Not Coming Soon - Authors we want mor of!

[DarkChaplain]

Man, I was heartbroken when they didn't commission Jon Sullivan for Space Marine Battles (and Time of Legends) anymore at some point through the series. The early SMB cover art was magnificent. Very little comes close to those artworks in depicting the grit and brutality, but also the inherent weirdness of the setting. And with the fadeout into white, the series could go absolutely wild on the artworks while maintaining a fully consistent, immediately recognizable appearance on any shelf.

 

Just compare the artworks for, say, Death of Integrity or Rynn's World to those of Shield of Baal's collection print. And when they didn't use his work for Giant's Coffin for anything but the artbook including the short story Heloth, and then printed the actualSlaughter at Giant's Coffin novel with this cover... my lord... and they went yet further down stupid lane and cropped it further for the omnibus!

 

Honestly, this kind of nonsense was half the reason why I stopped buying every single SMB book (the other being the limited editions, split-into-three-novellas-entries and so forth). They went from stunning to drab, passionless throwaway art. And those few omnibuses we got? They were even worse.

 

....and now we have Space Marine Conquests with further uninspired "Marine looking straight into the camera" covers, no distinguishing frames or anything, just a cheap logo slapped on, and THAT series seems pretty much abandoned now, with the next scheduled book being by that bloke who lost his job writing for BL over alleged leaking of information while raising a stink on social media and making himself a persona non grata, going so far as to tell people not to buy an anthology where he's written the major title novella.

 

He was going to have the Raven Guard Space Marine Conquests book.... which has been pending for release for almost a year already, but seems to be on ice. The Amazon listing still exists, but keeps getting pushed back. The thing was supposedly written and submitted, though, so who knows what they decide to do with it.

 

The last SMC novel was released in February 2020. The previous one in July 2019 - which is the one Josh wrote as an Apocalypse pseudo-tie-in on extremely short notice but is often considered the best of the bunch. You'd think they'd have maintained it as their spearhead series, especially because of the new reader appeal, running down the various Chapters. They just can't be bothered, and they also scrapped the presentation that made SMB so powerful in this aspect.

[theSpirea]

SMB covers were actually something I was looking at the other day and I do miss that art. I think it's the perfect depiction of 40K, it's raw, brutal, dirty. When you compare it with the recent Dawn of Fire series covers, it looks like GW was bought by Disney. It's too polished, too clean, the colours are too vibrant, and I hate it. It lost its unique style, now it looks like your generic sci-fi cover.

 

I remember being angry when they didn't use the original Apocalypse cover.

[DukeLeto69]

For me the two best cover artists were indeed Jon Sullivan (as per DC above - sadly many of the SMB books should NOT have been judged by the cover) and Clint Langely.

[DarkChaplain]

Personally I’m not overly aggrieved by the lack of releases. The authors are still writing and I highly doubt BL is intentionally slow walking books to this degree. Something must be up internally or with a supplier, but any decent company would address the lack of content in some manner. BL, unsurprisingly, has said nothing.

At the same time, they seemingly lost a lot of steady authors over the past years, some specifically due to what I'd say qualifies as mistreatment, some because other publishers pay better.

 

Josh Reynolds is the obvious departure, but even blokes like David Annandale and Robbie MacNiven are doing mostly other projects these days. And surprise, surprise, a lot of their authors are doing gigs for Aconyte nowadays: David Guymer, David Annandale, Josh Reynolds, James Swallow, C.L.Werner, Robbie MacNiven, even Thomas Parrott, whose Space Marine Conquests novel still hasn't been published, is with Aconyte.

 

Aconyte is a tie-in publisher, a bit newer to the block, who handles multiple IPs, including for simple board games. Guymer had a Marvel novel, Josh Reynolds did an Arkham Horror entry for them (which I really gotta pick up!), Legend of the Five Rings got two novels from Josh, one from Annandale, Josh also did one for Zombiecide while RobMac did two for Descent, and Guymer one.

 

Just looking at that short list, these are all authors who before would have pumped out books for BL on various factions and events. Josh in particular had a series for AoS that never got its second novel as a result of mismanagement and awkward priorities. Robbie is still due a third Carcharodons, while they hand out the faction to another recently. Werner is traditionally a Fantasy author who also does some AoS, which isn't exactly doing well in terms of new offerings.

 

Looking at the list of other high profile authors that were previously known for tie-in fiction, or their own original series, I have to come to the conclusion that Aconyte and other publishers pay pretty well. Well enough to - along with their policies / author treatment - to be worth writing for more right now than sticking solely with BL like they have been in the past half a decade.

