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Is Vulkan lives limited edition or not?

No Vulcan Lives is a full length novel

 Manchu wrote:
Disappointing shillery from Dembski-Bowden -- but not surprising in light of his other pro-GW apologetics. The print trade may be collapsing generally but it's difficult to imagine that BL was concerned about this. I mean, to go from multiple NYT Best Sellers in MMPB to ... how many since then? Oh right, none. Yeah, this hardback move will surely save BL.

Please don't do that, man. It's a strawman, and a pretty crude one.

You can call me a liar if you really feel a need to do it, and bring up reasons you believe I would lie. But then, why wouldn't I just keep quiet in the first place? It takes a lot more effort to reply.

I was the only one on the Heresy team (and, as far as I know, anyone else in the process) that opposed the switch to hardbacks, purely because of the totally vain and shameful fact the new sales model would remove NYT bestseller odds. Not because of sales figures, but the way the books are released as GW exclusives first, and not advertised more than 2 weeks in advance as a new company policy with the changes to publishing, blah blah blah.

You're speaking in ignorance, and I apologise if pointing that out annoys you. But the sales figures prove you wrong, as do our royalty cheques - now, I'm still not happy about the hardbacks, but I'm not going to pretend they're killing BL because 3 people on Dakka Dakka prefer to call me an idiot and a liar than accept a tedious fact as truth because it doesn't match their uninformed guesses.

 Manchu wrote:

 cincydooley wrote:
Why shouldn't it be? That's part of ADBs point. It's a publishing house. They've moved their practices to reflect the rest of th publishing industry.

Printing hardbacks is not a cutting edge plan to curb declining sales of print books. It's part of the decades-old print trade that is currently falling apart. BL has jettisoned an approach that reliably landed their MMPBs on the NYT Best Seller List to one that simply doesn't -- all under the argument that joining the rest of the publishing industry in trade practices that have failed is somehow necessary. It doesn't add up.

Actually, dude, it does. BL is selling more and more through its own site and GW stores, rather than the traditional book trade - so those sales aren't tracked in the traditional way. They don't register as "book trade" sales, the same way as selling at conventions doesn't either, and so on. While the rest of the physical book industry collapses, BL is doing extremely well. It's not a case of asking your editor and getting a vague answer. When this is your career and practically all your colleagues and friends work in the same industry, you pay slightly more attention to how you keep your family alive and pay your bills than just assuming everything's okay. You get figures. You get royalty statements that list everything, to the last book, with sales for every country. You get your publisher's managing director calling you to explain the company's policy changes, because you make them hundreds of thousands of pounds. That's what all professional publishers provide for their authors.

Pointing that out shouldn't be considered shilling. Jesus, you're supposed to be a mod, here.

And in all seriousness, it's not something I think rocks on toast, or anything. I'm writing 40K now (and, I hope, forever) but it's not all I'm ever going to write. I'm not going to cheer the collapse of the book trade and praise BL for weathering it with a grin. I'm glad they are, but the whole situation makes me much more uneasy than most people, I suspect, since this is my career. It's all I'm qualified to do. I'm never going to make it in the NBA, after all. (GO SUNS.)

The cold truth for BL is that they're making more money than ever, and this has not only not affected sales, but the figures are better than ever. Again, that doesn't make me scream with joy (again, I'll point out that I was the only author to publically offer any sympathy and support - as well as explanation - over the limited edition hardback novellas), but neither am I going to lie about it to confirm a handful of pretty impolite guesses about something people have zero experience with.

 dienekes96 wrote:
While I get the frustration with the company (I don't necessarily agree with much of it, but I get it), I'm not sure I understand personally engaging ADB on it.

I try to answer everything I can, and I've spent thousands of posts across various forums answering questions - because the process is so occluded and the fandom so often has nothing but half-truths and assumptions to survive on.

But anyone that considers me a shill for GW is showing an alarming lack of awareness for the countless times I've been in public trouble for saying X, Y or Z about things that have annoyed me behind the curtains. I mean, even the Author's Note in The Emperor's Gift has now killed almost all Author's Notes outside of the HH hardbacks and omnibuses, because it was perceived by GW brass as being insulting. I've gone on record a few times as being the only one on the HH team to be against the hardbacks, because the extra money was meaningless to me. But conversely, I can't pretend a slightly different release schedule is the end of the world, especially not when the whole book trade is changing its formats.

The problem with explaining a lot of this stuff is that if it doesn't match people's assumptions, they prefer to see it as a lie. I once explained, in ludicrously pointless detail, how GW's canon works. It wasn't my opinion. It's how GW literally perceives the notion of canon, and how it works in the company. One of only three public records about that topic, and in more detail than any of the other two, using them as quotes for context to help correct misinformation based on famous misunderstandings of those old quotes.

