Thursday, 16 February 2012

A MEMORY OF LIGHT delayed until 2013

Surprisingly, news broke today that the final Wheel of Time book, A Memory of Light, is being delayed until 8 January 2013. This is two months later than the previously-mooted release date of 1 November 2012, which is not a major delay as these things go. However, previous information from Brandon Sanderson (who has completed his first draft and is ploughing through a second) indicated that, if anything, there was a chance of the release date being brought forward, perhaps as soon as this August.


As Sanderson explains in this blog post, that possibility died a death when the novel came in 40,000 words over-length (the finished novel is currently estimated at being 360,000 words in length, making it one of the longest books in the series, though still behind the huge fourth and sixth novels), extending the amount of lead-time needed for production and editing. However, even he says that he thought the November date was a lock and the delay to January a surprise.

The delay is probably unavoidable - Tor would not miss the lucrative Christmas hardcover market for anything that could be easily resolved - but again, in the long run, it's a very minor delay for the final book in one of the most popular fantasy series out there.
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6 comments:

  1. Elfy17 February 2012 at 00:18:00 GMT

    I don't think when it's published will hurt sales. Demand for this will always be huge.

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  2. Alex17 February 2012 at 10:52:00 GMT

    Have to slow down my re-read then, up to the last one RJ wrote now..

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  3. Alex17 February 2012 at 16:03:00 GMT

    To add insult to injury, Orbit Books have updated their website to say they're "delighted" to announce a January 2013 release?!

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  4. Anonymous18 February 2012 at 01:28:00 GMT

    [i]To add insult to injury, Orbit Books have updated their website to say they're "delighted" to announce a January 2013 release?![/i]

    Why would you be both insulted and injured? You should be happy the book is coming out at all. Why shouldn't they be delighted to finally publish the conclusion to this long-running and beloved series?

    Seriously, the sense of entitlement or nerds...

    C.B.

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  5. Marc18 February 2012 at 05:29:00 GMT

    Actually, many books that are expected to be popular are released in early January. Publishers expect that buyers will have gift cards ready to spend, and so they give them enticing product, such as this.

    This delay may not be related to any production issue, and may be entirely intentional.

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  6. Alex20 February 2012 at 09:23:00 GMT

    Hey anonymous, I still don't understand why a publisher should be "delighted" by a delay in publication, especially in this instance where even Brandon Sanderson thought the November deadline was set in stone. I would have thought "apologetic" would have been better. Shame you had to go anonymous to call some random 37 year old a nerd too but never mind :)

    I certainly don't feel a sense of entitlement, I'm used to huge gaps between novels, being a big Stephen Donaldson and latterly George RR Martin fan.

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