Talion: Revenant Sequel Challenge

I’ve just made Talion: Revenant available as an ebook. It’s in the epub format, which is suitable for all readers except the Kindle. I also have made it available through Amazon’s Kindle store and am awaiting them to clear it. I’ll let you know about more formats as I have them.

Kat Klaybourne put together the cover, upon which the graphic is based. (I couldn’t use the old cover because I didn’t have print rights to it, though I do own the original painting.)

For those of you who don’t have a reader, but would like to read the book on your computer, I recommend Adobe Digital Editions, a free utility with which you can read any epub book. Because this novel is so long, I am not going to do a PDF version of it. I don’t like how it formats and I can’t imagine anyone printing it out to read. The epub version will work great with ADE, and most smart phones also have epub reader software that make the book available for them as well.

Talion: Revenant is the book for which I most often get requests for a sequel. Back in 1987, I actually started writing a sequel, titled Talion: Nemesis. I also had notes for several more novels in the series as well some short stories. The world of the Shattered Empire is very dear to me, but publishers weren’t interested in buying the next book in that set, they wanted trilogies, and I obliged. And yet, I’d love to get back to the Talions and tell more of their adventures.

As you have read in posts here, digital publishing is changing how publishing works. In February I was offered the “industry standard” contract by a publisher to do the digital edition of Talion: Revenant. That contract would have paid me approximately 17.5% of the asking price for copies, paid in 6-9 months. The worst digital self-publishing deal out there right now, which is publishing through Amazon, offers me 35% of the cover price, to be paid in sixty days. (In July the Amazon rate goes up to 70%, which is a much better deal, and is the new “industry standard.”) Selling directly from my website generates about 86% of the cover price, which is only $5—considerably less than the $8 for the paperback, if you can find it.

I want to write the sequel, so I’ll make you a deal: when the digital editions of Talion: Revenant sell a combined total of 10,000 copies, I’ll write the sequel. Let me do the math for you: factoring in discounts and all, 10,000 units will generate around $40,000. A third of that will vanish in taxes (being self-employed, I have the honor of paying the government an additional 8% in Social Security Taxes over and above what gets taken out of a paycheck). The remainder, $27,000 or so, is what I’ll live off for the year it will take to do the book. I’ll set the money aside until we hit 10K, and I’ll post regular updates on how things are going.

So, here’s the chance to completely stand publishing on its head. Instead of writers being dependent on publishers paying us an advance, I’ll let my readers prove they want a sequel to a book they enjoy. So, if you liked the book and want to snag a copy for friends, or for your own reader, that’s great. If you want to convince friends that they really want to read this book and talk them into buying their own copies, that is great, too. If you want to blog about this effort, that would be fantastic. Heck, if this idea goes viral, I could start work on the book inside the month.

Regardless, I’m just really happy to have Talion: Revenant available again. It was my first novel and one of which I am very proud. And with your help, I’ll get to write more stories with these characters.