A few days later on Dakka Dakka, there was a thread asking "What does ADB mean when he says all this stuff?" and several posters saying I was either lying or misinformed.

There's a reason I'm the only author that frequently posts on forums and tries to clear this stuff up. All the others are veterans, and have no interest in the endlessly cyclical arguments. I'm still naive enough to think people will believe the truth, and that a look behind the curtain offers useful perspective. Dan Abnett? Graham McNeill? Jim Swallow? Even Alan Merrett, GW's IP overlord and loremaster - they've all, at various times, shaken their heads and laughed at me for even bothering. I've started having to take long breaks from forums now, for this exact reason. You can spend hours a day on them, explaining basic truths and answering direct questions, and people will still turn around and call you a shill, or a liar, or just wrong if the answers don't match what they believe without any evidence beyond guesswork and old memes.

People never really seem to grasp just how insignificantly tiny the vocal minority of forum voices really are. If I was posting on here or Facebook to justify BL's actions and "save" a handful of potential sales... I mean, I literally can't even imagine a world where that would be true. It's so disheartening when people take communication and turn it into marketing, or believe everything is so base and ugly. But even if it was those things, assuming it would make any difference at all to sales is just madness. Far easier, and far wiser, to stay quiet in the first place. Dan never says a word, and his sales are doing fine. There's never, ever any need (or desire) to bounce onto a forum and try to "save" your sales or justify your publisher's actions to the handful of people that will see it. That's just nonsense. It staggeringly misunderstands the scale of it all.

EDIT:

TL;DR -- Waaaaah. How can you have perfectly reasonable and understandable doubts even after my briefest of brief explanations on Facebook? Here, let me try again now I have longer than five minutes, etc.

Aaron, would you be able to explain the reasoning behind the changes to advertising, and its being limited to one or two weeks, please?

Whilst I don't like the introduction of the hardback-to-paperback release schedule, I'll believe you and Dan when you say it helps sales etc., but I struggle to see the reasoning behind the changes to advertising?
I'd be interested to see your comment on the Limited Edition novellas (something that also frustrates me too), if you know where I can find it?

FWIW, your opinions on Canon and its variability have been pretty widely accepted and are something I see regularly touted on Dakka, and in response to people that ask about something's canonicity.
Just because certain people may say you're lying or misinformed, or whatever, doesn't mean that everyone or the whole of Dakka does: it's a vocal minority thing again. I dislike the changes made by Black Library and they have seriously reduced my enthusiasm for the company/HH series, but I'm not going to accuse you as being a liar because of it, nor are many/most others...

A great post ADB.

Still won't stop me grumbling about the changes to book sizes and releases

It's certainly made my wallet heavier even if it's just my lonely anecdotal evidence.

So the shift in policy is due to the fact that GW makes the most money this way.

Yeah, we probably already had that figured out, but I suppose the confirmation is...nice?

Strange to hear that this method met them more than the previous model, but there it is!

 Alpharius wrote:
So the shift in policy is due to the fact that GW makes the most money this way.

Yeah, we probably already had that figured out, but I suppose the confirmation is...nice?

Strange to hear that this method met them more than the previous model, but there it is!

It does sound odd (not disputing ADB now, thanks for the fuller explanation) as I'm another one who has cut back radically on the number of BL books I purchase, physical and digital.

A conceit many of us are guilty of is assuming we must be somehow representative of the wider market when we post here, but so many long term fans have stated they are pulling back from BL that I can only assume that
a) the majority are fibbing and still pitching cash at BL at a rate of knots
Or
b) the behaviour of the majority of the customer base is as counter intuitive as many of GWHQ's appear to be.

Or maybe however GW/BL is selling them now is netting them more favorable terms?

That would absolutely be the case in terms of digital sales from BL, and maybe now more people are going in that direction vs. paying HC prices and/or waiting for Trade Paperbacks/MMPBs?

Damn, thanks for weighing in, Aaron. I certainly appreciate the effort to communicate some of the whys and wherefores to your readers. (And I'm still definitely a reader -- albeit an entrenched softcover one!)

I'm not a big fan of BL's various recent marketing and merchandizing shifts. (My biggest gripe is with all the limited-novella bs.) But I do appreciate learning some of the background for other changes, esp. the format changes.

I suppose, theoretically.

All it takes is, lets say, a third as many people to continue to buy direct from the Black Library as they buy from places like Amazon or Waterstones/Barnes&Noble for it to still stay in Games Workshops financial interests.

