I’ve been getting inquiries about the sequel recently, so I thought I’d post a status update here so it’s easy to find. Hopefully this will answer some of the things people are asking for, particularly those who email at night (fantasy and sci-fi readers are such night owls… I knew I loved these genres for a reason) eager to find out. So, rather than my typical long-winded set up, I’ll just go through the main questions I’m being asked.
Question: Is there a sequel to The Galactic Mage?
Answer: Yup. It’s called Rift in the Races. It is the second book of what began as a trilogy idea, but that will now launch second trilogy after the first three leave off. In case that’s unclear, I have a story arc that I can complete in three books, but a new story arc begins as that one completes. So, that’s the plan for now.
Question: When will the sequel be out?
Answer: I’m shooting roughly for August of 2012, but even as I write it I know it’s probably crazytalk. My original plan was November or so, and it will probably still end up that way, but I’ve got more time on my hands now thanks to recent events, and the success of book one may buy me enough time to finish book two sooner. We shall see. If you happen to be one of those who is in a hurry for book two, tell a friend about book one. That will help.
Question: How far along is Rift in the Races?
Answer: As of today, March 17, 2012, I am just over the 75,000 word mark in the draft. That translates to somewhere between halfway and maybe 75% done, depending on how it plays out. (Most of the ebooks out, especially those that are Kindle only, are only around 75,000 words or so. There are longer ones, but the averages seem to be in that 75k to 80k range from what I can tell. Many are much less, and short stories abound! So, short is in. I get that, but a story takes as long to tell as it takes to tell. I like long stories that I can immerse myself in, and I’m going to keep making print editions too, so I designed this story to be three meaty books when I started out. I like big fat books, like The Lord of the Rings and the Wheel of Time books. So, since that’s what I like to read, that’s what I want to write. Do unto others as you would have done unto you, right?)
So, yeah, somewhere around half to three-quarters done. Keep in mind, this is pre-revisions, so while it may seem like I can just crank that last bit out and go, there’s still a lot of work to do. Most of it, really.
Question: What else are you waiting on?
Answer: I still need the cover art. My agreement with amazing cover artist Cris Ortega is that we’ll start working out the cover drafts in April. I know she is very busy, so I hope that stays on track. I definitely have some ideas for what I’d like for this one, and, as I did with book one on my old blog, I’ll keep everyone posted on progress and share sketches and bits along the way.
Question: What is the approximate air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
Answer: What do you mean? An African or European swallow?
Question: Is there an e-mail list that I can sign up for to be notified when book two comes out?
Answer: Yes, I am building a list. I have not got a fancy list-building widget for my website up yet, because A) I hate technology and plugins scare me, and B) I’m working on the book more than I’m working on the ways I can sell it just now—which some would argue is dumb, but, well, … wait, hey, look, there’s a bird in that tree.
If you want to be added to my list, click on the Contact Us tab and let me know. Make sure you include your email. Or just send me an email directly at john@daultonbooks.com. No, I will not sell your email or spam you or anything else lame like that. I will send you an email when the book is out. Maybe I’ll send one a day or two before as well, just to warm you up. But I really don’t see any reason for more. I hate spammers.
If you want a text message when it comes out, give me that information too.
Question: Are there any more questions?
Answer: None that I can think of.
So there you have it. Thanks to all of those who have been super cool and sent such great emails and left such awesome comments around the site. Now I have to get back to writing on Rift.
I am most certainly looking forward to Rift in the Races and thrilled to hear that it is a double trilogy that is planned: I also enjoy well told and lengthy stories.
As for speed of completion: take the time you need. The Galactic Mage felt as though it was really well thought out, the whole book. And it was polished too, I certainly appreciated the lack of typos, they leap off the page and distract me when I find them. So I am happy to wait to November, even December for the sequel to get the same love as the first.
(About the plugins) I checked and this blog is built on WordPress; good call there but I know that wp-plugins can be scary sometimes. On the other hand I do not like the time that managing a mailing list by hand will cost you. Mainly for selfish reasons because it takes time away from you that you could be writing the book (or you know, enjoying life in general). The Software Developer in me says that you should use a third party product to get the job done for you. So why not create a google group and set it up so that anybody can join but only you can post to it and, as the moderator, reject anybody elses posts? (To do that go here https://groups.google.com/forum/#!creategroup) At any rate if you are interested in not doing this by hand, or want to ask any sort of tech question, you have my email, feel free to ask. Cheers.