 

....and yeah, these publishers clearly made good progress with their releases despite the pandemic. Almost like not having a stiff, rusty, overly convoluted marketing machine and corporate policies attached to everything makes the act of publishing content a whole lot easier!

 

Now, I wish dearly that these authors hadn't gone from tie-in to tie-in and instead done more original works of their own, but that's still risky and not bringing in the livelihoods they need. But damn me, the day Haley goes back to original fiction is gonna be a day I'll celebrate - while BL will curse it greatly, I suppose.

[cheywood]

Aconyte seems to be doing a much better job as a publisher compared to BL. They build good will on social media with fans, promote the books more heavily, and seem focused on establishing a lasting reputation as a place IP owners will want to work with. I wish what they published interested me more, but I’ll probably end up trying something out sooner or later.

 

It doesn’t surprise me at all that a lot of BL authors in particular have started working with Aconyte. I believe Marc Gascoigne is running it and Charlotte Llewelyn Wells is head editor or something similar. They both worked at BL in the past. As far as I know Reynolds is the only one to quit BL for good, though it’s possible others have as well. BL is lucky so many talented writers are fans of the IP and want to have a go in their sandbox. Cannot imagine them having such talent involved otherwise.

Edited August 16, 2021 by cheywood

[DukeLeto69]

With the HUGE profits GW are making, you’d think they might consider a bit of a payrise for their freelance authors. Why not be both the biggest AND the best SFF company?

[DarkChaplain]

I'm not exactly the target audience of Aconyte so far either; I'd definitely like to read the Arkham Horror books (and am still miffed about how hard it was to get a hold of the Fantasy Flight Arkham Horror novels, some of which were written by Alan Bligh and John French or McNeill), but beyond that, I have no attachment to their IPs... yet. Terraforming Mars, being a heavy eurogame, will probably be much more enjoyable standalone than some of the others, by sheer necessity.

The moment they start publishing Gloomhaven tie-ins, it's over, though.

 

I suppose BL is looking at another big generational shift. The last of these happened around ten years ago, where a lot of newer authors came in - often also by way of Space Marine Battles - and cemented themselves as steady workhorses. With Inferno!, this should have been expected anyway, but I did think they'd be adding authors to the roster rather than gradually replacing it.

[Lord Marshal]

With the HUGE profits GW are making, you’d think they might consider a bit of a payrise for their freelance authors. Why not be both the biggest AND the best SFF company?

 

I think recent controversies have proven GW don't mind paying staff pittance contrary to the money they make them. 

[DukeLeto69]

 

 

With the HUGE profits GW are making, you’d think they might consider a bit of a payrise for their freelance authors. Why not be both the biggest AND the best SFF company?

I think recent controversies have proven GW don't mind paying staff pittance contrary to the money they make them.

Indeed! Saying that most of the writers are freelancers and as pointed out above, are voting with their feet (well keyboard) to do more work with other publishers.

 

It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. While there are always plenty of new writers itching to work with BL, there are probably only a handful of guaranteed big sellers. Annoy those at your peril BL!

[Knockagh]

Looks like most of us are looking beyond BL. I’m certainly buying more books I like outside BL. But honestly it’s still my go to fiction. Like most of us I’ve been reading BL so long I’m pretty invested in the whole thing and I’m unlikely to walk away. Other reading I do is nearly all nonfiction.

It’s the effort required these days to buy the books that’s wearing us all down. Which is pretty pathetic on GWs behalf. To have exhausted fans who are cross isn’t good. No ones having fun. But sadly they won’t listen while the financials are good. Just like ripping off their staff, nothing will change while folk queue up to get a job. It’s corporate abuse, happens everywhere. Big companies stink

[animal310]

What was the last thing ADB finished? Spear of the Emperor in 2018? I can’t even remember any recent shorts or novellas from him.

 

I’ve variously heard he’s been working on three different novels, Spears 2, Abadon 3 and HH siege 7.

 

BL, like much of the rest of the company at the moment seems to be in a bit of a mess.

[mc warhammer]

dude's had personal things to deal with. i'd cut him all the slack Edited August 17, 2021 by mc warhammer

[animal310]

dude's had personal things to deal with. i'd cut him all the slack

Don’t know anything about that, I hope things are going better for him.

Edited August 17, 2021 by animal310

[mc warhammer]

from what he's been saying on facebook, things do look to be on the up

[DukeLeto69]

ADB has been refreshingly open recently about some mental health issues. Men need to do that more so all power to him.

