Category Archives: book covers

Numbers, Thanks, and Fancy Covers From the UK…

As I write this, the Narrow Road Between Desires has been published for six days. Not quite a week.

I can’t remember if I’ve talked about it on the blog recently, but the first week of sales for a book are pretty important. It’s sort of similar to how people mention how much money the opening weekend of a movie made: it’s an easy metric that quantifies the movie’s success. It doesn’t indicate how *good* the movie is, mind you. But even so… there’s an implication…

Luckily, publishing isn’t nearly so tied to just a couple days worth of numbers as a metric for success. But even so, the first couple weeks of sales *do* determine if you hit various bestseller lists. Those things, in turn, make a difference in terms of who pays attention to your book, who reviews it, how many copies bookstores order moving into the holidays, etc.

Of course, I don’t know what my numbers actually *are* at this point. But I’m guessing they’re… okay? I’m hoping they’re okay.

The sort of numbers I do have access to are… the same numbers you do. Numbers of reviews. Star ratings on various websites. Stuff like that. And while I don’t obsess over those things the way I *used* to do… I’m only human, so of course I look.

As I mentioned on the blog last week, before Narrow Road was even published, it had more than a hundred one-star reviews which led to it having a stunning 2.1 star rating.

And yeah, that might seem bad at first. But once you realize the *lowest* you can rate a book is one star…. it actually means it’s not a five-star system. It’s more like it’s a four-star system, and the book had a 1.1 star rating…

Which, among other things, shows that math very rarely helps you feel better about people being pissy.

I’ll admit, I wandered back to goodreads a few times over the last week. Much the same way it’s hard to stop touching a bruise once you know it’s there… Imagine my delight when I saw that on the day of publication, about a 150 people who had actually *read* the book left reviews, which brought things up to about 3 stars….

Which made me feel better, until I realized that put Narrow Road slightly *below* TekWar by William Shatner.

And here’s the thing. I’m not throwing shade here. I only read TekWar once, back in the day. And Shatner’s a better actor than I am. But contrariwise, I’d hope that I’m a better writer than him. And if nothing else, I’d hope that my *fourth* book would at least rank a little bit above his first…

Still as Oot says when he’s trying to build something in MineCraft: “Comparators are the thieves of joy.” I know better that to hang my happiness on plaudits from the hoi polloi…

Fast forward to today though, when I wandered over to look at Narrow Road on goodreads I saw this…

And I have to say, that feels a little better. Not only that it’s almost up at 4 stars, which is nice, but that over a thousand of y’all have taken the time to read and rate the book even though it’s only been out for about six days…

What’s more, that puts it slightly *above* Slow Regard in terms of stars. (Which is a better sort of comparison to engage in.) If Narrow Road turned out as well as Slow Regard, well… then I’m pretty happy.

So… yeah. Thanks. Thanks to all of you who have been picking up the book, or leaving reviews, or telling your friends. I really appreciate it.

In other news, check out this hotness:

 

These got released in the UK about a week or two ago, and I’ve been too tangled up in one thing and another to post up pictures of them yet. But honestly? They look gorgeous…

Check out those endpapers, y’all…

And they’re different in the The Wise Man’s Fear:

I haven’t managed to get my grubby little hands on one yet, but I’m hoping it won’t be too long…

And speaking of different covers…

(I stole this off instagram, because the purple suede makes me feel like a fancy prince.)

I always love seeing the foreign covers of my books, and this one I love even more than usual. It’s not just because it’s my baby, and I love it no matter what. (It’s a little that.)

The real reason I love this cover extra much is because Nate Taylor did this art. (Remember him? The guy who did the illustrations?) What’s more, I kinda helped him…

But that, as they say, is another story, and I’ve got to get to bed…

Take care of yourselves, everyone.

pat

Also posted in cool news, foreign happenings, Nathan Taylor, the business of writing | By Pat60 Responses

Postcards, Pre-orders, and the Quest for Imperfection

So over the last couple months, I’ve meant to write about two dozen different blogs. The upcoming book got a cover, for example:

(As always, guest starring my thumb.)

But I’m guessing by now you’ve already seen that. We have a UK cover too. There’s some promotional stuff going on with the book, where if you pre-order The Narrow Road Between Desires, you not only can get a signed copy, but you’ll also get one of the promotional postcards we made to showcase some of the fabulous art Nate Taylor did for the book:

(Sleepy child shown for scale.)

