Release date?

[tawnylyra]

I was looking up something on Amazon.com and saw this

Amazon.com: A Dance with Dragons (Song of Ice and Fire): George R.R. Martin: Books

Which as you can see states A Dance with Dragons release date as September 30th (my birthday!) and allows you to pre-order it, I wasn't sure when this info was released, just thought I'd share it . . . sorry if this is repeat info, but I'm pretty stoked and wanted to share it! I hope this isn't just Amazon making up a date and hoping he meets it, has anyone else heard anything from another source? I guess I'm having a hard time believing it, but I want to! I hope it comes out this year! Especially if it comes out on my birthday, talk about a great gift :-)

Anyways, I gotta run.

-Sarah

[Overread]

We can always be hopefull and all indecations are that he intends to finish and have the book published this year. However amazon prerelease dates are not confirmations - just a guess based on the publishers estimation of publication.
So its fingers crossed!

[andreyu]

Hey, I'm born on the 28th...does it still count as a birthday gift?

[Wiggum]

Just for the record I preordered Feast from Amazon, and it was shipped literally 24 months after the originally posted release date, lol.

[Werthead]

GRRM has officially announced ADWD's release date. It is:

When it is done.

He has a (self-imposed) deadline of June 30th. If the book is finished by then, then the book will be published at the end of 2008...in the UK. The US release is looking increasingly doubtful. I've got a funny feeling that history is going to repeat itself and just as exactly ten years earlier A Clash of Kings was released in October 1998 in the UK and February 1999 in the US, the same thing could happen again.

However, according to a rep at the Bantam stall at Comicon, the editors are taking special measures to try and squeeze the book out in the USA before the end of 2008. I get the impression that they've realised that late 2008 will be fairly devoid of big releases and ADWD could clean up if it makes it out, whilst in 2009 it will be up against the big guns of the second Rothfuss novel and the last Wheel of Time book (which is going to be a Big Deal).

[Ghost of Harrenhal]

Originally Posted by Werthead

GRRM has officially announced ADWD's release date. It is:

When it is done.

He has a (self-imposed) deadline of June 30th. If the book is finished by then, then the book will be published at the end of 2008...in the UK. The US release is looking increasingly doubtful. I've got a funny feeling that history is going to repeat itself and just as exactly ten years earlier A Clash of Kings was released in October 1998 in the UK and February 1999 in the US, the same thing could happen again.

However, according to a rep at the Bantam stall at Comicon, the editors are taking special measures to try and squeeze the book out in the USA before the end of 2008. I get the impression that they've realised that late 2008 will be fairly devoid of big releases and ADWD could clean up if it makes it out, whilst in 2009 it will be up against the big guns of the second Rothfuss novel and the last Wheel of Time book (which is going to be a Big Deal).

Why does America get it later than Britain? I'm not complaining, being English, but seeing as though he is an American author isn't that a bit strange?

[Overread]

I belive its because he was first published in the UK and his main publisher is UK based = so they keep giving the UK first dibs

*that or its to get back for the fact that the US gets everything else first - computer games, films, etc...*

[Werthead]

Nope. The British market is smaller (obviously ) so the print runs are smaller and it's easier and faster to complete the run and get the books into the shops. For example, a major hardcover release in the US might get 500,000 copies printed, but the British edition would only get 100,000 at the absolute maximum, and they can be printed faster and shipped to the shops faster.

[Shacklock]

Go Britian /cheer

[The Curious Orange]

The other reason is that it allows the UK publishing industry to get a little extra "boost" by exporting copies to US readers who can't wait.

Oddly, books tend to be paperbacked in the US a lot sooner than they are in the UK.

[TK-421]

Depending on the publisher, we in Canada get either the UK or US version. With regards to GRRM, it is the US version. Most of them are the US version to coincide with the NORTH AMERICAN release date.

But don't get me started on the fact the despite many books being printed in Canada or on paper made from Canadian trees, we still pay more than the same book in the US, despite our dollar being at par with the US dollar...something called highway robbery...

[Wiggum]

It evens out with all the cheap meds you guys get

[Werthead]

Originally Posted by The Curious Orange

Oddly, books tend to be paperbacked in the US a lot sooner than they are in the UK.

Not in my experience. The US market sometimes keeps books in hardcover or trade for years before going mass-market. For example, Scott Bakker, whose first novel came out in hardcover in the USA in 2003, is getting his first US paperback release only this year. GRRM's books tend to take 18 months to go to mmpb in the USA (as opposed to 12 in the UK). The other major difference is that if an author is big-selling enough, the hardcover will remain in print indefinitely, whilst in the UK the hardcover will be allowed to go out of print. Only the really massive giga-sellers, like Rowling, keep their hardcover editions in print indefinitely in the UK.

[Overread]

Ya lucky devils!
hardbacks are like golddust over here (decent copies at an afordable rate that is )

[Junomidge]

Woo. September 30th is my birthday too! Whenever it comes out, I can't wait.