Last week some dismaying news hit the interwebs:
Night Shade Books (publisher of The Whitefire Crossing and The Tainted City) is imploding. There's the possibility of a deal that could allow two other publishers to buy out the contracts of Night Shade authors that agree to the transfer, but if that falls through, bankruptcy filing and the resultant legal mess is a likely outcome. (For a thorough analysis of how and why NS is imploding, see this
excellent article by Justin Landon over at Staffer's Book Review.) Ever since the news went public, I've been getting concerned emails and DMs and the like from people wanting to know: what will happen to
The Labyrinth of Flame?
I've got good news: this won't affect
Labyrinth. Night Shade doesn't own the rights to the book; my original contract was only for 2 books plus an option on a third. (For those not familiar with publishing lingo, an option just means they have right of first refusal: I'm supposed to give them a contractually-specified number of days to make an offer on the book, and then if they do offer in that time, say yes or no to that offer before I (or rather, my agent) could shop the book elsewhere.) So it doesn't matter what happens - if NS files bankruptcy,
Labyrinth will not be part of the ensuing mess. (Unlike the first two Shattered Sigil books, alas.) Likely in that situation I would just do a kickstarter to try and cover production costs, and put
Labyrinth out myself (in both print and ebook form). A hell of a lot of work, but I'm certainly willing to tackle it if that's the only way to get the book into reader's hands. So fear not! Dev and Kiran's story will have a proper ending.
As for what's going to happen to the first 2 books: that, I don't know yet. But thank God for my wonderful agent. Instead of freaking out from stress, I got to dump this entire mess into her capable hands and have an awesome day teaching my son how to boogie board:
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Here comes a wave! Ready...set.... |
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GOOOOOOOO!!! |