Grrrr, GRRM

[lagilman]

Damn it, I ASKED him if he had a Fall release date planned, when they scheduled FLESH & FIRE, and he was suspiciously silent....

*tears up any hope of getting any bookstore placement at all whatsoever in October*

http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Dragons-Song-Ice-Fire/dp/0553801473/ref=ed_oe_h


(yeah, yeah, I know. I'm happy for the rest of you. I'll probably break down and buy it, too. In November.)

EtA: And yeah, I <3 you all.

Comments

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

If it makes you feel better, I've not read his books.

[lagilman]

You should, if you like meaty epic fantasy. I'm annoyed with the date, but thrilled if the book actually shows up (and there are four books previous, so you've got some catching up to do!)

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know I should. But there's just so many books and so little time and-oh, shiney!

[pbray.livejournal.com]

While Bantam could sure use the sales, this isn't the first time they've advertised a scheduled release date for this book, and GRRM's website (which was updated less than a week ago) is suspiciously silent.

[lagilman]

Yeah. We'll see. I s'pose I could go poke around, see what roars back....

(does that qualify as work-related, or work-avoidance? yeah, that's what I thought. *sighs*)

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

I did take a look at grrm but couldn't see anything on there about a release date.

[wedschilde.livejournal.com]

actually.. um... i don't read martin's stuff. never really caught on with me. so... you're it baby.

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

Sympathies. My next one comes out the first week of October.

Meyer doesn't have any new Twilight books coming out this fall, does she?

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

My next one comes out the first week of October.


Oh yayness!!! }:P

[ceosanna.livejournal.com]

I'm still going to buy Flesh & Fire and tell my friends about it.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

I dont buy him new... but you I do..

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

George Martin. Didn't he have something to do with the Beatles? *ducks and runs*

[sleary.livejournal.com]

Isn't that date a holdover from Bantam's last estimate, before GRRM made his big "I'm not done yet, quit hatin' on me" announcement? I'm reasonably sure that if he'd actually turned in the book, half the blogs I read would have been filled with hosannas by now.

[lagilman]

The last announced date was late 2008, no? I don't want to hope for another delay because, yah, would LIKE to have the book out there. Just not THEN! *wry shrug* Whachagonnago.

[sleary.livejournal.com]

I think Amazon is just making up new dates every time the old one passes with no new book... which I've seen them do for other massively-delayed books.

[hippoiathanatoi.livejournal.com]

The last comment from George on the matter is that he hopes to be done in June, but he doesn't know. If he finishes in June, then yes, a fall release date of some sort is likely according to him. Still, at this stage I suspect Amazon is just guessing.

They have made up a lot of dates in the past, since they apparently have to have some sort of date entered into the system. This is a question that comes up with some regularity on the Ice & Fire forum we run, when new arrivals loudly pronounce that there is now a release that because Amazon says so.

[lagilman]

yeah -- I'm on a pro-gossip mailing list with Himself, so I figured we'd have heard if the monkey was on someone else's back, but the rumbling is louder than it was last week, so I thought the new date might be solid.

(I suspect, knowing publishers as I do, that they're in a regular state of Defcon 4, so the moment the text comes in, it's off to the printer and in stores that week. PoD in action.)

[hippoiathanatoi.livejournal.com]

Heh, yeah, that's the impression we've been given too. That manuscript will fly through the process.

The last lj update he did had the frantic little rushed icon, whatever one might want to read into that.

Hoping for the best -- for him and you. :)

[e-booklover.livejournal.com]

Well I will be buying you not him. Never got into his books for some reason.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Oy.

Well, look at it this way: If people are in the bookstores, they'll see your book. They'll be shopping. They'll buy your book. At least, I will.

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Listen to the nice lady in red. It's not a zero-sum game. People go into the store in droves to buy his book, they see your book, they grab a copy because they're there and it's there.

It's good. Really.

[lagilman]

The problem isn't readers, the problem is having thousands upon thousands of copies of GRRM taking up every available space, and therefore the rest of us disappearing behind said copies. What used to be referred to as "the Rowling Maneuver."

