board (WITH the in progress cover art) are ANCIENT maps taken from the First and Second Age - with plans to re-render the entire cartography in full color.
July will be lit as well - perhaps more announcements coming. Meantime, there are quite a few readlong discussions ongoing, check the links to the video channels as they come out.
Here are the graphics that Janny mentioned (right-click and save to get the full-sized image). They may be posted freely, but of course Janny retains the art copyright.
Thanks for the news Janny. I am a bit disappointed the publisher was not as excited as we were about Song of the Mysteries, but at least it is only a year . Looking forward to the extra goodies.
Very exciting! Do we know if it will be a paperback publication straight away? I’ve finally re-bought a few of the series in standard paperback size so my shelf matches and have a nice space waiting for the last one. If not I’ll just do what I did last time and buy the e-book on release day then the paperback when it’s available. Bless the UK, we took a while to get it. Seriously considering ordering it from the States if needed
Mass market paperback comes out about a year after the hardback version, they want to sell the expensive editions first. They should release a trade paperback at the same time as the hardback, which is a lot bigger than the standard paperback, unless they are cutting back on that.
The copy edit is completed and about to hit my desk for review/I expect to begin that bit this week.
Cover art is in the finishing stages, so close it ought to be polished up before I start into the copy edited text, which is a review to approve the slight changes made (grammar and punctuation, pretty much).
The next production ‘stop’ after this: page proofs! And somewhere along the line before pre-orders start, design dept will complete the typography, and we’ll have a cover reveal.
Meantime, there are quite a few readalongs run by booktubers so if you are wanting company for a review read, that’s your ticket.
The next significant production deadlines are MET on schedule.
Cover art is turned in and the Art Department is working on the typography.
I sent back my review of the copy edited pages today.
These significant milestones done on schedule LOCK IN the publication date - it will not be deferred on my account…July turn in for these stages set the ON SALE DATE for September and the PRINTER’s date for November.
The manuscript meantime continues through production hoops at the publisher. Next ‘stop’ on their schedule is TYPESETTER, followed by page proofs, and proof reader…all in line for that November press date.
Finished pages then go to the binder, and finished books get shipped out for Distribution. Why so long? Because paper copies will leave the UK by container ship and that can take MONTHS to arrive at destination, and then move those boxes into distribution.
Pub date when you receive your copies: May 2024. Critical attention will fall on PRE-ORDERS , which open and go live in SEPTEMBER - how many readers preorder, and how much advance interest is shown by this figure…that milestone will determine what the publisher does with the release, how much support, how many copies to press.
I should know something regarding Audio in the next month or so. And you will have a cover reveal to look forward to once I receive the finished graphic design with the typography on it.
I’m new to the series and it is absolutely brilliant. I came into it knowing nothing and was totally blown away by the depth of it. Your writing is so beautiful and I’m so happy I bought The curse of the mistwraith off a wim. You and Steven Erickson are by far my favorite authors. Thank you so much for the update and I can’t wait to read the rest of the series.
Do we know when in September the pre-order presumably with the cover will go live? I already pre-ordered my hardback copies, but have to wait for things to go live before I can try and get a trade paperback pre-order from my local bookshop. Then they will likely not even know if they will be getting it in, but I will try.
Release date for UK/AU is May 23rd 2024
Release date for US is July 30th 2024
Thanx, Annette! I appreciate plan to preorder now to be one small cog in the engine of interest for this book. I started with the series when it first came out and have followed the series avidly over the years since. Janny is one of the greatest crafters of prose in the English language. I am a History & English major and I am constantly astounded by each new book. I have read and reread the series several times and still feel a bit out of my depth when reading the discussion between you and Saphy.
Welcome Chris! I would not worry about feeling out of depth, there are all sorts of depths and levels to the books always feel free to ask any questions. See if we can yet discover anything new before Janny finally gets around to all the big reveals in Song of the Mysteries.
Janny is still waiting on the exact dates in September. As soon as we know, we’ll start priming the social media siege engine so the date is spread far and wide, hopefully maximizing the number of preorders that happen in that critical first week!
Well most of the online sites already had the pre-order up before the official start. No cover no synopsis, but we could order it, so likely those waiting for the official start missed out on a lot of sales. I will I think even be putting in my pre-order at my local bookshop before pre-orders officially start, they are trying to get some info on Monday so they can take my pre-order.
Annette, from what I understand, the official preorder announcement will be later this month once the cover is released. There’s a big ??? about the US July date because from what I understand, it’s supposed to be May across the board. When I saw the preorders pop up late August, I let Janny know and she’s looking into that, so hopefully the release date for the US will be corrected.
I do not remember the US release date being the same for the UK one, unless it was one of the early books in the series, I have doubts they will do it for the last book. It would be nice, but I do not see them doing it. If they were going to have the same date we would all end up with the US date July 30th.
I am basing from what I had been told by Janny. My understanding was it was going to print later this year so that the copies would be shipped from the UK in time to account for that. Janny’s announcement specified May 2024 only, hence why I figure the US date of July we’re seeing is erroneous.
