My First Trilogy is Out As E-Books

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

I know I’ve annoyed people who like it by saying that my first trilogy is really difficult to read. All I can say is that the people who like it have greater linguistic facility than 99.9% of the country and more than I have unless I’ve worked up to it.

I had been reading almost exclusively Elizabethan stuff for six months when I wrote this, and my younger son had memorized half of Shakespeare (at two. Because I played it constantly on TV and audio) so I think I went a little crazy on the style. OTOH it was the style I’d been ASKED to do and also, it has a certain charm of its own, if you are in the mood for that kind of language, or if you’re a die-hard Shakespeare freak.

Now, I know I’ve said at the time I couldn’t plot with two hands and a seeing eye dog, but the truth is that this is not a worry for these novels. I stole the plots fair and square, then changed them to suit me. So, they do have plots. Okay, they’re not connected to the level I can do now, but heck, neither is Darkship Thieves. Nor Darkship Renegades which I turned in a month ago. And probably in ten years, I’ll think me now couldn’t plot AT ALL. The novels are probably more tightly plotted than the average run of the mill fantasy. (Note the two ll. Run of the mil fantasy — hi Larry Correia! — tends to be very well plotted indeed.)

Anyway, all this is in name of Baen brought them out as an e-bundle in their webscriptions. If you click on the covers, it will take you to the place to purchase and you can buy it as a bundle or as individual books.

There’s bonus material with it. One of the extra books is my collection, Wings, which contains short stories published in Asimov’s, Analog, Weird Tales and other venues.

The other is a little harder to explain. You see, when I first finished All Night Awake and sent it to my agent he told me it was horrible, terrible, and I needed to rewrite it according to this… well… formula he had. Anyway — I was young and stupid. With my friend Rebecca Lickiss (I owe you one!) and my husband both screaming “nooooo. Don’t do it” I went ahead and did what he wanted, abandoned my book and wrote the book he wanted me to.

Was the first book better? I don’t know. I know All Night Awake, as published, sold the least of any of my books. I also know that though he gave me a useful pointer “have internal action mirrored by external action” so the first might be way more introspective, the first is also likely to be more in line with Ill Met. So those of you who didn’t like All Night Awake, after liking Ill Met will be glad to know that aggregated with the published All Night Awake, Baen brought out the “forbidden edition” too. It’s completely different except for about thirty pages. Of course, it doesn’t fit in with Any Man So Daring, but it might still be of interest to my die hard fans (Yes, yes, I know who the six of you are [grin].)

So, there it is, it’s now available in ebooks, without DRM and at a reasonable price and those of you who read my sf might get a chuckle at how “literary fantasy” I started out.

The secret, of course, is that I can still do this. It’s actually much easier than doing the action-packed stuff. So, I’ve traded up for a more challenging craft… much to the despair of all my agents and almost all my editors. But I feel less depressed doing it.

And for those who are link impaired as I am, here’s the links, again.

Bundle —     http://www.webscription.net/p-1506-sarah-hoyt-bundle.aspx

Ill Met By Moonlight —

http://www.webscription.net/p-1507-ill-met-by-moonlight.aspx

All Night Awake –

http://www.webscription.net/p-1508-all-night-awake.aspx

Any Man So Daring-

http://www.webscription.net/p-1509-any-man-so-daring.aspx

And Wings:

http://www.webscription.net/p-1510-wings.aspx

20 thoughts on “My First Trilogy is Out As E-Books”

    1. Toni (who is on the Baen management team) regularly posts on the Bar to the effect that she can’t talk about it, but they are trying. Some of us tend to say “very trying!” but apparently there are some glitches that are hard to iron out. As far as I can tell, Baen management would like Baen books to be on Amazon.

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  3. Steve, IMO only Toni (head of Baen Books) knows the answer to that and all she’ll say is “we’re still working on that”.

    I doubt that Sarah (or any of the Baen authors) knows any more than that and *if* they did, they’re unlikely to “gossip” about it.

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    1. well, at least you phrased it right. I once told Harry Turtledove “When I gorw up, I want to BE you” and after a pause he said “What? With the beard? And married to a woman?” So, you see… I had not expressed myself properly.

      And thank you, but you should aim higher.

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  5. Thanks for the link. I enjoyed the previous books Baen has published as well as the “Daring” books. Thanks for the refinishing tips. I look forward to reading these.

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  6. I got them. And plan to read all of them, including both versions. I’m not sure if that means I’m a die-hard fan, or just hard-headed. Six of us, huh?

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    1. I might be exagerating downward. On the “Totally insane raving fans” there are at least ten, without counting the ones who are fans of only one series/pen name. And if you toss in the ones who send me either borderline threats or suicide notes (you only wish I were joking. They’re bluffing though, because they keep sending them) because I haven’t continued their favorite series yet — usually refinishing or Shifters, though I’m starting to get them for Darkships… well, that’s hundreds. I don’t count them though, because none of them has ever asked me if I want to sell my laundry list or if they can clean my house for me. Those, I’ve counted, and it’s about ten. (And no, it’s not that bad. I mean, I’d totally buy Heinlein’s laundry list. Handwritten, natch. Also if I had a time machine, I’d clean his house.)

      Now, joking aside, I’d actually like to know, now, you, know, ten years later, which of the two All Night Awakes people like best. :)

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  7. I suspect there are a lot more than six of us. I found it and bought it when checking the “new releases” on webscriptions for the October releases. I’ve read “Wings” so far. Excellent stories and a great variety.
    Thank you.

    Melvyn

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  8. An explanation of the Shakespeare series titles: I had given Robert a copy of “The Fairies” by William Allingham illustrated by Michael Hague, and all three novels were supposed to have titles from Allingham. The publisher insisted on changing the title of “All Night Awake” to something generically Shakespearian.

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  9. Charles,
    Not All Night Awake — Down The Rushy Glen, the first book. And the reason they had those titles was that I’d read that book (to Robert) till my eyes bled, so it came to mind really, really easy.

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  11. Trying to blog at work between customers, brain half out of gear. Publisher asked your first agent if she’d sell the book for whatever change she had in her pocket, just to start negociations, and your agent said, yeah, sure.

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    1. Possible. I have no idea if that’s actually what happened, but my agent at the time was VERY against selling this book at all. She said it would be bad for my career. In retrospect, I don’t know if she was refering to the book or that house or the combination. In restrospect, she was also totally right. So… meh.

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    1. Mark,
      I’m not telling tales out of school, because I don’t KNOW but by a process of elimination of what isn’t talked about and or is intimated, i think the hang up is between Amazon demands and Baen’s distribution agreements. :/

      I hope it gets resolved soon.

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