But yeah, it does suck.

Dead Blue Clown wrote:

 dienekes96 wrote:
While I get the frustration with the company (I don't necessarily agree with much of it, but I get it), I'm not sure I understand personally engaging ADB on it.

I try to answer everything I can, and I've spent thousands of posts across various forums answering questions - because the process is so occluded and the fandom so often has nothing but half-truths and assumptions to survive on.

Aaron, I understand that you do engage the fans on the boards, and credit to you for spending your time doing that. My frustration was not directed at folks who spent time engaging you, but rather that they are engaging you on a topic for which you can provide insight, but is not germane to your expertise and time. Why waste their time asking you about the specific business practices when they could discuss the process or your stories or just engage you personally on being considerate enough to dive in.

This general sentiment towards GW (and subsidiaries) has essentially infected this board, such that every topic about GW becomes about what the mugs (and I include myself in that) think and rant about business practices we know nothing about. I think those deserve discussion, but it just can't stay focused in their own threads. As the old saying goes, the definition of fanatic is someone who won't change their mind and CAN'T change the subject.

Anyways, apologies if you felt that I was implying we shouldn't engage you. I just wish it could more often be on topics related to your authorship and insight into the writing process. Please keep doing it, and thank you for taking the time.

Well, I stand corrected and chastised. I admit I was a bit douchey. I still have trouble with the concept that making a product more expensive and harder to buy is a winning strategy, but it must be the case here.

I guess I'm just not a part of the new market, because I find Black Library's current shenanigans unfathomable. I'll still pick up the occasional mmpb, but it seems the current BL and I just have too many irreconcilable differences to keep up my passion for their product.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
.

I guess I'm just not a part of the new market, because I find Black Library's current shenanigans unfathomable. I'll still pick up the occasional mmpb, but it seems the current BL and I just have too many irreconcilable differences to keep up my passion for their product.

What are they still doing in MMPB? Just the HH books?

 cincydooley wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
.

I guess I'm just not a part of the new market, because I find Black Library's current shenanigans unfathomable. I'll still pick up the occasional mmpb, but it seems the current BL and I just have too many irreconcilable differences to keep up my passion for their product.

What are they still doing in MMPB? Just the HH books?

Yes, their 'Legacy' edition as they call it, because the vast majority were only printed in MMPB format. I think that also applies to Ciaphas Cain novels, but that's it. Anything else will be in Trade format only for the paperback version.

Dead Blue Clown wrote:
People never really seem to grasp just how insignificantly tiny the vocal minority of forum voices really are.

I think we do, it's the reason why GW never gives us what we want!

In all seriousness, I think the community would be very interested to hear what voices GW listen to if it isn't ours?

They clearly listen to the people who love spending money on hardbacks and e-books.

ABD mentions the Authors Note in The Emperor's Gift - is that in the hardback edition only, as it's not in the Trade version?

Aaron, if you're reading this, your stuff is like a breath of fresh air in the W40K world, and I'm looking forward to September when I can finally get my hands on Betrayer.

The only thing that jumped out in the authors notes were the first two paragraphs, touching upon how the codex came along and how this wasn't what he originally wanted to write, because the codex changed so much of the established background. I believe there is a blog post or two also dedicated to this back when it was still being written.

As I've said before, much to the hatred and derision of others in this thread, I really enjoyed Emperor's Gift, as it made a lot of the codex fluff much more palatable. Except for that sisters blood part, hell no to that bit of gak.

I enjoyed Emperor's Gift too, much better than the recent few books - Baneblade was so-so, as was Deathwatch, Angel of Fire was better.

Intresting that the authors notes were left out of the trade issue...

 farmersboy wrote:
They clearly listen to the people who love spending money on hardbacks and e-books.

ABD mentions the Authors Note in The Emperor's Gift - is that in the hardback edition only, as it's not in the Trade version?

Aaron, if you're reading this, your stuff is like a breath of fresh air in the W40K world, and I'm looking forward to September when I can finally get my hands on Betrayer.

If you've been having trouble finding the book you can order three different versions on BlackLibrary.com right now.

DBC/ADB - To be honest, I don't mind the move to trade paperbacks - its true, its been that way forever in the rest of the book business.

And to be honest, I also don't have a stake in it - I just buy ebooks since I got my kindle.

Thanks for engaging. It's great you speak your mind, and get stuff out to us in the community.

Thanks for writing great books that we anticipate and actually enjoy more than the initial anticipation.

