[INDEXED]The Century's Best Horror Fiction

[srboone]

Cool! Thanks, Brian!

[bsaenz24]

Awesome news!! You are now my second favorite Freeman!!!

[Brian James Freeman]

Any further updates on this title? I haven't been waiting as long as a lot of people, but I'm quite anxious...

Yeah, it went to the printer on Friday. I'll update the site on Monday when it's actually received on their end.

Brian

[srboone]

Any further updates on this title? I haven't been waiting as long as a lot of people, but I'm quite anxious...

[Martin]

My guess would be that the final signature on Century's Best and It Limited will both be signed in this batch.

[Antmusic]

...when the author is signing sheets for something else this month...

Oooh... tease!

CD is knockin' 'em out the park this Year (just like last year)! I'm loving the great reads and beautiful books!

[Brian James Freeman]

Has the status of this project changed? One more signature, hopefully by the end of spring, then off to the printer?

Still waiting on the last signature, which should hopefully be happening when the author is signing sheets for something else this month... It's kind of an important one to have for the collectors and unfortunately the timing has never worked out before now!

But trust me, no one wants this one to be shipping more than me! It's been one of my biggest "fixer" projects and it's going to be awesome to see it done!

Best,
Brian

[srboone]

Has the status of this project changed? One more signature, hopefully by the end of spring, then off to the printer?

[Blu Gilliand]

This is one of the first things I preordered from CD. Even as the years rolled by, as CD kept delivering quality material to my doorstep, I knew this one would be worth however long the wait turned out to be.

I think the fact that this will be out this year is really an indicator of how things have turned around at CD - not to mention all of the other great stuff you guys have announced and delivered in the last year or so. Congrats on all the hard work and the great results!

[frik51]

Thanks, Brian.
So, a limited 11/23/63 is still a possibility......
(Still hoping for a 25th anniversary IT, though.)

sk

[Brian James Freeman]

So, the BIG announcement won't be re the upcoming 11/23/63.
Too far ahead.

sk

Now that we're getting "almost" done catching up on the "older" projects, we're going to get back to a normal announcement schedule like most publishers have -- less "surprise in-stock" books, etc. Books will be announced up to a year before publication depending on the type of book.

For example, we have several trade hardcovers that are meant for bookstore sales -- so those HAVE to be announced 8 to 12 months out or the booksellers won't know about them!

I'd like to aim for 4 to 6 months as the ideal window on Limited Editions so the authors and their books get properly promoted and people can actually find out about them. We had some great "surprise" books last year that most people don't even know about because they came and went so fast!

But no more 5 (or more) year waits... I simply won't accept that!

Brian

[bsaenz24]

A lot of people may have already seen the ARC's (I know we gave out a fair number of them in the "free item" promotion), but they are definitely going to be beautiful, huge books.

It would be great to have a slipcase made for these two to keep them together!!

[Dan Hocker]

A lot of people may have already seen the ARC's (I know we gave out a fair number of them in the "free item" promotion), but they are definitely going to be beautiful, huge books.

[bigcoffinhunter]

Even longer than that. Here's my official policy on discussing delays: when the delays are OUR (CD's) fault, I will happily tell you how we've messed up. If the delays are due to someone else (an editor or an author, for example), I will not "name names" but I will tell you exactly where in production it is so you can make an informed decision about your purchase.

This is one of those cases were our mistake was being talked into announcing a project much too early because someone else wanted it announced and wanted to be able to do a panel about it at a convention -- even though it was in no shape to be announced.

That is a mistake we've made a few times over the years. It is NOT a mistake we make anymore.

As someone else has noted, if you look at our new announcements last year (Blockade Billy, Pork Pie Hat, The Painted Darkness, Shivers 6, The Secret Backs of Things, Bone Soup, Four Rode Out, and Full Dark, No Stars to name a few), all of them were published within days or months of being announced. That's because we're ONLY announcing books now when they are deep enough in production that we know exactly when they'll be published. In the past, we let our excitement about a project (or the insistence of someone else like an author/editor or his agent) get the best of us. That is no longer the case. If they want the book announced, then they have to turn the manuscript in.

Hope this info helps!

Brian

Also to clarify, when I ordered the book back in 2003, I was fully aware of the fact that the editor had yet to secure the rights to all of the stories on the list and that the actual publication date was unknown. I still have some e-mails in my archive folders back from 2004 between John Pelan and myself discussing the difficulties involved in securing rights to stories that had been written upwards of 100 years ago and the fact that many of the contracts were still outstanding. Of course I would love to have the books on my shelf already. Nevertheless, I knew that the project was in the very early stages going in and took the attitude that whenever the books finally arrived, they would be well-worth the wait :-)

[bsaenz24]

So, the BIG announcement won't be re the upcoming 11/23/63.
Too far ahead.

sk

I think it "could" still be 11/23/63 because they would know when they'll have the manuscript, since King would be obligated to have it into Scribner by a certain date.