By the way, if you haven’t pre-ordered a copy yet, there’s still time to do that. I signed a *bunch* of books so that they could be available everywhere, B&N, Books-a-Million, as well as a any indie bookstores that would like to prepare. You can pre-order and get a signed book and postcard at the Worldbuilders Marketplace too, of course. But we wanted you to be able to buy from your local bookstores, too. Because we *love* local bookstores around here.

If you don’t have a local bookstore, here’s a link that will show you all the different places where you can buy the book.

But back to my point, I’ve had a bunch of things to share with you. A lot of things I’d love to talk about…

…but I haven’t posted any of them. Partly because… I’ve signed more than 30,000 books over the last month (some for the US, some for the UK) so that (hopefully) y’all can get copies even though I’m not doing a signing tour. Partly because I’m helping my boys with school and trying to be a good dad, partly because there’s a lot of other stuff in my life that eats a truly unfortunate amount of my time and energy…

I’ve also been doing interviews, livestreams, and other things to promote the upcoming book, of course:

(I’ve got one of these happening tomorrow, FYI.)

The other reason I haven’t written about a lot of this stuff is that… well… it’s important to me. And if it’s important, I want to do it really well. REALLY well. Perfectly, in fact. And it takes a long time to write a perfect blog… More time that I usually have.

So today I’m trying to change that by writing an imperfect blog. This is it, by the way. It’s a blog where I just tell you some things and try to come to grips with the fact that the blog isn’t as funny, or detailed, or clever as I’d like it to be.

So… with that in mind. Here’s the most recent piece of news I mentioned at the end of last week’s livestream….

Yeah. It’s a Bast-themed calendar.

It started as a joke. I was working on the illustrations for Narrow Road, and getting some feedback from Julia Maddalina, (an amazing artist I’ve worked with for years. You’ve seen her work in the worldbuilders store.)

While we’re chatting, I made some comment about Bast being sexy, it’s a shame he doesn’t have a pin-up calendar, etc etc… Then 20 minutes later, Julia sent me a sketch Bast. I honestly can’t remember what the first one was, because we joked about it for weeks, and she sent me sketches of him washing a car in daisy dukes, dressed up as a lumberjack, and just generally being the hot fae he is.

Then eventually, it started seeming less like a joke and more like a fun side project I could release alongside the book to make some money for Worldbuilders.

I hesitate to call it a pin-up calendar. As there’s a lot of baggage that goes along with that term, a lot of sexism and objectification. But we *have* pulled a bit from that tradition for some of the images.

 

(This is one of my favorites)

But a lot of the art we developed doesn’t follow in the pin-up tradition. It’s just playful, and silly, and fun…

(Not really a pin-up)

While working on the calendar, I never really talked about it, as I wasn’t sure we’d be able to get it finished this year, and the last thing I wanted to do was get people excited about something and then not be able to deliver it on time. But it’s at the printers now, going through final proofs, and now I wish I *had* been talking about it for months, because Julia’s art is amazing, and this has turned into something I’m really proud of.

(Yeah. That’s Bast as a sexy Mr. Tumnis…. Plus Noir. I don’t know why I’m proud of it. But I am. I’m really, *really* proud of it.)

Last week, I was showing the finished project to a friend who runs a bookstore down in Madison because I was excited about it being finished, and they ended up ordering a hundred copies for their store. It was only then that I realized that some of you were in direct contact with a bunch of people who would love to buy something like this….

Aaaand. That’s it. An imperfect blog. The story of how I accidentally made a Julia draw bast without his shirt off a bunch, for charity.

Here’s the tricky bit. We’ve done calendars in the past and learned the hard way that they’re not an evergreen product. I don’t want to print, like, 150 of these, then run out and have a bunch of people be sad because we ran out and they can’t have one.

On the other hand, I also don’t want to throw away a thousand calendars when February rolls around. It’s a huge waste of money, and feels like an ecological hate-crime.

So right now we’re doing a pre-order sale in Worldbuilders online store.  For a couple days, if you buy multiple copies, you can get a big discount. (That sale is going to go away when we put in our final order this week.

You can also put together a bunch of different bundles over there, where people can get a discount by buying a bunch of things at once. Like a copy of the new book, a calendar, and one of the new coins we make with shire post to celebrate the release of Narrow Road.)

(These show up in the book, and I’m *really* happy with how they turned out.)

So… there you go. Many announcements made imperfectly. Hopefully I’ll be able to come back and go into more detail about some of these things later, but at the very least I’ve managed to mention them to y’all.

And now, I’ve got to go make breakfast for my boys.

Later space cowboys,

pat

P.S. If you happen to be a cool indie bookstore, and want to sell some sexy Bast during the holidays, drop us a line over at: [email protected].

