It's a Drizzt! "Timeless" - New Drizzt Do'Urden Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore

*Deleted by user*

 

[gyor]

Hard to overstate: they published the Sharpe books, the Master & Commander books, Neil Gaiman, Sir Terry Pratchett, Tolkien, Michael Crichton, Clive Barker...quite a bit. Huge resources.

And now R.A. Salvatore!

 

[Swift Nimblefoot]

I stopped following the Dark Elf books after they, y'know, stopped being about Drizzt. One long boring book about Wulfgar being drunk and aimless at a tavern (no, I am not kidding), then later several books centered on Artemis and Jarlaxle playing buddy cop comedy with an added dwarf dude to make a trio and I eventually lost interest when plots were about magic dracolich-spawning portable towers, Artemis bedding female copper dragoness sisters (why?) and him confronting the memories of his abusive childhood... I lost interest so hard, when the 1000 orcs storyline came I never even looked it up what it is about (mind you, it's hard to find info, even obscure movies have giant articles on wikipedia, but not books, oddly).

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

It's very unlikely that Salvatore had any involvement with this decision whatsoever. Almost all of the communication with distributors, channels, etc. goes through the publisher, with basically zero author input or consultation.

Now, Salvatore's a big enough name that it's vaguely possible, if he asked, a publisher might act on his behalf on such things. But even then, it's unlikely. And given the speed with which this all happened, and the fact that it's improbable he even knew about this information getting out there, I'd actually put money down that this was entirely a publisher communication thing.

(The fact is, authors generally have very little involvement with any stage of publishing beyond "writing the book," though again, there are exceptions.)

Considering the opening post says the plot details taken down at Salvatore's request, if accurate, it seems he has a lot of say on his work.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Considering the opening post says the plot details taken down at Salvatore's request, if accurate, it seems he has a lot of say on his work.

*shrug*

As I said, anything's possible. But I'd want to know whether the original poster knows it was Salvatore, or simply assumed when he found out that someone wanted it taken down, before I took my bet off the table.

What I can say with certainty is that the process normally doesn't work that way. Salvatore may be an exception, and may indeed have asked personally, but it would be unusual. Most of the time, it's the publisher doing all the communication at this stage of the game.

 

[Matt Adler]

*shrug*

As I said, anything's possible. But I'd want to know whether the original poster knows it was Salvatore, or simply assumed when he found out that someone wanted it taken down, before I took my bet off the table.

What I can say with certainty is that the process normally doesn't work that way. Salvatore may be an exception, and may indeed have asked personally, but it would be unusual. Most of the time, it's the publisher doing all the communication at this stage of the game.

I posted the info to a fan group Salvatore is a part of. An hour later, the admins contact me and tell me they've just spoken to Salvatore, and they are taking the post down because he says "contracts haven't been signed yet" and they also don't want to step on the release of "Child of a Mad God". 15 minutes later, the plot description and all reference to Drizzt are removed from the catalog page. Suspecting this would happen, I had already taken a screenshot. And here we are. I'm sure if the publisher disagreed with Salvatore, it wouldn't have been taken down, though.

 

[Morrus]

I posted the info to a fan group Salvatore is a part of. An hour later, the admins contact me and tell me they've just spoken to Salvatore, and they are taking the post down because he says "contracts haven't been signed yet" and they also don't want to step on the release of "Child of a Mad God". 15 minutes later, the plot description and all reference to Drizzt are removed from the catalog page. Suspecting this would happen, I had already taken a screenshot. And here we are. I'm sure if the publisher disagreed with Salvatore, it wouldn't have been taken down, though.

How odd. Nobody had contacted me.

 

[Matt Adler]

How odd. Nobody had contacted me.

I think once the screenshot was out there, there was no putting the cat back in the bag.

 

[Morrus]

I think once the screenshot was out there, there was no putting the cat back in the bag.

Whooosh.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Fair enough. I stand corrected.

 

[Matt Adler]

Those plot details have now been released on the publisher's site:

http://www.harpervoyagerbooks.com/book/9780062688583/unti-drizzt-1/