Next update November 10
So I get back from STARFest up in Canada and I discover that George Lucas sold the rights to Star Wars!
If you think I had some clue this was coming because of my involvement with the Star Wars novels, think again. I was totally blindsided, like pretty much the rest of the internet. And now my e-mail and Twitter feed is buzzing with people wanting to know what I think. How is this going to affect Star Wars – the books, the games, etc?
Honestly, I have no idea. It may have almost zero impact. It may have a huge impact. More likely it will fall somewhere in between. Disney says they want to make more movies; as a fan I think more SW films is probably a good thing. But beyond that, I’m in wait and see mode just like everyone else.
It’s not like there aren’t plenty of other interesting things going on in the world to focus on instead. The NBA has started up. (Go, Spurs!) The US presidential election is almost here. (I’m still a Canadian citizen, so I don’t get to vote… but I’m very interested in the outcome.) And, as I mentioned earlier, I was up in my hometown of St. Albert in Canada to talk at the local library. Even got a mention in the local paper. And the other local paper. (That’s right – St. Albert is a TWO paper town, baby!)
And in honor of the upcoming release of Star Wars: Annihilation, I went to Vegas this past weekend. (Okay, I really went because I just like going to Vegas.) But Annihilation is almost here. I’ve just update my Novels page with some more info about the book and why I think it’s my best SW novel so far. You can also get a glimpse at several random pages/blurbs over at the Random House website.
So I hope you all scurry off and pre-order a copy right now. More specifically, I hope you do it through one of the links on my web page. Don’t get me wrong – I’m grateful when anyone buys any of my books from anywhere. But if you buy it by clicking through the links on my website, instead of going directly to Amazon or wherever, then I get a small referral fee. It’s not much, but it makes a difference.
This is something I’ve become a lot more aware of recently. As an author, artist or other creator, you usually don’t get a huge amount whenever your mass produced book, song or album is purchased. I’m not complaining – Amazon and iTunes and on-line sales have opened up a huge potential market for folks like me, and I appreciate it. But typically an author only gets a royalty of a few pennies – or a dollar or two if they’re lucky – for every copy of each book that gets sold. The rest goes to the publisher and retailer… that’s fair – they put up all the expenses and incur the risk.
However, if you take the time and effort to buy the book through a link on the website of the author, they can get double or even triple the amount they’d otherwise get. Obviously, in my line of work I fully support doing everything possible to support authors, artists and other creative types.
So if you want to help me out when you pre-order Annihilation – in hardcover, kindle or even audio format – go ahead and click on the links on this page. Or go to the Novels page and click on the links there.
This works for new products – like the just released Kindle trilogy pack for the Darth Bane series – and for older items, like my very first novel Temple Hill – out of print for years, but now available on Kindle, too.
Look, it’s not a big deal if you DON’T buy stuff through my website. Maybe you like to go into the bookstore and grab it. Maybe you like to use an online service I don’t list. That’s fine. All I’m saying is that if you are going to buy something from one of the big online retailers anyway, help the author/artist/band out and try to buy it through their website so they get the referral.
Okay, this is feeling a bit preachy now. Time to wrap it up. I’ll be back next week with another update; should have some interviews and maybe some early reviews for Annihilation ready to go.