Also posted in a billion links, The Quest for Non-Perfection | By Pat40 Responses

New Novella – An announcement in Three Parts

Hey there everybody,

Later this year, I’m publishing a new novella.

In a lot of ways, it’s going to be similar to The Slow Regard of Silent Things. It’s set in Temerant. It’s going to be illustrated by the fabulous Nate Taylor, and it centers on one of the secondary characters from the Kingkiller Chroniclers: Bast.

[You’re never secondary in our hearts, Bast.]

 

The Novella is called The Narrow Road Between Desires.

I’ve always said when a new project was happening, you’d hear it here first. So here it is, first.

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know how I typically communicate. I tend to go on tangents, digress, maunder, and only then do I get to the point and share the news.

So… Surprise. That’s the news. Right up at the top. Hope that me changing it up a bit isn’t too disconcerting.

If you want more details about the novella, odd context, and a few tangents, that’s down below the scene break. Because this is my blog, and I can put a scene break in it if I want.

* * *

Part 2: Cookies and Communication

(That’s right, not only a scene break. I’m giving it a subtitle, too.)

Ever since book two was delayed more than a decade ago, I’ve promised y’all that when a new book is going to be coming out, you’ll hear the news from me first.

The reason for this is a little complicated. But it boils down to this:

When you create something people like, they want to know when you’re going to make a similar thing so they can enjoy that too. If they like it a *lot* then they *REALLY* want to know when you’re doing it again.

If the thing you create is say… a batch of cookies for your kids, this isn’t a problem. They want more cookies, so you can let them know the cookie release schedule. If they forget, you can remind them. If the schedule changes, you explain why.

Even if your kids want more cookies than you can produce, and they complain, or whine, or nag at you, the whole thing is still manageable. (Though as anyone who has dealt with kids can attest to, dealing with over-insistent kids can be rough.) But it works because the number of kids is (statistically speaking) only about 2-3. This makes clear and consistent communication possible. Since you’re all on the same page, everyone gets to anticipate cookies together.

All of this goes out the window if, say, instead of making cookies, you make a book. And instead of a 2-3 kids, you end up with several million readers.

When I was first published. I thought communicating with folks online would be easy. I post an update, everyone reads it. Easy peasy. Right?

It only took a couple years to realize it doesn’t work that way. I can spend 10 hours writing a blog about how my Dad’s in hospice, explaining how the whole thing’s upheaved my life, been hard on my boys, and utterly destroyed any semblance of normalcy in my world…. Then later that day still get half a dozen people pinging me on different platforms asking me why it’s been years since my last book was out.

I can post updates on my blog, on twitter, on facebook, on Twitch, but that doesn’t mean people will read them. What’s more, all it takes is a rumor on a reddit thread to spread bad information and make people think there’s a new book coming out. If amazon’s ordering system auto-fills a publication date for Doors of Stone, people think it’s real, then get pissed when no book comes out on that not-real timeline.

It’s something that I still don’t know how to come to grips with. And the only solution I do have is the promise I made years back: That when there *is* a publication date for DOS, or I put out a different book, you’ll hear about it directly from me first. And no matter where else I make the announcement. (Like today on Twitch, for example.) I’ll also post about it here on the blog.

It’s not a perfect solution, but this way, if people hear a rumor, they can at least come over here and check out whether or not it’s real.

When I first promised that, I thought it would be easy. But at this point, I think we all know that I can be terribly naive….

* * *

Part 3: Visions and Revisions

So. For those of you who haven’t already guessed, while it’s easy for me to say “You’ll always hear about new books and their publication dates from me first.” It’s *way* more complicated than that. Truth is, things like this, can only work if your publisher has your back….

While I write the books myself, publishing them is a team effort. And as many of you already know, my publisher is DAW, and my editor is Betsy Wollheim. Without them, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

When I told Betsy I wanted to be first to break news like this to y’all, she agreed. And since then both Betsy and the other lovely folks on the publishing team have gone along with it, despite the fact that it makes things harder for them.

They have to do extra work in order to keep things secret, and it ties their hands a little. Believe it or not, promoting and marketing a book is way harder when nobody knows a book is in the works. Despite all this, we’ve all been keeping news about the novella secret, and the lovely folks at DAW have done that extra work so that I can make the announcement here first.

There are some downsides, though. If I’m going to be the first to break the news, I have to do so fairly early in the publication process so that marketing and PR people can do important things like… talk to bookstores and see if any of them would be interested in, y’know, putting it on the shelves so people can buy it.

