August 17, 2014

FAQ: Pre-Order info for The Kraken King (the whole thing)

I’ve gotten a couple of questions about the compiled version of The Kraken King, because links have shown up at various bookstores. I haven’t seen any typeset pages or additional edits yet, but looking at the bookstore catalogs, it looks like:

Info for the print/compiled version:

Release Date: November 4, 2014
Length: 576 pages
Print Cover Price: $17.00*
Digital List Price: $9.99*

*This is the publisher’s price — your bookstore might list it at a different price.

Audiobook?

I haven’t heard there won’t be one, so I’m assuming it will come out on the same day as the compiled version.

Why is it cheaper at (name of bookstore)? Will it be marked down the same week of release?

RE: different prices at different bookstores — My publisher sets a price, but bookstores have the option to discount the book. For example, Amazon has been bouncing the Kindle price up and down. It was $7.99 a few weeks ago, then back up to $9.99, and now $7.99 again. So by the time you click this it might not still be true, but right now The Kraken King’s compiled novel is currently at $7.99 pre-order. Whereas at Barnes & Noble, the ebook has been holding steady at $9.99. Will that change? I really, really don’t know.

The Amazon price is not a publisher discount/sale (and I don’t really expect one because it’s coming out in trade format, and Berkley doesn’t discount many of those.) My publisher is listing the printed version at $17.00 (not the serial, which adds up to $16, but the entire book) so I’m not sure if this is just Amazon being crazy or whatever, but that’s definitely not what the ebook list price is. You might find the book for a lower price at different bookstores; neither I nor my publisher really have control over their internal pricing (this is why no agency pricing is great; it lets bookstores mark down the prices.)

RE: Sales — I know some readers worry that the book will be marked down significantly in the first week or shortly after release. I don’t expect Berkley to discount it the week of release, or honestly, anytime soon. They don’t do it very often and usually only for older titles in the series. As of today, the only book I’ve had on sale is The Iron Duke — and judging by Berkley’s typical sales/discounts, they would be more likely to put THAT on sale again than to put a new release on sale. So you should be safe with a pre-order.

Will there be a mass-market edition?

…probably? I don’t know, really. But if Berkley follows the same pattern as with previous Iron Seas books, there will be one about a year/a year-and-a-half after the trade version.