Release Date Announced: Jan. 8, 2013

[Kivam]

Commence celebrations . . . now

[lord of madness]

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

what that is almost a year away. I want it now but yay we know when it comes out

[2RiversFan]

I had to Check it out for myself.

 

Celebrate? November was longer than I wanted to wait. The announcement doesn't even apologize or ask for understanding by fans who are eagerly and impatiently awaiting it.

[PaulChauvet]

I really don't understand why they feel the need to take so much longer to edit it. Considering when Brandon's announcement was that he was done the first draft (December 2011), then this is over a year for editing (along with printing and other publishing tasks). The last two books were among the best of the series in my opinion and didn't suffer for shorter (though not short) editing times.

 

Bah - color me disappointed.

[mop]

wow that is a long time. At least now we can say they aren't moving it back just for the sake of selling more books near christmas

[michellem]

Mothers milk in a cup!

 

And thats about all I can say right now without breaking pg-13 rules!

[Amberfly]

Hooray! We have a date!

 

Blood and ashes! It's almost a year away!

[Jak o' the Shadows]

Mothers milk in a cup!

 

 

Hehehe totally.

 

Time to go back and re-read!

[Manscher]

A whole bloody year to edit? Christ :(

[mbuehner]

Thats assuming the year is needed for editing and not for building up the hype train. Its odd that it won't be ready for Christmas though. I'm certainly OK if Harriet wanted the extra time for whatever reason, but if this is some Tor marketing ploy, I'm angry. Got enough issues with Tor after i just read Ardneh's Sword. Ughhh.

[PaulChauvet]

Thats assuming the year is needed for editing and not for building up the hype train. Its odd that it won't be ready for Christmas though. I'm certainly OK if Harriet wanted the extra time for whatever reason, but if this is some Tor marketing ploy, I'm angry. Got enough issues with Tor after i just read Ardneh's Sword. Ughhh.

 

I can't fathom why they need to hype it that much. Honestly, anyone who is still reading the series will be chomping at the bit to get the last one. If this is a marketing decision not only is it annoying, its inane.

[accelerate]

Brandon explains the release date:

 

http://brandonsanderson.com/blog/1058/A-MEMORY-OF-LIGHT-Release-Date

[michellem]

Brandons blog on the subject: http://brandonsanderson.com/blog/1058/A-MEMORY-OF-LIGHT-Release-Date

 

Edit: Haha just a tad to slow :)

 

*wanders off mumbling something about bloody buttered onions*

[Sakaea]

Come on you lot. This isn't hype, this is Harriet wanting the last book of her husband's legacy to be as perfect as possible. I for one will gladly wait; the book will be perfect, Harriet will be happy, and we can all enjoy a re-read in the meantime.

[lord of madness]

I started a re-read last month and I'm on book 11. so now what book's shall I read.contions to rant

 

end rant

I jast had to have a rant since I realy wanted to read this book but it does tell us two good things. one we know when it is comming out.

two we know the world won't end in 2012

[Hallow]

Sigh.. That's a depressing bit of news. (I even ventured out of General Discussion to post on it)

 

I guess I can't complain about it. Whatever it takes to make the book as good as possible. Still disappointing though.

[rabbittmaster]

Sigh.. That's a depressing bit of news. (I even ventured out of General Discussion to post on it)

 

I guess I can't complain about it. Whatever it takes to make the book as good as possible. Still disappointing though.

harriet must take us for fools and marks to think we beleive it will take a year to edit, this is tor hypeing the book

[The Fisher King]

I posted the following on the DM Homepage before realizing it was posted here as well:

 

Dear Dragonmount and anyone from Tor (who, disapointingly, dsallowed feedback to this news on their site - what is THAT cowardly act all about???) who may be perusing this;

 

I have ONE question and one question only for you in response to this news, yet, before I.ask it I simply ask that a read of the comments above mine be performed...the comments where:

 

Trench says he "can't be too happy" and Elgee refers to being "miffed" and MyKillK ask if this news is an early "April Fool's Joke."

 

I think I can stop there and still get the jist across. ... Now. My One Question:

 

Brandon, Harriet, Tom, Tor, Tor.Com, Dragonmout....did ANY of you people have ANY clue how angry many would be when this was released?

 

That is my question.

 

 

Fish

[The Fisher King]

Thats assuming the year is needed for editing and not for building up the hype train. Its odd that it won't be ready for Christmas though. I'm certainly OK if Harriet wanted the extra time for whatever reason, but if this is some Tor marketing ploy, I'm angry. Got enough issues with Tor after i just read Ardneh's Sword. Ughhh.

 

Sorry, but your initial instinct is correct. It can not - and will not, here on DM - be argued that it is, disgustingly, ALL about building the hype, marketing and milking.

 

Sad and despicable.

 

 

Fish

[Treemaster]

I will never understand the anger over having the release pushed back a paltry couple of months. The extra amount of time makes no difference for those of us waiting for the book. Once the book is published and we've read it, we will have read it -- we will never go back to the position we were in before the release. So, barring death -- and a dead person obviously wouldn't care about not being able to read the book anyway -- the delay cannot possibly make any difference to our enjoyment of the book. On the other hand, the extra amount of time may (not necessarily will, but may) make a huge difference in the quality of the final book.