The bad news is that since this is early in the process, it means the book is still in development. I’m still tweaking the text. Nate and I are still finishing the art. We don’t have the cover finalized yet:

 

[I know it’s hard to believe, but this is not, in fact, the final cover.]

The good news is that as new things *do* get finished, I get to show them off to you. That will give me stuff to share here on the blog for the next couple months. But I do still have some stuff to share:

  • The publication date will be Nov 14th 2023.
  • There will be opportunities to get signed copies. (More on this later, as we solidify promotional plans.)
  • The book will be longer than The Slow Regard of Silent Things.
  • It will have more illustrations than Slow Regard, too. (More than 30.)

The last of these is really exciting for me, as it’s been a lot of fun working on this with Nate:

(Click to Embiggen.)

We ended up with least 5 different graphics full of potential Bast faces that we developed while working on the illustrations….

For those of you who are into more of the professional ad-copy sort of stuff. Here’s one of the *many* different versions of the promo copy that we’ve tossed around. I’m notoriously bad at writing this sort of thing, so my main contribution is to go into their draft, re-write pieces of it, get increasingly frustrated, then eventually send it back to them saying, “Use any of this that you want to and throw away the rest!”

It’s not a *great* process, but it’s what I have.

 

#1 NYT bestselling phenomenon Patrick Rothfuss returns to the wildly popular Kingkiller Chronicle Universe with a stunning reimagining of “The Lightning Tree.” Expanded to twice its previous length, and lavishly illustrated by Nathan Taylor, this touching stand-alone story is sure to please new readers and veteran Rothfuss fans alike.

No one taller than the stone. 

Come to blacktree, come alone. 

Tell no adult what’s been said, 

lest the lightning strike you dead.

When you come to the lightning tree to trade with Bast, your mortal money isn’t worth much. What holds true value are older things: secrets and favors. Buttons and flowers. Lies, tricks, riddles, stones, and whatever else your heart truly desires.

Follow the Kingkiller Chronicle’s most charming fae as he schemes and bargains his way through the small town of Newarre. While at first it seems that Bast must be master of this tiny domain, but while he cares nothing for the laws of man, there are older, deeper laws that bind him. And for all his cleverness, Bast finds himself trapped in ways he has never experienced before, and make hard choices and help an enemy.

Playful, sweet, and sly as Bast himself, The Narrow Road Between Desires is Bast’s story. In it he traces the old ways of making and breaking, following his heart even when doing so goes against his better judgement. For after all, what good is wisdom if it keeps you from finding your way to danger and delight?

 

So… yeah. There you go. Announcement made.

Final notes: Because I have an addiction to bulleted lists:

  • If you want to know more details as they become available, finished cover, how to get signed books, sneak peeks at art, etc.) here on the blog is the best place to keep checking back. But we’re also spinning up a mailing list over here at RothCo (TM) so if you want to get updates sent to you about potential events and signings and other promo stuff, you can sign up here.
  • Want to pre-order a copy but don’t know where your closest indi bookstore is? You can find one here. (Indibound)
  • Are you in the UK? Here’s a link to Waterstones.
  • Do you run an indi bookstore and want to be part of some of the cool promotions our PR and Marketing people are planning? You can ping DAW over here.

That’s all for now.

Later, space cowboys….

 

Also posted in cool news, Nathan Taylor Art | By PatComments closed

“…an odd, maundering aggregation of anecdotes and elegy.”

So there’s one day left on the kickstarter, and among the many stretch goals we’ve unlocked while bringing Digger back into print, was one where I said folks would get a sneak peek of the foreword.

So I’m going to throw that up here today.

But first, I want to show you the graphic that I made with Julia on the livestream a couple days ago, that shows nice mockups of the books and gives details about them, including all the upgrades we’ve been able to include.

And you know what? I’m going to do you one better than that.

Right now the kickstarter is at $339,827. But I’m going to show you the graphic we have ready for when we hit $350K because that’s kinda the final big goal for us.

Because at $350,000 every Softcover and Hardcover book people get through the kickstarter will include a special bookplate with new, original art by Ursula Vernon.

Here it is.

(Woo!)

Here’s the thing: I know everyone jumping into the kickstarter would like a signed book. But there’s just no way we can do that. The books are *way* too big, and shipping them to Ursula would take a truck, then a crew of people to unload, unbox, present, re-box, and re-load. Pallets of books. Shipping cost both ways. Plus the books get damaged boxing and unboxing. Plus the time. And hassle. And extra money.

Even a bookplate is tricky. It ads more art design. We still have to do a proofing process, pay to get things printed and shipped to Ursula, then shipped back. And god help us if we lose a box…

But the kickstarter has done well enough that we can manage it. And Ursula has been gracious enough to agree to sign *all* of them.