On a seperate note, while we're getting out our Black Library beefs -

My only beefs, and nothing you can really make BL change, is the differential between

1) 'Hardback' ebook price and regular - considering that the 'enhanced content' is 2-3 ink sketches.
2) Currency differential - why on earth can I buy an ebook for $16 AUD from the BL site, and yet can get a free delivery real, substantial copy for less than half?

The second is the kicker. How on earth do they justify selling a purely intellectual property with no production costs past the first book at double the price? Not to mention double the price of the American ebook version.

I dislike it. It's cut back my spending as I cut out buying from the book depository, making each individual book order a harder choice to make.

And FIN. I'll go back to enjoying my BL books.

 cincydooley wrote:

 farmersboy wrote:
They clearly listen to the people who love spending money on hardbacks and e-books.

ABD mentions the Authors Note in The Emperor's Gift - is that in the hardback edition only, as it's not in the Trade version?

Aaron, if you're reading this, your stuff is like a breath of fresh air in the W40K world, and I'm looking forward to September when I can finally get my hands on Betrayer.

If you've been having trouble finding the book you can order three different versions on BlackLibrary.com right now.

And none of them is the one I'm waiting for...I'm not having trouble finding it, I'm merely waiting for the right version to be published.

 farmersboy wrote:

 cincydooley wrote:

 farmersboy wrote:
They clearly listen to the people who love spending money on hardbacks and e-books.

ABD mentions the Authors Note in The Emperor's Gift - is that in the hardback edition only, as it's not in the Trade version?

Aaron, if you're reading this, your stuff is like a breath of fresh air in the W40K world, and I'm looking forward to September when I can finally get my hands on Betrayer.

If you've been having trouble finding the book you can order three different versions on BlackLibrary.com right now.

And none of them is the one I'm waiting for...I'm not having trouble finding it, I'm merely waiting for the right version to be published.

I'd go with 'preferred' version - many less fights this way.

I think I'm going to skip ahead a bit in the HH series and read some ADB titles.

 lords2001 wrote:


I'd go with 'preferred' version - many less fights this way.

That's a very good idea - endorsed!

 farmersboy wrote:

 cincydooley wrote:

 farmersboy wrote:
They clearly listen to the people who love spending money on hardbacks and e-books.

ABD mentions the Authors Note in The Emperor's Gift - is that in the hardback edition only, as it's not in the Trade version?

Aaron, if you're reading this, your stuff is like a breath of fresh air in the W40K world, and I'm looking forward to September when I can finally get my hands on Betrayer.

If you've been having trouble finding the book you can order three different versions on BlackLibrary.com right now.

And none of them is the one I'm waiting for...I'm not having trouble finding it, I'm merely waiting for the right version to be published.

Well it was really good. I quite enjoyed it when I finished it about 6 months ago.

Mark of Calth was mostly good too.

Also, I just want to say it seems like there's often this internet phenomenon where people will try to out negative each other and it really infected this thread and made it unreadable.

For example, if I just say I'm excited for the upcoming GG novel it must of course be met with some negative quip about BL's business practices. That leads to yet another debate about it. Like, I don't know, is that the point of this thread now? Just bitching about BL?

It's cool to find any reason the hate GW at large.

It's also cool to be a war gaming hipster and say "I liked GW before they got corporate."

I'm really looking forward to Vulcan Lives. I'm less enthused about the next limited novella, but my bookshelf tells me ill buy it anyways.

I haven't gotten Mark of Calth yet though its' on the list. I'm kinda excited for Vulkan Lives as more detail on him would be cool.

 KamikazeCanuck wrote:
For example, if I just say I'm excited for the upcoming GG novel it must of course be met with some negative quip about BL's business practices. That leads to yet another debate about it. Like, I don't know, is that the point of this thread now? Just bitching about BL?

Funnily enough, the final warning for that stuff was on page 8, then a final, totally super duper serious final warning on page 9.

I guess some of us have different expectations of these threads, I like them ( and you, from what I can tell) as discussing new/upcoming books, how good they are, etc, and leave business junk out of it. Whereas some want it as an all encompassing discussion about all things BL, business decisions included, which I personally find tedious and distracting.

Neither side is really wrong as Red never really laid down some guidelines on what he wanted these threads to be. He even partook in the business discussions earlier in the thread, I think.

I don't know, I was going to say maybe the the business side and the stories sides should be split into two different threads. On the other hand the is the "Black Library" thread so it makes sense for it to be all encompassing. I think we just tend to rehash the the same debate over and over which is uneccesary and quick hitter "BL sucks" quips are just poisonous so I wouldn't mind seeing an end to them.