Wow, Robret, what freaking epic suggestion and even more epic offer! I would never have thought of that Google groups idea in a million years. I’ll look into that for sure. I’ve been looking at Mailchimp, they seem pretty easy to do, but still needs a plugin–although they say there’s is a no brainer, so I guess we’ll see. Your Google idea is something I totally hadn’t thought of. But I’m with you, I really would rather work on the story than mess with that stuff, so I need to figure out the easiest way.
This is awesome news! I eagerly await a sequel also and am ecstatic to hear that I might be treated to new stories for years to come.
In regards to mailing list/ mailchimp/ wp integration:
It is fantastically easy. We are talking a 30 second process. I would gladly pop together a 300 word process overview and even that would be verbose.
Let me know if such a thing ever becomes a priority
Thanks Josh. I’m glad you enjoyed the stories, and yes, more to come!
As for mailchimp, I do want to get it up there. If it really is that easy, I might actually get it done. It’s hard to prioritize tasks, you know, but if something is easy enough, it stands a chance. I really just want to work on the book and maybe crank out a blog post from time to time, so anything complex gets procrastinated big time. (Speaking of time, I’m actually trying to fix the time to display right, right now. LOL. I hate messing with technology. I’m a real fan of plug-and-play, right-out-of-the-box kind of stuff.)
Thanks again. 🙂
I realized I never replied to your email-reply a couple months ago (sorry!!), and came here to see what was new before writing anything.
In any event, I do WordPress development professionally and if you like I can set up MailChimp for you. Or troubleshoot something / tweak the theme integration. Easiest way would be for you to create a new account for me, with an Administrator role, and give me FTP access to your server. I wouldn’t suggest doing this to any old internet troll, though, so take it with a grain of salt…
Robert’s suggestion is pretty good, but I’m not sure how many people actually use Google Groups or would be inclined to sign up.
Incidentally, with MailChimp you can set up some pretty sophisticated attributes if you have them, and then send emails to list segments or (of course) use conditional tags and insert text here or there. It’s not the easiest thing in the world unfortunately, but cost is pretty low. If you start to do high volume it makes more sense to get a direct mail program and then uses Amazon SES as a SMTP gateway – now that’s really cheap at 10 cents per 1,000 emails. MailChimp uses Amazon SES on its backend.
And maybe fix line breaks being removed in comments. Oh, joy.
Yeah, I’m on the Mailchimp thing, just slowly. And thank you for that offer. I may take you up on it, but ATM, I am waiting for my website guy to get some time, since he’s already said he’s going to fix some stuff for me as part of our original contract–he left room in it so I could request a few things as they came up, like this stuff. I’ll let you know, though. I mentioned the paragraph thing to him too. Was hoping it was just a button I could click in WP, but, well, apparently not. I wish they had learning like they did in the Matrix, where I could just call in and ask someone to download me programming skills as easily as helicopter pilot skills or whatever. (sigh).
Wouldn’t that be nice! :-)I’d guess the comments thing is a pretty easy fix; just not running nl2br() on the output.
Uh, yes, that’s precisely what I always say. Why, just yesterday I was saying to my wife never to run nl2br() on her output. She slapped me and told me to mind my own ()s and leave hers out of it.
Mr. Daulton I just wanted to let you know how amazing your book was and How much I enjoyed it. Aside from the quality of content and the rythm of your book all being fantastic, What I most enjoyed is the time you took to actually describe the protaganists labor through to fruition. All too often authors attempt to cut the story and allow the reader to imagine their “Happily Ever After” but you took the time to explain it. I have to say that I was tense, laughing, worried and ran the gambit of emotions while reading the novel. To actually see it through, and to have it come from your eyes was seriously magnificent. Thanks )
Thanks, Willie. I am with you on liking stories that reveal themselves patiently. For me reading is an escape sometimes, and if I enjoy a book, I’m in no hurry to know what happened. I can wait. The journey is the fun, so why skip past, you know?
I tried very hard to tell the story of The Galactic Mage at the pace it seemed to demand. Writing is one of those things where you just have to trust your instincts and hope it works out. I’m really happy you think it did. Thank you so much for taking the time to come say as much too. It means a lot.