 

I suspect we may get SoT7, SotE2 and BL3 in quite close succession as they are all relatively well advanced (but latter two paused to prioritise Siege of Terra).

[DukeLeto69]

As per feedback from Brother Lunkhead we need to keep the Upcoming BL Stuff focused on, well upcoming releases. We (inc me) have been guilty of tangental discussions so...

 

Let’s have a thread where we can discuss a broader remit. Books we would like to see. Authors we would like to see or wonder where they went? Books that deserve a reprint or some special treatment. You get the picture...

[DukeLeto69]

And I will start...

 

Peter Fehervari! We need more books and shorts from that guy. We also need BL to figure out how to better market him and his work.

 

For starters I reckon they should give Firecaste the same treatment they gave Genestealer Cults and re-release with a new title and a new short story like what resulted in Cult of the Spiral Dawn.

 

And/or how about an omnibus collecting all his short stories together?

 

I would certainly buy them.

 

EDIT Damn just spotted typo in thread title. Please can s mod update?

Edited August 18, 2021 by DukeLeto69

[RedFurioso]

Anthony Reynolds and his sequel to Khârn: Eater of Worlds. How can one man be so based?

[Red_Shift]

Always more Cain.

 

I would like more series set around historical events. Vandire and Sebastian Thor, the war of the false primarch, the Rangdan xenocides etc.

[The Scorpion]

And I will start...

 

Peter Fehervari! We need more books and shorts from that guy. We also need BL to figure out how to better market him and his work.

 

For starters I reckon they should give Firecaste the same treatment they gave Genestealer Cults and re-release with a new title and a new short story like what resulted in Cult of the Spiral Dawn.

 

And/or how about an omnibus collecting all his short stories together?

 

I would certainly buy them.

 

EDIT Damn just spotted typo in thread title. Please can s mod update?

It's baffling that there is still no anthology for the Dark Coil.

 

Imagine a book with all of Fehevari's short stories, plus the "Fire & Ice" novella.

 

You can bet BL would sell copies of Requiem Infernal, The Reverie, and Fire Caste (renamed to 'Thunderground')

[Knockagh]

I would like…….

 

The Phoenix Lords series finished. Has it been going 10 years? Gav said he was leaving them and others would write them, never happened.

 

The Ynnari books. We had two and then we got none. Faction remains a mystery.

 

Primarch series seems to have died quietly. Remember 18 books over 3 years? How long has it been and we sure ain’t finished. I’m sure they will come….eventually.

 

Horusian Wars, still hanging in the air.

 

When was the last Vault of Terra book? Or have they merged into the new crusade series? There’s a gap that needs filled I think.

 

The Inquisitor Sabbathiel book that was promised Christmas 2019. Never happened.

 

I’m sure there’s others.

 

Thing is a forced book we all know ends up as a bad book. I would love these books and others but clearly the authors dont want to write them or have been sent off in other directions. Abnett took a decade to give us the second Bequin and it was awesome, we’ve had big gaps in the ghost books and they have turned out great. But that’s Dan and I don’t think anyone tells him what to do.

[DarkChaplain]

And I will start...

 

Peter Fehervari! We need more books and shorts from that guy. We also need BL to figure out how to better market him and his work.

 

For starters I reckon they should give Firecaste the same treatment they gave Genestealer Cults and re-release with a new title and a new short story like what resulted in Cult of the Spiral Dawn.

 

And/or how about an omnibus collecting all his short stories together?

 

I would certainly buy them.

 

EDIT Damn just spotted typo in thread title. Please can s mod update?

They should go ahead and reprint Fire Caste alongside Out Caste, A Sanctuary for Wyrms, Vanguard and The Crown of Thorns (which STILL hasn't been put to print outside of the event-limited Angels of Death anthology!) and put it under the working title of the novel: Thunderground.

 

At least that way, the Phaedra stories would be mostly in one place and available to buy again in print... for however long BL's print runs last.

 

Nightfall, Nightbleed, The Walker in Fire and Requiem Infernal would make up another collection, leaving the Oblazt novella Fire and Ice, The Greater Evil (which would probably fit best together with Requiem Infernal due to the breachers), The Thirteenth Psalm and The Reverie. It might make sense to put Fire and Ice in with the short story and Reverie, considering that's the primary Oblazt story, with The Thirteenth Psalm being set there too, while focusing on the Angels Penitent.