So that means everyone can get their book signed, after a fashion.

But anyway. Here’s the promo graphic I was talking about…

(Click to Embiggen)

That was a ton of fun to make with Julia and the folks on the stream. I’m trying to do my best on this project, because I love Ursula’s book. But I do my best work when I don’t take things *too* seriously.

And now, without further ado, here’s my rambling mess of a foreword. (Forgive the occasional error, this is the raw text, not the nicely trimmed and copy-edited version that exists in the book itself.)

*     *     *

Hello there. My name is Patrick Rothfuss. Do yourself a favor and read this book.

That’s the gist of it right there. You have permission to skip this whole foreword and get straight to the good stuff. I don’t know what you might be expecting from a forward, but odds are you won’t find it here. This is, at best, going to be an odd, maundering aggregation of anecdotes and elegy.

So go on. Get in there. Read it.

*     *     * 

Okay. I warned you.

Once, years and miles away, I stumbled onto a comic called Digger.

I was on a book tour, which meant I needed something to read in airports and hotel rooms. I found this comic in the store after I was done with my signing. I looked it over. Good blurbs. Playful tone. Hold on, Phil Foglio wrote the foreword? I’ve loved his work for ages, especially Girl Genius.

But luggage space was limited, and this book was beefy. Thick as a cinderblock. I wasn’t sure I had space for it…

I flipped a couple pages to look at the art and suddenly there was a full splash page showing Ganesha.

That was enough for me. I rolled the dice, bought it, and ended up having to throw away two t-shirts so I could fit it in my bag.

Every once in a while, apparently, I make a good decision.

*     *     * 

Whenever I write a foreword or introduction, I feel the need to explain that I don’t like introductions. That I don’t read introductions. I find the entire concept baffling at best. More often I think of them as belonging in the same circle of hell as spoilers, paid endorsements, and people who talk in the theatre.

Simply said, I don’t want to tell you about this book. I believe a story should stand on its own, and that the first time you experience it is precious. Sacrosanct.

If my job here is to introduce you to the book… shouldn’t I do it in the same way I introduce people? “Hello there, Reader. I hear you like Books.” I turn to face Digger with an expansive gesture. “What a fortunate happenstance, my good friend Book! I suspect the two of you will form a delightful acquaintance.”

And then I should leave. I shouldn’t stand around, hands in my pockets, eyeballing you intently while rocking back onto my heels, like I’m expecting the two of you to immediately kiss.

So. Reader, meet Book. Book, Reader.

*     *     * 

Giving people books is my love language. And these days, my older son bears the brunt of the impulse. The only thing that keeps me from burying him in books is the fact that I only want to bring him truly good things to read.

Also? He’s 12, and I’ve tried to keep the worst of the world from poisoning him. As a result, he’s crushingly literate with a tender heart and has a real distaste for what he refers to as “Dead Dog Books.” Which is to say, books where there’s needless tragedy, cruelty, violence, etc.

This was more than two years ago, so he was only 10, and even though I loved Digger, I didn’t know if I should share it. Violence, but it’s not gratuitous. Big feelings, but nothing overwhelming. Complex story and relationships, Non-western philosophy but presented with care and clarity…

I rolled the dice again and gave him the book.

He read the whole thing. Then he read it again. On his third time through, he read big chunks of it to his younger brother.

When I asked him what he thought of it, he lit up and said, “It’s almost as good as Bone!”

Trust me, this is stunning praise. I gave him my Omnibus edition of Bone back when he was 7. He’s read it dozens of times. The thing is in absolute tatters. This isn’t him giving Digger second place, he’s saying he loves it infinity –1.

Here’s the hard truth: I’m biased toward digger. You can’t trust me to be impartial about Digger. Hell, I’m publishing it. It’s kinda my job to say nice things.

But my kid? He’s better than me. You can trust him.

*     *     * 

Fast forward. I’m still brimful of New Relationship Energy toward Digger. So I take it on a trip and give it to a friend who lives a thousand miles away.

Again, giving books is one of my purest joys. I get to share something I love with someone I love. And when I replace it, buying a new copy supports the author, publisher, and bookstore.

But it turns out my local bookstore can’t order it. Neither can Room of One’s Own in Madison. Neither can Barnes and Noble…

It isn’t anywhere. Eventually I find a copy for $600 on a rare book site, but that’s it. How could this be out of print? It’s an amazing story. It won a Hugo….

