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THE BOBIVERSE SIGNED COLLECTOR’S EDITION ADVENTURE

September 20, 2018 by Ethan Ellenberg

THE BOBIVERSE SIGNED COLLECTOR’S EDITION ADVENTURE​ by Ethan Ellenberg

I’ve read that most people overestimate their abilities and our creation and publication of Dennis E. Taylor’s BOBIVERSE SIGNED COLLECTOR’S EDITION​ illustrates this quite beautifully.

When Dennis first suggested to me that there was an audience for a hardcover edition I wasn’t skeptical as much as I was wary. Despite my long years in publishing book production was way outside my area of expertise. I knew this would be a challenging project and would involve a substantial outlay of capital. Over a short period of time we decided to give it a go and so the wheels began to turn.

The project quickly went from a hardcover edition to a signed, boxed set, dramatically increasing the costs and the complexity but both Dennis and I felt that if we were going to create something truly special for the hardcore fan, this was it.

I contacted my illustrator designer Matt Forsyth who lives on the Great Barrier Island, a little place off of New Zealand. He’d never done anything like this before. We were all set. Next we began to search for a printer and after spending a day or two reading the quotes we had gotten I realized I was exactly NOT the man for the job. There are so many decisions that go into the production of a hardcover book that you do need expertise. Using my industry contacts I hired Cindy Tiger out of Colorado and she stepped into orchestrate the entire production. With Cindy on board things went
relatively smoothly. We hired a printer. We were waiting for news of the successful printing of the books when we got exciting news—the printer was closing—in 48 hours. I was convinced that all that work and all that money had gone up in smoke but luckily we received a true reprieve. The BOBIVERSE books had actually been printed before the drop dead date and were sitting in the printer’s warehouse. After a hectic 48 hours, the payment of our final bill, the hiring of a new fulfillment house and the shipment of the books, the BOBIVERSE trilogy was sitting sedately in its new home in Michigan.

We weren’t quite done yet. To West Virginia we headed for the printing of the slipcase and when that was done they were shipped to Michigan where the trilogy was assembled and shrink-wrapped.

So here is where we stand today and I’ve mainly written this piece to assure everyone who has bought the signed boxed set that they truly have a unique and high quality item. Only 989 copies of the boxed set exist. We have some extra stock and 11 unassembled boxes so the maximum number of copies of this signed first edition are 1003. We’ve got about 100 signed copies of each of the books but with no more than 11 unassembled boxes we don’t foresee any further books ending up in the a boxed set. 1003 should be the limit.

So that’s it. If you’ve bought a copy of the signed first edition boxed set it’s one of 1,003. If we ever do reprint it, the second edition will be clearly marked second edition. Most importantly, we could not be happier with the final product. The actual box is perfectly produced heavy paperboard with a 360-degree lacquered exterior, and it’s beautiful. The books are case bound and in pristine condition. Dennis has personally signed every single book. For Bobiverse fans it’s the one and only perfect collectible from this great science fiction odyssey and we went on quite a trip of our own to produce and publish it.

Filed Under: Agency News

AGENCY NEWS AUGUST 2018

July 17, 2018 by Ethan Ellenberg

Agency News August 2018:

Lots of exciting news.

John Scalzi won the Locus Award for Best Novel for THE COLLAPSING EMPIRE and the sequel, THE CONSUMING FIRE will be published by Tor and Audible this October. We have sold translation rights to the series in 11 territories including Germany, France, Japan, Czech and Korea.

Dennis E. Taylor’s new book, THE SINGULARITY TRAP, has debuted on Audible to a tremendous reception. It is #4 on The New York Times Audio Bestseller list for the month of August, a truly stunning achievement.  

On behalf of Gail Martin we’ve licensed a number of titles to Recorded Books, including the audio edition of her new fantasy novel VENGEANCE.

On behalf of Sharon Shinn we’ve licensed her new fantasy series UNCOMMON ECHOES to Audible.

We’re very excited about publication of next MARGOT HUNT suspense novel FOR BETTER OR WORSE which is getting tremendous word of mouth on NetGalley.

Marc Costanzo’s PERSISTENCE is just out as an Audible original, a great thriller with a great main character.

On behalf of Marthe Jocelyn we’ve sold a great new YA mystery series to Tundra.

We continue to sell actively in foreign markets. We have sold rights to WORKING IT by Christine d’Abo and MAGIC RUNS DEEP by Alex Whitehall on behalf of RIPTIDE PUBLISHING to Thailand.

We’ve also sold four more books from the FRONTLINES series to Fabryka Slow in Poland as well as sold ANGLES OF ATTACK (Frontlines #3) to Agave in Hungary.

Audio rights to Rhett C. Bruno’s four book TITANBORN series have been licensed to Audible for simultaneous release with his e-books beginning this fall.
Rights to Yahtzee Croshaw’s untitled sequel to WILL SAVE THE GALAXY FOR FOOD have been licensed to Audible for publication through their Audible Originals program. His first Audible Original, DIFFERENTLY MORPHOUS, was released in April and will be followed by print and e-book editions in the fall.

Filed Under: Agency News

AGENCY NEWS FEBRUARY 2018

February 14, 2018 by Ethan Ellenberg

Agency News February 2018:

John Scalzi’s HEAD ON, the long-anticipated follow-up to LOCK IN, will be out in April. We’ve sold rights to Audible, Germany, and France.

BEST FRIENDS FOREVER by Margot Hunt has been released by Mira to spectactular reviews on Amazon, welcomed as one of the most exciting suspense novels of the season. The second book FOR BETTER AND WORSE will be published in December 2018.

