–If you are frequently asked a certain question, add it to your FAQ page.
–If after being contracted a book is cancelled for any reason (the publisher has decided not to publish it, you’ve decided not to write it, etc), PLEASE ANNOUNCE THIS PUBLICLY. On your website definitely. Or a blog post. But if you just note it on Twitter or Tumblr, it’ll get lost. I follow so many people on Twitter that my feed only shows posts as far back as seven hours previously . So if I don’t check in every seven hours (and I don’t), I will miss it. As for Tumblr, that’s a terrible blogging platform, mainly because people seem to use it for reposting animated gifs of their fandoms, instead of actually…you know, posting book news. So if you use Tumblr as your blog, I don’t read it. But I digress…
-Optional: Tell us why it was cancelled. I don’t really expect you to do this, but if you don’t want to write the book, you probably don’t want people to keep asking about it. It’s in this situation that you should alert the masses. But if the publisher decided not to go with it, you don’t have to tell us. That’s not our business, and it’s perfectly reasonable if you don’t want to discuss it.
So why do I bring this up? I’d been looking forward to Heather Brewer’s second Legacy of Tril novel, Soulbroken. It was due to be published on 20th August 2013, but it wasn’t. Currently, Amazon UK lists it for 20th July 2014. But earlier this week, the author posted on Facebook (so you may have missed it): The book was cancelled.
This was the first I’d heard of it being cancelled (rather than just postponed), so this was news to me. Even though the author is fairly active on social media. (She may have talked about the cancellation earlier, and I missed it – my bad.)
It’s awful that the author has reportedly received threats for not releasing the book. And I don’t need to know WHY Soulbroken was cancelled. But I would’ve liked to have learned of the news earlier. Sometimes questions are asked frequently because they’re not being answered. Of course I respect that some things are personal and the author isn’t comfortable discussing them. That’s perfectly fine. We don’t need to know WHY – just WHAT.
This isn’t the first time this year I heard about a book being cancelled. I’d been looking forward to Laura Riken’s Cybernetic since its deal announcement. But no eventuation. The author disappeared from the Internet, and I hadn’t been able to find a contact. Eventually my investigation led me to emailing one of the author’s writer buddies, who informed me that Cybernetic had been cancelled.
Meanwhile, I’m still waiting to hear news of Marianna Baer’s Immaculate, but I’m unsure about contacting the author. I don’t want to accidentally trigger some possibly uncomfortable feelings in the author. But I am curious regarding the book’s fate.
How do I show authors that I care without seeming rude and nosy?
Anyway, wishing Heather Brewer, Laura Riken, and Marianna Baer all the best in their future publishing endeavours. Please keep us posted. Thank you.
Tez Says 