So, using all my vast publishing-world clout, I ping Ursula Vernon on Twitter to ask her what was up. She directed me to Sofa Wolf Press and I learn the harsh truth: The omnibus is, as I mentioned, a *really* big book. They simply couldn’t afford to bring it back with the cost of paper being what it is these days.

I asked if I could help. I have a little experience bringing books back. When my weird picture book went out of print, we brought it back and sold it through the Worldbuilders store, making a *lot* of money for charity while accidentally scarring an entire generation of geek children.

Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that bringing Digger back was going to be harder. For one, Digger was a thousand pages long. For another, Covid was ruining everything. There were paper shortages, printers I’d worked with in the past had gone out of business…

So I called Shawn Speakman, cool guy, experienced book-doer, and founder of Grim Oak Press. We talked. Made plans. One thing led to another, and I ended up finally pulling the trigger on a project I’ve daydreamed of for over a decade: Starting my own publishing imprint.

(I’ll never get tired of showing off the logo.)

As I’ve already said, sharing books is one of my favorite things. I do it so much that I buy my favorite books in bulk, so I always have a copy I can hand to someone. Bringing a book back into print is pretty much the same thing, just on a vaster scale.

Thanks for taking a risk on us. This is the first flight of Underthing Press. I hope it goes well. I hope you enjoy the books I want to share.

*     *     * 

When I was 8, while walking through the woods with my father, he asked me to wait a moment, then rolled up his sleeves and casually pushed over a huge, fully-grown tree.

Later in life, I realized the tree had been long dead. Nevertheless, the effect was that young Pat thought of his father as the strongest man in the world, immeasurably cool.

Earlier today, I told my boys I’d be working on this foreword for the same reason my father pushed over that tree: a desperate desire to look cool in front of my kids. It worked pretty well, because, as I’ve said, my kids love Digger.

On a whim, I asked what they would say if someone asked them for a promotional blurb. (They know what this is because daddy’s an author.)

My 8-year old immediately stomped out with: “It’s wonderfully story-rich!”

My 12 year old said he wanted to think about it a bit, then a couple hours later he came back and said: “Digger is a beautiful story that rambles, but in a good way.”

So there you go. If anyone knows rambling stories, it’s my kids.

And I’m guessing if you’ve made it all the way to the end of this foreword, you might be one of the folks who enjoy that sort of thing as well….

*     *     *

So… yeah.

If that seems like something you might be interested in, you’ve got about 24 hours left to jump in and back it over here.

Later space cowboys,

pat

[Edit: 2:33 PM – We’ve hit $350K, so it’s official. Everyone gets one of the cool new signed bookplates. We also added another 50 Limited editions, as they sold out again.

Also, Shawnposted an update announcing an add-on that folks requested in one of our early brainstorm session, and we’ve been working on for a couple of weeks. Specifically, it’s a way for those of you who love books (and libraries) to add a discounted copy of digger to your order and then we at Underthing Press will donate those books to underserved libraries around the country where they can get the love and attention they deserve.)

Also posted in cool news, cool things, side projects, Stories about stories., Underthing | By Pat59 Responses

New Additions to the Family: Japanese editions of Name of the Wind

Those of you who have been reading the blog for a long, long time might remember the early days. Back when everything was fresh and new, and I talked about all the new experiences I was having as an author. My first conventions. My first Guest of Honor gig. My first appearance on the New York Times Bestseller list. My first piece of Kvothe/Bast slashfic.

It was easy to write a lot of blogs back then. Partly because I didn’t have kids or a bunch of other projects taking up my time. But also because almost everything I was doing was new, and therefore everything was exciting.

These days, ten years later, I don’t have as many firsts as I used to. And I’m busy. And I’m a dad. And I’m older and more tired. It seems like I’m tired all the time these days.

One thing I still get excited to see is new versions of NOTW coming into print, especially if they have new covers. I used to show those off a *lot* back in the day, and I don’t know exactly when I fell out of the habit of sharing them.

Anyway. These showed up the other day:

(As always, guest starring my thumb.)

They are the new editions/translations of Japanese Name of the Wind. And I have to say, I think they look pretty badass….

(Click to Embiggen.)

The covers are *so* anime, and I love them.

Some of you who have been around for a long time might remember the first Japanese editions that came out a while back.

(Between you and me? These covers I didn’t love so much.)

These original Japanese editions have been near impossible to find for years, and if you could find them, they were crazy expensive because they’ve been out of print for a long, long while. Which is a shame. Covers aside, production quality of those books was beautiful. (Nice hardcovers with great bindings and *amazing* paper quality.)