 

As ever, Fehervari's stories are tricky to separate into clearly defined sections because there's always a decently large element of thematic overlap in the Coil. But unless they really put out a mega-omnibus with everything, this is how I'd do it, at least.

 

 

Re: Ynnari, I thought I read somewhere that those, too, were canned and Gav isn't going to be writing book 3 anytime soon, if ever. Same thing as with the Phoenix Lords: Two books in, sales not big enough, BL stops caring.

 

At least for Vaults of Terra and Watchers of the Throne, we can be certain they're being written. As for the Sabbathiel book by George Mann... I can live without it, the comics introducing her were not good.

 

There's also stuff like the Cypher audio box set we haven't gotten, and Dark Hunters: Umbra Sumus obviously exists - heck, they literally leaked the ebook back then, before pulling it off sale entirely and hiding its existence! - but they apparently never even bothered sorting the utterly silly trademark dispute with that supernatural romance author out, and just wrote the novel off as a loss, it seems.

 

 

The point about forcing authors to write what they don't want to is a good one, but in my experience, the situation is kinda the opposite: Authors aren't getting commissioned for what they would like to write, no matter how ingenious the idea, while having stories they already started canceled halfway through because they don't sell as amazingly as Horus Heresy or Space Marine Bolter Porn #912.

Man, if I was filthy rich, I'd probably end up footing the bills to get many of those books produced anyhow, just because I want to read them myself and the authors themselves are passionate about their works. Sadly, I'm not in the big leagues of flying to space in my private rocket.

[Knockagh]

If BL are paying authors equivalent money to their lead games designers (apparently 19k) they won’t get much in return. But to be honest an employee who pays like that, while turning a healthy profit, doesn’t deserve employees.

 

The Yannari books annoy me the most. The development of their story is kind of key to the whole big story. Even their becoming hasn’t been novelised yet. Dropping a new and supposedly critical factions development is just stupid. Even if sales are poor the story should have been subsided from GWs other activities. Also if Gav isn’t returning the Eldar dollar, offer it out there, I’m sure some authors would love a chance to make the Eldar their own.

[Bobss]

I blame the Siege of Terra for being responsible for the bottleneck regarding the big-hitter authors, but even considering that and considering covid, I feel like there has still been a reduction in the number of titles both coming out and being commissioned. Like, where's the next Severina Raine book? There seems to be a bit of a following for her, and yet it's nowhere to be seen

 

RE: Xenos novels selling badly. Tbqh I think this depends on how xenos novels are written. The Phoenix Lord/Ynnari books had some neat lore in them, penned by the Archbishop of Elves himself, but they always felt a little melodramatic to me. Compare this to something like The Infinite and the Divine which I would have a hard time believing hasn't sold well, granted not to Horus Heresy or Black Legion levels ofc

[theSpirea]

What sells/doesn't are all speculations on our part. We don't know the print run, we don't know the expectations set for each title. From my experience, this is often based on the author's name, theme of the book, etc. Going simply by numbers the Ynnari books might have sold copies more than The Infinite and the Divine but the print run/expectations were set differently and based on the expectations the novels failed.

 

It's great to see BL/GW is realising there's an audience interested only in the novels/lore with no interest in the TT part of the hobby. I believe that's one of the reasons they started the Crime/Horror imprint and lately we're getting more books set outside of the bolter porn. BL's marketing just needs to work harder to promote their stuff and engage with the community. Send more copies to youtubers/bloggers (not just WH fans, they have to reach out to other Fantasy/Sci-fi fans in general) to review them, do more author interviews, etc. The guy from trackofwords.com did more advertising and more interviews with BL authors in the recent two years than BL in their history. Also, his interviews are much better than what warcom usually comes up with. He's the kind of person that should work in their marketing dept, or at least be in charge of their community page for BL related stuff. Simply, start acting like a real publisher and don't rely on TT doing all the advertising for you.

 

I want Josh Reynolds back, I don't care if he's going to write AoS, 40K, Blood Brawl, whatever. It's a wishful thinking but I still hope.

 

I want more books from Peter McLean, his 40K short stories were superb, and his own stuff outside of WH is so damn good.

The same with Michael R. Fletcher. He wrote only two or three stories so far but you can already tell he gets the setting (two stories I read were AoS). His non-WH novels are also worth checking out. Sometimes his writing is so dark/grim the regular WH novels read like children books next to it. Both of them had stories published in 2019 so I'm a bit worried maybe the cooperation with BL didn't work out and no more is coming out.