Baen will be publishing ARKAD’S WORLD by James L. Cambias, date forthcoming.

The second book in Kay Kenyon’s DARK TALENTS series, SERPENT IN THE HEATHER, will be out in April with Saga Press, the third book NEST OF THE MONARCH is coming Fall 2018.

Melissa F. Olson has signed a deal with 47North for the fourth and fifth books in the BOUNDARY MAGIC series, the fourth expected May 2019.

We’ve sold a science fiction novel by Tony Peak titled ADRIFT as an Audible Original.

G.A. Aiken will be writing two new books: FARMER’S DAUGHTER #1 and #2 with Kensington.

We sold a third book in the BULLDOZER children’s series by Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann.

Also in children’s books, we licensed Marthe Jocelyn’s ONE PATCH OF BLUE and ONE RED STRING, two new board books, to Orca.

We remain active in foreign markets with the recent sale of the five books by Shelly Laurenston to Piper in Germany–the MAGNUS PACK trilogy as well as the first two books in the HONEY BADGER series (out in March in the US).

We’ve added Brazil and Thailand to the list of countries where RIPTIDE PUBLISHING titles will be sold! Rights for ADULTING 101 by Lisa Henry were sold to Vergara and Riba. FOR REAL by Alexis Hall and CATCH A GHOST by SE Jakes will both be published by Kaewkarn.

Ukrainian rights to the classic WITCH WORLD by Andre Norton were recently sold to Hemiro.

Filed Under: Agency News

Agency News October 2017

October 3, 2017 by Ethan Ellenberg

AGENCY NEWS OCTOBER 2017

With the publication of ALL THESE WORLDS in August, Dennis E. Taylor’s ‘Bobiverse’ trilogy is now complete with spectacular results. ALL THESE WORLDS hit #1 in the entire Audible store shortly after release and all 3 books, WE ARE LEGION (WE ARE BOB), FOR WE ARE MANY, and ALL THESE WORLDS continue to be Audible bestsellers.

We’re also seeing great results for the Bobiverse in our agent-supported publishing arm with the trilogy selling over 80,000 copies in ebook.

Likewise the Bobiverse is turning into an international hit and we’ve now sold rights for Japan, France, Germany, China, the Czech Republic, and Hungary.

For IAN DOUGLAS we’ve licensed a new three-book series to HarperCollins, SOLAR WARDEN.

For Kay Kenyon we’ve sold audio rights to her new series with Saga, AT THE TABLE OF WOLVES (July 2017) and SERPENT IN THE HEATHER (April, 2018) to Audible.

For GAIL Z. MARTIN we’ve just licensed an audio original, the third volume of DEADLY CURIOSITIES, to Recorded Books.

For new author MARC COSTANZO we’ve licensed his great UNTITLED suspense novel starring Patrol Office Celia Miller to Audible.

For SHELLY LAURENSTON we’ve licensed her new 3 book HONEY BADGER CHRONICLES series to Tantor for audio. The first book HOT AND BADGERED will be published March 2018 with Kensington.

We’ve licensed T.V. rights to MaryJanice Davidson’s DÉJÀ VU to
ENTERTAINMENT ONE.

For Candace Fleming we’ve licensed the second volume in her History Pals series, ELEANOR ROOSEVELT’S IN MY CLOSET to Schwartz and Wade. The first book BEN FRANKLIN’S IN THE MY BATHROOM debuted September 2017.

We continue to license translation rights for RIPTIDE PUBLISHING and have concluded new deals in Italy, France, Germany and Brazil.

Filed Under: Agency News

AGENCY NEWS MAY 2017

May 3, 2017 by Ethan Ellenberg

MAY 2017

Well it continues to rain Bobs around here…The second book in the DENNIS E. TAYLOR’S ‘Bobiverse’ trilogy, FOR WE ARE MANY, is just out from Audible in audio and our publishing arm, Agent-Supported Publishing in ebook and we couldn’t be happier. FOR WE ARE MANY was the #1 book in the entire Audible.com store for the week of April 21st, with WE ARE LEGION (the first book of the trilogy) not far behind in slot #9. Just this past week WE ARE LEGION surpassed 100,000 copies sold on Audible and this is just during the first 7 months or so of publication. Wow.

We’ve also sold rights to the trilogy in: Germany, Japan, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. The trilogy concludes (for now) in August with the publication of book #3, ALL THESE WORLDS.

In other news JOHN SCALZI’S THE COLLAPSING EMPIRE is just out and selling fabulously with an appearance on Publishers Weekly Hardcover Bestseller list at #17. WORKING TITLE TELEVISION has optioned the T.V. rights. In fact, ‘Hollywood’ can’t seem to get enough of John and we currently have under option OLD MAN’S WAR, THE DISPATCHER, REDSHIRTS and LOCK IN. Somebody please make something now…

Some recent sales:
CUBS IN THE NURSERY by Candace Fleming to Neal Porter Books
SAVOR STATION by Ferrett Steinmetz to Tor Books by agent Evan Gregory
TWILIGHT DESIRES and UNTITLED by Madeline Baker to Kensington Books
GODSERFS by N.S. Dolkart to Angry Robot by agent Evan Gregory
SUPERNATURAL PSYCHOLOGY by Travis Langley to Sterling Publishing by agent Evan Gregory
JAVA JIVE #5 and a new series Book #1 by Caroline Fardig

Summer is just about here, a good time to catch up on your reading…

Filed Under: Agency News

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