Unfortunately, they didn’t sell very well, and the publisher canceled their contract with me abandoned the series rather than pour more funds into translating and publishing book two. This happens fairly often, but it was my first experience of this sort. It’s kinda like when someone breaks up with you, except you’ve never met them and they live in another country.

Anyway, there you go. The Japanese edition is back, new and improved.

Hope y’all are doing okay. I’ll see some of you in Texas this weekend, and others at Gencon soon….

pat

P.S. I tried for like, ten minutes to come up with a punny title for this blog along the lines of Anime of the Wind, but I couldn’t come up with a good one. (Ani-name of the Wind? Aname of the wind?) It feels like there should be something there, but I just can’t get it. If you have any better luck than I do, let me know in the comments below.

 

Also posted in foreign happenings | By Pat67 Responses

Million Dollar Milkshake (and Novelties)

Guess what happened last year that I never got around to talking about?

In 2014, for the first time, Worldbuilders raised $1,000,000.

Last year two things happened that pushed us over the top.

1. We had our best holiday fundraiser ever, raising more than $880,000 (as you can see if you look at the Worldbuilders website.)

2. We tried an experimental mid-season fundraiser on Indigogo that was so successful that I actually lost a bet with the Worldbuilders team and was forced to buy everyone milkshakes. (As I wrote about in a blog over here.)

Despite the fact that this was a pretty big deal for us. We haven’t made much noise about it. Partly because after the holiday fundraiser we were all exhausted. And partly because we were focused on getting everyone’s prizes shipped out to them in a timely fashion.

But the fact remains that we did it. And I wanted to mark the occasion because it’s a milestone that took us 6 years to achieve.

I wanted to make a challenge coin. Because I think they’re kinda cool. I’m a geek for coins, I like the way they feel in my hand, and people have given me a number of challenge coins over the years. Personally, I’d love to do a new one for ever year of Worldbuilders.

The rest of the Worldbuilders team was skeptical. They didn’t know if y’all would be interested in something like that. But eventually I persuaded them to give the idea a trial run.

And here we are:

coinfront

Because we’re really not sure whether or not people will go for these, we’re only getting 500 of them made.

If people end up buying them, we’ll know y’all are interested and we’ll do more things like this in the future. If not… well… then I guess I’ll use these for poker chips, and the rest of the Worldbuilders team will mock me for coming up with this idea.

DSC_0626

(Do not eat coin.)

The flipside of the coin shows our beloved Monkey Puppet drinking a celebratory milkshake in honor of our first-ever million dollar year.

If you’d like to see a better picture of that, or if you’d like to buy one, you can head over to the Tinker’s Packs and order one now.

As always, all proceeds from the Tinker’s Packs go to Worldbuilders.

(Fair warning: these might not ship for a week or two…)

*       *       *

Since we’re on the subject of the Tinker’s Packs, we might as well celebrate the first day of spring with a Novelties blog.

For those of you who might be new to the blog, Novelties is where we put up some cool pieces of geekery for sale that you might not be able to find in other places.

Things such as….

  • Writhing Dark Playing Cards (Limited and Unlimited)

writhing_dark

Interesting Fact: One of the very first non-Rothfuss items we ever sold in our store was a deck of Cthulhu cards by Artist Shane Tyree.

I liked the cards so much that later on, I worked with him on a few Pairs decks, as well as the Name of the Wind cards.

What we have here is his newest endeavor. A second Cthulhu-Themed deck…

_DSC0621

(That bearded gentleman seems a little familiar.)

If you’d like to see more of the art or buy a deck, click over here.

  • Slow Regard Foreign Language Editions: 

DSC_0630

Now that The Slow Regard of Silent Things has been out a while, we’ve got more and more foreign editions getting translated. When that happens, the publisher sends me a handful of author copies.

When they show up at my house, I dutifully put one one copy on my vanity shelf, set one aside for the library, and give the rest to Worldbuilders.

Right now we’ve got Spanish, PortugueseGerman, Polish, Dutch, Brazilian, and Slovak translations of Slow Regard of Silent Things. We even have an audio book version of the German edition.

There’s been a more than a few other versions of my book too. For example, the Latvian edition of Wise Man’s Fear, showed up at my house recently:

I’ve been translated into 35 languages so far, and almost all of those editions are up in the store.

Even better, a lot of other authors have donated their author copies, too. So if you’re looking to bone up on your Estonian, or if you have a friend who speaks Portuguese as her first language, you could check out our Foreign Editions section on The Tinker’s Packs.

As always, all of the proceeds will go to Worldbuilders.

  • Limited Edition Le Nom du Vent poster

While I love all my foreign editions, and by extension all my foreign covers, I’ve always had a special place in my heart for the French covers, which feature the fabulous art of Marc Simonetti.