But what can't be averted must be improvised around, yah. Maybe they'll push it to December at the last moment, and the stores will up their orders on everything else... :-D

[terri-osborne.livejournal.com]

And you could always chat up the bookstores you go into saying that it might be good to place them together...

Or, the rest of us could mysteriously do that for you.....

[booraven22.livejournal.com]

::Points up at Terri::

I have no problem using my slightly rusty bookseller skillz to do some "marketing related product re-alignment". :)

[lagilman]

I can haz street team? *grins*

[booraven22.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed!!

We r in ur bookstores, changin ur endcaps!

Can we haz t-shirts and stickerz tooo?

[handlebar605.livejournal.com]

I can see it now having to buy a t-shirt for the "Suricattus Clandestine Street Team" from Cafe Press

[mistry89.livejournal.com]

I've never found that book budgets are so tightly adhered to (well, not mine) and a bumper month of Must Haves is not as common as a Wouldn't Mind or an Am Desperate one. Hope this makes sense!

p.s. I will/would buy both.

[sorek.livejournal.com]

The only "doorstop fantasy" I read is Brandon Sanderson, but I wont be reading his Wheel of Time book(s).

Just bought BfS from fictionwise so your kick with the pointy boots must have connected with their ass.

Finally your real competition is Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson Homecoming (http://www.amazon.com/Mercy-Thompson-Homecoming-Patricia-Briggs/dp/0345509889/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241550539&sr=1-8) and Rachel Caine's Cape Storm (http://www.amazon.com/Cape-Storm-Weather-Warden-Book/dp/045146284X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241550724&sr=1-1) both coming out August 4, 2009.

Grudge Match!

[lagilman]

Normally yeah, but since F&F isn't urban fantasy but rather semi-historical epic-ish fantasy, it's not a head-to-head.... and also, if they're coming out in August and mine isn't until mid-October, all's good. :-)

[smoemeth.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, the literary equivalent of "oh, Scarlett Johansson's album is also going to radio today, and as you well know stations only add one female artist a week (if that), so your album is SOL." *headdesk*

(not that I'm still bitter about that or anything. :P)

For the record, I do fall into the "if they're in the store anyway, that's still a win for you" camp ...

[difrancis.livejournal.com]

Sigh. I'm in October, too. But mine is UF. Maybe that will help. We'll plan to drink heavily. Maybe throw a big signing somewhere.

[lagilman]

WFC?

(hey, my book is wine-based, so therefore thus... drinking mandatory!)

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

Any excuse is good for wine drinking!

[jslinder.livejournal.com]

I think Laurel might have an October release, but my realistic expectations to actually see GRRM on the shelf are running about 50% at best.

What you need to do is get GRRM to write a blurb, therefore his name would also be featured on the cover, and silly booksellers would put them both out!

[burger-eater.livejournal.com]

AAAAAUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHH!!!!!


That's the exact same date that my book--my first-ever book (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345508890?ie=UTF8&tag=twenpala-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0345508890)--is coming out.

Well, f#*k!

I like the man's books, and I like your books, but how about giving a guy a little elbow room here!

[lagilman]

we shall think La la la Can't See His Book all together....

(I suspect other folk are right and this is a false alarm, as I can't imagine GRR himself would not have mentioned something about it by now, if only to get those pesky kids off his lawn -- and reap the mazel toving)

[burger-eater.livejournal.com]

I'm tempted to email him little notes like "Wouldn't it be great to see Tyrion in a cross-dressing scene?" "Shouldn't Jamie Lannister have one last dance with Cersei?"

Something to make him say "Hmm," and revise for another few weeks.

:-)

[lagilman]

*laugh* Poor George...

(it's like asking a woman who's three weeks past her delivery date "so, when's the kid showing up, huh?")

[burger-eater.livejournal.com]

My editor at Del Rey sent me a note this morning letting me know that it would take an "utter miracle" for his book to publish on that date.

Now I can stop worrying about my own self and go back to anticipating the man's next novel.

[lagilman]

and mazel tov!

[burger-eater.livejournal.com]

Thank you!