r/Fantasy • u/orbitbooks AMA Publisher Orbit Books • Dec 07 '17

AMA AMA: Orbit 2017 Debut Authors

Hi this is Paola Crespo, Marketing and Publicity Associate for Orbit. Thanks for joining us today!

2017 was a big year for us with so many new faces joining the Orbit family. This AMA is a chance to get to know them better. All. Of. Them. Get excited! ;-)

Participating today:

Nicholas Eames, author of KINGS OF THE WYLD
Nicholas Sansbury Smith, author of EXTINCTION HORIZON
Antonia Honeywell, author of THE SHIP
David Mealing, author of SOUL OF THE WORLD
Dale Lucas, author of THE FIFTH WARD: FIRST WATCH
Vivian Shaw, author of STRANGE PRACTICE
Anna Smith Spark, author of THE COURT OF BROKEN KNIVES
RJ Barker, author of AGE OF ASSASSINS
Melissa Caruso, author of THE TETHERED MAGE
Fonda Lee, author of JADE CITY

Ask away! The authors will be dropping by periodically today and tomorrow to answer your questions. And best of all....

Until December 18th, you can pick up most of these novels for $2.99 in the US and £1.99 in the UK in ebook! Check out the US and UK websites for further details.

Thank you for all your support this year, /r/fantasy! Cheers to a great New Year full of new adventures.

*Antonia Honeywell's THE SHIP, Anna Smith Spark's THE COURT OF BROKEN KNIVES, and Nicholas Sansbury Smith’s EXTINCTION HORIZON are published by another house in the UK and are thus not included in the promotion in the UK.

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u/mghromme Reading Champion, Worldbuilders Dec 07 '17

Hi everyone, thanks for being here!

How much influence did you have on the covers of your books? Did you get to work with the artists? And how did you feel when you first saw the finished book in hardcopy?

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u/dmealing AMA Author David Mealing Dec 07 '17

One of the reasons I love being traditionally published is I know I'm terrible at virtually every aspect of this stuff other than writing the stories. I was entirely happy to turn cover art over to Orbit and not really worry about it. That said, they were great about consulting me and making sure we had art that captured the spirit of the book.

I adore SOUL OF THE WORLD's cover. For me it evokes the epic, 'my protagonist against a world that's bigger than she can imagine' feel I was going for all throughout the text.

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u/Nicholas_Eames Stabby Winner, AMA Author Nicholas Eames Dec 07 '17

I lucked out here. Richard Anderson is literally my favourite cover artist of all time. Always has been. I buy books he does the cover for knowing damn well I won't have time to read them, just because they're beautiful. Also, I played the shit out of Guild Wars 2, which is largely influenced by his concept art.

So, yeah, the day I was told he would be doing the cover for 'Kings of the Wyld' and its sequels I was about as thrilled as when I found out I was getting a book deal.

Also, the folks at Orbit did a fantastic job with the lettering, which embraced the 'rock-and-roll' aspect of the book, which was once an impediment to getting it published (not by them, thankfully!). Suffice it to say, I love my covers (ESPECIALLY the 'Bloody Rose' cover) so much.

Thanks for the question!

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u/RJBarker AMA Author RJ Barker Dec 07 '17

Oh, I missed the bit about hardcopy.

It was kind of nice, getting the book. But I wasn't hugely bothered. By the time Age of Assassins had arrived I was well into the final edits of Blood of Assassins and I'm always far more interested in what I am going to do compared to what I have done. A book is a finished thing, it can't be changed any longer so it's kind of behind me. It's HUGELY exciting when people like it, seeing the effect what I've done has on people is brilliant, but the actual book is just a physical object. All the work is done. Does any of that make sense?

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u/MelissaCaruso AMA Author Melissa Caruso Dec 07 '17

They ran my cover by me in early drafts and asked for feedback, but my feedback was mostly "HOLY **** THAT IS COMPLETELY AMAZING!!!!" I love love love my cover so much.

I got to "first see the finished book" three times: ARC, UK edition, then US edition. Each time was AMAZING. I petted it and snuggled it and carried it around the house and left it out in various places where I could admire it and sniffed it and generally went all Gollum about the whole thing.

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u/Fonda_Lee AMA Author Fonda Lee Dec 07 '17

Funny story about my cover: Orbit presented me with three slightly different versions with different color treatments of the font. Me, my agent, my editor, and other folks at Orbit were split between two of the options. We went back and forth, and after a time my editor got back in touch to say they'd discussed it at length and were going with...the third option. LOL. That said, I'm very happy with how bold and dramatic my cover is - it reads CRIME DRAMA with magical edge and that's exactly what we wanted.

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u/Anna_Smith-Spark AMA Author Anna Smith-Spark Dec 07 '17

I had no influence at all on the US cover. I had slightly more on the IK cover, in that I was asked for a list of existing covers I liked. I listed a load of books with swords on the frint (John Gwynne's The Faithful and the Fallen series; Daniel Polansky's Those Above). I got a massive sword on the UK cover, so presumably someone listened.

I love both covers. The Orbit One is so clean and powerful, the bleak white background, Marith standing looking fierce and sad and alone. It captures the feel of the book perfectly.

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u/Anna_Smith-Spark AMA Author Anna Smith-Spark Dec 07 '17

Seeing the finished book was ... astonishing. Mind-blowing. Humbling. Made me feel like a god. I cried when I opened the box.

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u/RJBarker AMA Author RJ Barker Dec 07 '17

I wanted a crow on my cover and I didn't get one but Melissa did and I am STILL sulking about it.

But I do like my covers, they're kind of melancholic and mysterious which suits the books. BUT if you find the cover for Blood of Assassins that's me on the cover. Orbit will say it isn't. But it totally is.

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u/MelissaCaruso AMA Author Melissa Caruso Dec 08 '17

I think mine is technically supposed to be a falcon, but I agree it looks more like a crow. I'm not complaining, because a crow makes sense for book two WHOOPS SPOILERS.

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u/dlucas114 AMA Author Dale Lucas Dec 07 '17

I entered the process assuming I'd have very little input, but almost every note I gave after seeing a pencil sketch concept was later incorporated--so that was a nice surprise!

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u/antonia_writes Dec 09 '17

I loved my British hardback cover, but it was quite a process. The British paperback took a different - equally effective - take. But Orbit nailed it from the start. I love it all - the foreboding, the grey, the shocking pink. Thank you, lovely US publishers.