French-Cover-721861

Proving that he’s an incredibly kind person, Marc has allowed Worldbuilders to print a limited run of posters using the artwork used to produce the cover….

lenomduvent

(Click to Embiggen)

The posters are numbered 1 through 200 and signed by me. If you’d like to grab one, you can do so over here.

EditAmanda here! The posters went over awesomely and managed to sell out by 2 in the afternoon today. The people who are signed up for the once-a-month The Tinker’s Packs newsletter heard about these things a little earlier, so you should sign up right here.

*     *     *

That’s all we’ve got for now, folks. Stay tuned for more blogs soon…

pat

Also posted in all sorts of different types of books, cool things, Novelties, The Tinker's Packs | By Pat36 Responses

German Book, German Tour (And Austria)

[Edit (3/4/15): There’s updated info for these events in this blog so be sure to check it out…]

So today (Feb 21st) The Slow Regard of Silent Things hits the shelves in Germany.

Rothfuss_Musik_Stille_3d_4c(Woo! New cover!)

As usual, this book is significantly larger than its English counterpart. I haven’t gotten to see one in person yet, but in this photo mock-up they seem to be able to fit my name and the title horizontally on the spine. So that indicates that the book has undergone its typical 40% growth from being translated into German. (A phenomenon I mentioned in a blog a couple years back.)

Despite the fact that the post office is slow delivering my copy, I’ll be getting to see a copy of this book in person soon. In fact, I hope to be seeing a lot of them, as I’m going to be making a trip to Germany and Austria next month.

Here’s the schedule:

March 13-14  – Leipzig Book Fair

March 14 – Leipzig

March 16 – Berlin

March 17 – Cologne (Koln)

March 18 – Reutlingen 

March 20 – Vienna, Austria

As you can see, there are a lot of opportunities to catch me on this trip and witness my catastrophically inept attempts to speak German.

  • Details about the Events:

Though we’re calling most of these events “Readings” most of them are actually going to be readings combined with Question and Answer periods, followed by signings.

That said, each event is different, and I highly recommend you take a close look at the details of the event you’re thinking of attending to make sure you understand what’s really happening there.

Will you need a ticket? Will you need to reserve a place at the signing?

Honestly? I don’t know. It’s just my job to show up at these things and look pretty….

  • Concerning where I’m going and/or not going:

Do I wish I could do more events? Yes. But there’s only so much time in the world. I can’t hit major city in the country. Not even a quarter of them.

So before y’all start screeling things like “Why don’t you come to Frankfurt!!!1!” Please keep in mind that I’m already traveling more than 6,500 kilometers to get into your neighborhood. Globally speaking, I’m going to be right next door. If you’d really like to see me, why don’t you and your friends have a road trip and come the last 150 kilometers on your own?

C’mon. You know you want to have a road trip….

  • A Warning:

I don’t know when I’ll be back in Germany. But it probably won’t be for at least a couple years. This is fair warning. If you’d really like to hear me speak and get your book signed, this is the time to do it.

  • An Apology:

Originally, I had one more event in Heidelberg, and I know a few people got tickets and made plans before it was cancelled.

I’m incredibly sorry about that.

Some personal matters came up, and I had to change plans. I feel really bad about it.

In an attempt to make things right, everyone who was signed up for Heidelberg was offered tickets to the event in Reutlingen. What’s more, that event will also be live streamed, so you can see me, even if you can’t be there in person. (I’ll be posting the link to the livestream here, on twitter, and on facebook when we have it.)

{Fancy placeholder for eventual livestream link}

  • A Request:

As you can see, I’m announcing these events about 3 weeks ahead of time. What’s more, I’m painfully aware that a *lot* of the people who might be interested in attending don’t read my blog, or don’t speak English.

So if you know anyone who’d like to attend but might not know about it, I’d deeply appreciate it if you’d clue them in.

Thanks everybody,

pat

P.S. For those of you who are here in the US, and feeling all ensaddened because none of these events are for you.

Here’s two shows I have coming up with Paul & Storm and Joel Hodgson that I have coming up. (And yes, I just got a bit of a tingle when I typed that last bit.)

3/26 Portland http://bit.ly/NMPortland 

3/27 Seattle http://bit.ly/NMSeattle

I’ll be making a more elaborate posting about this later, but I thought I might want to throw this up sooner rather than later for those of you who like to plan your lives in advance a bit.

We’re going to be bringing in other guests, too, so you might want to grab your tickets sooner rather than later….

Also posted in signing books, travel abroad | By Pat81 Responses
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