This morning, Nina Hess, my editor on the Knights of the Silver Dragon line, gave me a call. That should have been my first clue something was wrong. You see, in this age of the internet, I’d yet to speak with Nina even once. If she’d picked up the phone to talk with me, something had to be up.
In her kind way, Nina told me that, while Secret of the Spiritkeeper had sold well, the Knights line as a whole hadn’t kept up with Wizards’ hopes. The editorial team had made the hard decision to cancel the series.
Now, I’d known for a while that the line would come to an end–just not this soon. Not too long ago, Nina had commissioned two more novels in the series from me, which were slated to be books #17 and #20. The 20th book was meant to be the series’ capstone.
However, Wizards took a look at the numbers and decided that it would be better to end the series now. Book #14, The Dragons Revealed, will now be the final book. Look for it on shelves this August.
I don’t hold any ill will against Wizards for this decision. I’ve been a publisher myself, and publishing is a business. You have limited resources, and if you find that something isn’t generating the money it must, then you have to cut it loose.
Also, since I’ve only had one book in the series published to date, I can’t take it too personally. In fact, I’ve been going back and forth with Nina on a proposal for a whole new series, and with luck you’ll hear something good about that soon. She’s been wonderful in every interaction I’ve had with her, and I’m looking forward to working with her again.
In a way, it’s fitting that the line end with The Prophecy of the Dragons and The Dragons Revealed. The two-book story offers a huge shakeup to the setting and resolves a number of dangling plot lines, while still offering the hope of future adventures. That’s pretty much how I’d intended to end the series, albeit a bit later. Still, it should ring true.
So, no pity for me. Just go out there and pick up those last two books when they come out. Prophecy is due out June 13–this Tuesday–and Dragons hits stores August 8, the Wednesday after my birthday. And let me know what you think.
