In a new update, Abercrombie reports that he is approximately halfway through writing the first draft of the sequel trilogy to The First Law. He is writing the entire trilogy in first draft before he starts revising the first book for publication, a more long-winded process but one which will ensure a more regular publication schedule once the books are done and allows for much tighter continuity and editing.
Based on this and his prior statements, it sounds like it may be late 2018, if not indeed 2019, before we see Joe's next book.
Its crazy if you compare the pace at which Abercrombie and Sanderson right to Scott Lynch or Pat Rothfuss. In his blog post Abercrombie has mentioned not releasing a book for a few years will hurt him sales wise. So the question is are Scott Lynch and Pat Rothfuss just that much bigger than Abercrombie and Sanderson that they can afford to not release books for years or would you say that because of not releasing a book in a while their popularity has taken a hit.
ReplyDeleteScott Lynch made a strong, sizeable impact with his first book, which fortunately was enough of a stand-alone so people could recommend it without cautioning about cliffhangers. I know sales of LoLL and RSURS remained strong for the entire period between those books and RoT (and between RoT and now). Lynch lucked out there.
ReplyDeleteRothfuss is on another planet. Well over 10 million sales of the two books. He's set for life if he never releases Book 3, and of course the movie and TV deal last year will have made him millions of dollars more.
Sanderson is very successful and his relatively high output helps with that. There's a lot to read and I think that people know he's a fast producer helps instil confidence. However, he's also been upfront that the STORMLIGHT books are going to take 3-4 years each and there's not much he can do to speed up, so that may have a bearing in future. But again he's sold enough books (cresting 20 million, last time I heard) that this will not be a problem.
Abercrombie is probably exaggerating a bit. He's sold 3-4 million books, which is a bit more than Lynch but not as much as the others. He's a low-end bestseller which is a reasonable place to be. I would not expect what will effectively only be a 3 year gap in real times to do his sales much damage in the long term.
Both Mark Lawrence and Joe Abercrombie are insanely impressive. We have gotten a new book regularly for years from both, and IMHO they are all pretty great. Hope both get the acclaim they deserve in the future
ReplyDeleteAt a Bath book signing he said he was going to this as for the first 3 books he had it all mapped out before any publication and he preferred to do this for the next series which is what he confirms in his blog. My comment to him was the Shattered Sea series came out nice and swiftly and meant I delayed reading until all were out and read them in close succession, which I found a better way than having to reread as each new book came forth (not having the best of memories!). Whether I will (re)read Rothfuss when finally comes out remains to be seen!
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