WotC cancel publication of Dragonlance: Dragons of an Hourglass Mage

[Azgulor]

There's not necessarily a competing Dragonlance book. When you want to proofread or edit a book, you need people ready to do it. When you want to print a book, you have to devote presses to it. When you want to ship a massive number of those books, you have to have resources dedicated to the task. Having those resources sitting and just waiting, because the book isn't ready, costs money. Quite possibly lots of money, if there are contracts with fines involved.

Sorry to threadjack, but given all of that, dontcha think WotC might have been a little more sympathetic to 3rd-party publishers and gotten the GSL out sooner? I don't want to ascribe nastiness where there probably isn't any but I find it hard to feel sorry for WotC if these were the reasons for cancelling the book. Given the millions of Hickman & Weiss DragonLance books sold over the years, I'm more inclined to believe them that WotC.

Now if WotC had gotten the GSL into 3rd-party hands quickly because "they understand the planning and logistics that go into publishing a product" I might be more inclined to believe them in this instance.

And while I understand that the novel division isn't the RPG division, business practices are business practices. Whether its novel or RPG rulebooks, you're still talking about published media that has the same considerations related to getting your product to print.

 

[Ranger REG]

Sorry to threadjack, but given all of that, dontcha think WotC might have been a little more sympathetic to 3rd-party publishers and gotten the GSL out sooner?

Talk about going way off-topic...

Licenses like GSL are legal documents. WotC and their lawyers want to make sure that there are no loopholes for publishers to exploit outside of WotC's intention to offer this "gift." Sure, you could talk to me about the unwritten honor system, but not everyone will abide by it.

Personally, I wouldn't use GSL as evidence relating to the matter of this thread. In fact, I don't see any connection between the GSL and the now-canceled novel project.

 

[Vocenoctum]

Given the millions of Hickman & Weiss DragonLance books sold over the years, I'm more inclined to believe them that WotC.

The Past is not the Present, and Dragonlance doesn't sell like it used to. The new stuff just doesn't have the same energy.

 

[Ranger REG]

The Past is not the Present, and Dragonlance doesn't sell like it used to. The new stuff just doesn't have the same energy.

I dunno. The energy is still there. Maybe you're not feeling it.

 

[kamicosmos]

Well, darn it, I just picked up Vols 1 & 2 of the Lost Chronicles at the book store yesterday....Hm....Maybe I should take them back? I'd hate to get to the end of vol 2 and know that there is no more to come......

ETA: I hope they don't cancel Vol 3 of Lisa Smedman's Lady Petitant (sp all around there) series, the follow up to WotSQ....I just got the first 2 of those on the same trip....

 

[Vocenoctum]

I dunno. The energy is still there. Maybe you're not feeling it.

There was a thing last year or year before where they were re-evaluating whether to print in HC or SC because sales of the trilogy (Amber & Ashes & whatnot) had lagged. The Lost Chronicles seems a thinly veiled attempt to recapture some of the energy of the original trilogies.

Heck, the reprints & anthologies of Chronicles probably make as much or more as the new books.

 

[Umbran]

Sorry to threadjack, but given all of that, dontcha think WotC might have been a little more sympathetic to 3rd-party publishers and gotten the GSL out sooner?

No, because the situations are not analogous.

With the Dragonlance book, if Weis and Hickman were late, WotC was in the position of having started the process, and having to either extend or abandon it. With the GSL, the 3rd party publishers were in the position of not having even started the process yet.

If WotC wants a bit of a delay between the release of the new rules, and the time when 3rd party material hits the shelves, then the GSL timing makes sense. That is assuming the delay in the GSL was intentional, instead of enforced by human realities.

 

[Plane Sailing]

WOTC - Nope. Keep your draft. We don't want to read it in case future authors explore the same issues.

I could certainly understand that kind of reason behind why they wouldn't want to look at a manuscript they weren't committed to using. Hell, I remember that JMS didn't want anyone to even post any plot *ideas* on the Compuserve forums while B5 was on, so that he couldn't be said to be "using someone else's work" in the future!

 

[Dire Bare]

Well, darn it, I just picked up Vols 1 & 2 of the Lost Chronicles at the book store yesterday....Hm....Maybe I should take them back? I'd hate to get to the end of vol 2 and know that there is no more to come......

ETA: I hope they don't cancel Vol 3 of Lisa Smedman's Lady Petitant (sp all around there) series, the follow up to WotSQ....I just got the first 2 of those on the same trip....

I wouldn't take back your two Lost Chronicles books. The trilogy was never meant to be a continuing story arc from book 1 to book 3, each book merely fills in some of the gaps between the original trilogy books. You won't miss a thing by never seeing the third book.

I was unimpressed with the Lost Chronicles anyway. There were certainly some interesting bits in each book, but overall it just seemed like a lot of unnecessary filler. A couple of short stories would have been better rather than new novels longer than the originals.

I think it's a bummer that WotC and Weis & Hickman are on the outs, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over not being able to read Dragons of an Hourglass Mage.

I hope Dragonlance gets a serious reboot with 4e. After the Lost Chronicles and that nonflavored oatmeal animated movie we got recently, I'm starting to lose my Dragonlance faith. And I'm sooo tired of the "history" novels. History of the dwarves, history of the goblins, history of the ogres, history of the minotaurs . . . . blech! Just give me some good adventures like the original trilogy!

 

[Banshee16]

I dunno. The energy is still there. Maybe you're not feeling it.

I hadn't bought the Dark Chronicles series yet...but it wasn't that I was avoiding them. I was waiting for all three to be out, then I was going to read them, in conjunction with the regular Chronicles, all in a row.

i know a lot of people that do that...wait until the series is complete, then buy the books.

Now it appears that I won't be able to finish the series....and the time period described in Hourglass Mage definitely was one I wanted to hear more about.

Banshee