As many of you may know, the Legends of the First Empire was a hybrid publishing project. The first three books were released through Penguin Random House’s Del Rey imprint, and the last three books were self-published by us. These books were also released as mass market paperbacks, ebooks, and audiobooks (both dramatic multi-cast dramatic and non-dramatic single-narrator) editions.
The Legends series has done very well for us:
- 2 books hit the New York Times bestseller list (Age of War and Age of Legend)
- 3 books hit the Washington Post bestseller list (Age of Myth, Age of Swords, and Age of War)
- 3 books hit the USA Today bestseller list (Age of Swords, Age of War, and Age of Legend)
A mildly successful title hopes to sell 5,000 hardcovers and 10,000 is considered a very good release. In fact, publishers use those threshold for various escalation points:
- 1 – 4,999 books sold earn 10% of list price
- 5,000 – 9,999 books sold earn 12.5% of list price
- 10,000+ books earn 15% of list price
Hardcovers generally go “out of print” after 12 – 15 months, and from that point on, the paperbacks are the only physical copies available. But the Legends sold quite well and both Age of Myth and Age of War stayed in print for many years after their initial release. As for Age of Swords, Del Rey retired it just after the second printing. When a publisher does that, they either “pulp” the books (grind them up to be used for paperback editions), or sell the excess stock by the pound to remainder companies who offer deeply discounted books. As an author, we don’t get paid for pulped or remaindered titles, but our contract DOES offer us the chance to circumvent those less than desirable fates for the left over copies. So in July of 2018, we paid $8,600 for 3,360 copies of Age of Swords. In other words, we bought the leftovers. I never thought we would sell all those copies through our online store, but I currently have less than 200 copies.
That $2.57 a book is significantly cheaper than the $14 I pay (50% author’s discount) when getting the other titles from Del Rey. Anyway, Age of War’s hardcover print run ended in May 2024, when I could only receive a partial shipment of a large order I placed for that title. Likewise, I snapped up the remaining copies of Age of Myth in September 2024.
Once Del Rey had no more copies of their hardcovers available for sale, I asked if I could retrieve the print rights for that format. And they agreed! This was mind-blowing news, considering my pleas to retrieve hardcover rights for Orbit’s titles (a right they have NEVER exercised), have always fallen on deaf ears. I’ve even begged them to do a hardcover printing themselves, but that was likewise rebuked.
All told the Del Rey versions sold:
- Age of Myth – 19,361 copies earning $50,889.16
- Age of Swords – 9,204 copies earning $25,552.48
- Age of War – 12,585 copies earning $30,397.56
Now, since the books sold for $28 each in hardcover, and given the royalty rates above, a few math nerds might say, “Hey, that math doesn’t add up” and you’d be right. The issue is that not all royalties are created equal, and I earn substantially less for books sold at a high discount or English language copies sold in other countries. Had all the books sold at the “standard royalty rate,” I would have earned:
- Age of Myth – $70,816.20 ($19,927.04 more than I actually earned)
- Age of Swords – $28,714.00 ($3,162.52 more than I actually earned)
- Age of War – $42,357.00 ($11,959.44 more than I actually earned)
That’s just a little tidbit for any aspiring authors out there so that they know what to expect after signing their own publishing deals. Pay particular attention to the royalty rates in your contract and whether you’ll be paid based on list price or net receipts.
So, what does all this mean to you, the reader? Well, if you read printed books rather than audio or ebooks, and you haven’t picked up the Legends of the First Empire books, you’ll only be able to get the small mass market paperbacks when buying through the retail chain. There may be a few hardcovers in the various retailer’s warehouses, but I have no way of knowing how many there are, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they are gone and the only sellers who have books are through the Amazon marketplace ecosystem.
Anyway, if you want hardcover editions, you can purchase them from us, but our supplies are very limited, so you have to hurry.
- Age of Myth – 122 copies
- Age of Swords – 177 copies
- Age of War – 0 copies
- Age of Legend – 41 copies
- Age of Death – 117 copies
- Age of Empyre – 51 copies
Once we ran out of Age of War, we started taking pre-orders for it (as well as for “complete sets).” We currently have 115 orders for Age of War, and 94 for all six books. If you have yet to get your full hardcover sets (and you think you’ll want them), you can pre-order from this link.
What about the possibility of a new print run – including deluxe editions? It’s quite high, but also very uncertain from a timing perspective. Over the years, there has been tremendous consolidation (and more than a few bankruptcies), within the US book printing ecosystem. The result is there are only a few printers, and while they produce decent quality paperbacks, their hardcovers are not nearly as good as I’ve grown used to, and totally unacceptable with regard to special edition books with hubbed spines.
As you may already know, since Farilane’s release we’ve been printing exclusively from China whose quality is absolutely amazing. The Drumindor books were shipped with a 7.5% import tax – a rate which has been in effect for several years), but The Riyria Chronicles books 1 – 4 (which are still on the press) will cost me much more. Unless you live under a rock, you may have heard about a number of tariff imposed on US goods:
- 20% from first Trump administration (although books were exempt from all but 7.5%)
- 10% additional tariff Feb 2, 2025
- 10% additional tariff Mar 4, 2025
- 34% additional tariff April 2, 2025
- 50% additional tariff April 9, 2025
- 41% additional tariff April 11, 2025
In such a climate, my current plan is to ONLY do small US-based press runs, and no large print runs until after current trade war has some resolution. As it stands now, my tariff rate would be 145% + 7.5% = 152.5% which can’t be absorbed, and I won’t sacrifice quality, which leaves me no idea when a mass print run for the Legends books will take place.
So, unless you are satisfied with the small mass-market books, please place your order or pre-order (for those Age of War or complete sets) as soon as possible. I need to determine a quanity soon, and if you wait too long and miss that small print run, it may be several years until we have new hardcovers for these amazing books.
As always, we thank you for your continued support.