WotC cancel publication of Dragonlance: Dragons of an Hourglass Mage

[Banshee16]

Guys, I don't know anymore about what's going on than you do, but I do have a bit of experience with WotC's fiction department. I've never known them to do anything without pretty solid reasoning.

Not making accusations, not casting stones, not saying which side is at fault. I'm just saying that there's definitely more to this than them just suddenly deciding they don't feel like publishing the book anymore.

Hopefully you're right. I'm not familiar with the publishing industry, but as I understand it, if the authors don't provide a manuscript that is accepted/published, WotC doesn't have to pay them.

There's also possibly something else going on. What if this has something to do with the failure to allow the Dragonlance license to be renewed by Margaret Weis Press? Maybe during those proceedings something was said, somebody took offense or something, and now Weis and Hickman are being excised from the novel line as well?

Just seems kind of odd....kinda like R.A. Salvatore's next Drizzt novel getting cancelled. I think if we see the book eventually come out from authors other than Weis and Hickman, it'll be clear evidence that something is going on.

At this point, I'm glad I've picked up all the Dragonlance books I wanted.....and I'm thinking again of picking up fresh copies of the 3.5 rulebooks. I'm still leery about 4E, particularly with some of the reports I've heard coming out. There's lots of gushing stuff out there, but I'm also hearing troubling indicators that some of my concerns may be justified, like with the IGN review, among others.

Banshee

 

[TwinBahamut]

So, what does that mean? They don't want to deal with the Dragonlance novel line? Heaven and Hell forbid they're shelving it to devote company resources (money and man) toward the Eberron novel line. :\

I don't think you need to take my statement as saying WotC has something against the Dragonlance line.

I am willing to bet that, for some reason or another (I am not involved in book publishing so I don't know for certain), it would be very expensive for WotC to delay the publishing of the book. Probably things like extending the marketing campaign, rescheduling shipping, reallocating staff who were already scheduled to work on other projects at that time (which messes up and possibly delays other projects), etc. This is probably a decision based entirely on the economics of a business and varying needs to balance cost and revenue, rather than something like personal animosity or a desire to kill Dragonlance. I am willing to bet that, if WotC failed to get a manuscript in time, this could happen (or even has happened) to a book from any of its novel or RPG lines.

 

[Eosin the Red]

Agreed. It sounds like two different (understandable) spins on the same story:

MW and TH fail to produce a manuscript in time. Wizards cancels the product. MW and TH offer to send it later, but by then it's too late.

I don't know that for a fact, but it fits both stories.

Not quite... The tell is the comment that the book was solicited with a back page splash that was not the story being told by Marg & Tracy. It seems to me that the inclusion of this in the statement is somehow relevant at least to their side of the story. I don't read a mountain into it but it does indicate that there is more than a time issue.

 

[Ranger REG]

I don't think you need to take my statement as saying WotC has something against the Dragonlance line.

I am willing to bet that, for some reason or another (I am not involved in book publishing so I don't know for certain), it would be very expensive for WotC to delay the publishing of the book. Probably things like extending the marketing campaign, rescheduling shipping, reallocating staff who were already scheduled to work on other projects at that time (which messes up and possibly delays other projects), etc.

Is that SOP? To have marketing in place (i.e., already paid for) before the material is submitted for editing? Couldn't they just do that (and pay for) AFTER the authors submitted their work?

Or is WotC paying the authors by the hours, not words?

 

[Mouseferatu]

Is that SOP? To have marketing in place (i.e., already paid for) before the material is submitted for editing? Couldn't they just do that (and pay for) AFTER the authors submitted their work?

I don't know if that's "standard," but it's certainly quite common. Companies have to put their books in catalogs, and try to convince book distributors to carry them, months in advance. And yes, that very frequently means doing so before they have the materials in hand, even if doing so isn't the optimal way of handling things.

 

[Alzrius]

...

We have seen the book being pre-sold as coming out in July with our names on it, but the plot described is not ours.

...

What exactly does that mean? It seems like an allusion to what's being speculated, that WotC wanted certain things to happen, which didn't happen in whatever initial manuscript/draft Margaret and Tracy sent them. That doesn't rule out a time issue also happening (since the idea of creative differences doesn't entirely explain WotC not accepting a (new) manuscript), but there's certainly something to read into there.

When he mentions the "plot described," was a synopsis of the book published someplace? If so, does anyone have it and can post it here?

 

[Umbran]

What exactly does that mean? It seems like an allusion to what's being speculated, that WotC wanted certain things to happen, which didn't happen in whatever initial manuscript/draft Margaret and Tracy sent them.

While that is possible, it doesn't have to mean anything at all. The advertised plotline may be akin to the marketing text you see on the back covers of books, which is usually not written by the authors, but instead by someone who hasn't read the book and is going off a quick description. As Mouseferatu noted, sometimes these have to be dealt with far ahead of time, and they'd be apt to put in a best-guess placeholder until they have the real thing.

I don't think we currently have enough information to come to informed conclusions here.

 

[Vocenoctum]

When he mentions the "plot described," was a synopsis of the book published someplace? If so, does anyone have it and can post it here?

I think they just meant the Back Cover Blurb

From Amazon:
Between Chronicles and Legends, what made Raistlin aspire to godhood?

In the concluding volume of this trilogy, the reader finds out what, exactly, Raistlin did after he abandoned the Companions to their deaths in the War of the Lance. Dragons of Spring Dawning shows Raistlin concluding a deal with the mysterious Fistandantilus, and the Legends trilogy shows what he did with that alliance, but until now there has been no explanation of what came between the War of the Lance and the Dwarfgate Wars. What power made Raistlin the Master of the Past and Present and allowed him into the Tower of High Sorcery - and a place in history as he pursued a place in the cosmos as a god.

 

[Azgulor]

Agreed. It sounds like two different (understandable) spins on the same story:

MW and TH fail to produce a manuscript in time. Wizards cancels the product. MW and TH offer to send it later, but by then it's too late.

I don't know that for a fact, but it fits both stories.

I could swallow that if not for the fact that Weiss & Hickman weren't proven writers. I mean, how many copies of their DragonLance stories have been sold? We're not talking about a pair of newbies writing their second book.

For all intents and purposes, those two are viewed as the de facto "parents" (in spirit) of the DragonLance novels. Almost everyone I know who has read DragonLance books views their books as canon. Other authors are viewed with a more critical eye in regards to the setting.

When the WotC took back Dragon and Dungeon, accounts by both WotC and Paizo were consistent with each other. That doesn't seem to be the case here.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I could swallow that if not for the fact that Weiss & Hickman weren't proven writers.

Even the most proven of writers sometimes miss deadlines and/or have personality or creative conflicts with the publisher. (Not saying that's what happened here--I don't know--but it's possible.)

And sometimes, in the publishing industry, deadline is more important even than the most proven writers. (Well, except for truly powerful names like Stephen King, perhaps.) It's unfortunate, but it's sometimes the way it is.