 

Those who think the extra time is only for purposes of "hype" -- think about how it couuld possibly increase the "hype" or sales of the book to delay two months. The book is being delayed until after christmas, and so, if the change in date makes any difference at all (which I doubt), it could only reduce the number of sales. I'm sure Tor would like to publish it as soon as possible, but is being overriden by the wishes of Harriet in this instance.

 

Writing is incredibly hard, and for most writers revision is the most important part of producing quality work. Patrick Rothfuss, for example, spent four years revising the second part of his own trilogy. And the results of that effort are obvious: his prose is clean and sparkling, and probably better than I've seen in any other fantasy novel or recent mainstream fiction, for that matter. Brandon's position is even harder in that he is trying to write someone else's story and to do it right.

 

In short, there's no real downside to waiting a couple of extra months, and plenty of potential upside. Honestly, those demanding that the book come out RIGHT NOW sound like spoiled children.

[JenniferL]

I don't think any of you realize how long it typically takes a book to be written, edited and published. The WoT books have been on an accelerated scheduled for the last decade.

 

An acquaintance of mine wrote a book called John Dies at the End. He's been working on the sequel, This Book is Full of Spiders for awhile now. It's going to be about 300 pages when it's published. It's not nearly the massive undertaking that writing a WoT book is. However, the first draft of the story was finished in April, 2011. They are still revising and editing the book. Again, this isn't a WoT book with a massive online following. But neither is it a throw away book. It's pretty highly anticipated, since the same same director who made Phantasm and Bubba Ho Tep adapted the first novel into a movie that premiered at the Sundance film festival last month. It's a book the publisher really, really wants to get out, but in all probability won't be on shelves until next year as well. That's the typical cycle of book publication. Most authors, even best sellers, take years to work on a book with their editor.

 

The WoT series has been on an accelerated schedule for at least a decade, with the books coming out almost as fast as they can be written. Guess what? Those rushed books are the middle books of the series that everyone complains are "slow". Jordan insisted on extra editing time for KoD and everyone loved that one. Sanderson took more time revising TGS than he was able to with TofM and TGS is generally considered the better book of the two.

 

I get that many people are going to be sad and frustrated that the book is taking longer than expected. I want to read it RIGHT NOW. But I also don't want to be disgusted and disappointed with a rushed book. I want a quality book that stands as a classic of the genre. So I'm going to suck up my impatience and wait it out.

[The Fisher King]

Sooo much about this makes no sense. If you are going to release in January then make it the official EOTW Anny. Otherwise, does late November (the traditional release month for WOT novels) REALLY make you lose so much crucial ''editing/perfecting'' TIME??? ...After almost an EXTRA YEAR already being devoted to just that...especially when the SECOND draft is almost SEVENTY PERCENT complete at the beginning of THIS year??? Come ON. Come ON, Tor.

 

Im reminded of an old saying, Tor: Don't try to Bulls... a Bulls...er.

 

Its repugnant, disingenuous and...you're not very good at it.

 

I will GUARANTEE you that another show will drop in this matter and that that other shoe will be marketing-related. I guarantee it.

 

And how disgusting will THAT be?

 

Tor's rampant engaging in marketing, hype-building and massive profit-seeking from this book's release is almost enough to make me feel literally overcome with disgust. The attempts at maximizing marketing potential for this book ontheir part should make Tor feel deeply, deeply ashamed of themsleves.

 

 

Fish

[JenniferL]

If they were only doing this for marketing and hype, they'd force Harriet to release it in time for the holiday shopping season. Or delay until the 2013 holiday season. Waiting until January will actually mean the loss of some first week sales.

[Treemaster]

 

Tor's rampant engaging in marketing, hype-building and massive profit-seeking from this book's release is almost enough to make me feel literally overcome with disgust. The attempts at maximizing marketing potential for this book ontheir part should make Tor feel deeply, deeply ashamed of themsleves.

 

 

Please explain how publishing the book in January could be the result of "marketing, hype-building, and massive profit-seeking."

[The Fisher King]

If they were only doing this for marketing and hype, they'd force Harriet to release it in time for the holiday shopping season. Or delay until the 2013 holiday season. Waiting until January will actually mean the loss of some first week sales.

 

I disagree and I work in the industry. In retail - across the board - the much-ballyhooed ''Christmas/Holiday Boost'' is vastly overrated. This is a novel that would be bought by every single WOT fan no matter WHEN it is released. Unless they were going to charge MORE, if released during the holidays, then the ''loss'' is inconsequential. They will not be ''losing'' anything. They are pushing it back (not to ''perfect it'' - how much ''polishing'' will go on from say, November 22 - January 8??? Come on). The delay is there for more ''build-up'' time to maximize the profits from several side-progects in relation to the AMOL release. I know this and I KNOW that YOU are smart enough to be fully aware of this as well. Look; its understandable that DM's position in this is...compromised...but let's all at least TRY to be open about certain marketing realities (marketing realities that DISGUSTS me) that ARE in play, here.

 

Also, your example is neat, but not the standard. It took me six years to get a 90 page novella written and published once. I also have a very good friend in the industry who wrote and published an 8oo page thriller in less than two years (and no, it was not riddled with typos). Every publisher, every author, every set of circumstances is different.

 

 

Fish