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Five Book Contract

Damn me, my publisher didn’t change the locks when I popped outside for a cigarette. After four contracts for three books, plus a collection of short stories and two extras first published in America, over a million and a half words having passed under editorial pencils, they’re still not fed up with me. Even after having to tolerate a slightly drunk author wandering around Macmillan offices, snaffling any book that isn’t nailed down and secreting it in a Tesco carrier bag, they’re still prepared to put up with me. Wow!


Now, whilst progressively renewing my covers (using those superb Jon Sullivan pictures), Tor Macmillan have given me a five book contract, which I’ve signed. My last contract underwent a slight redesign with the last two books being swapped around so that The Departure, a novel based on short stories that appeared in my collection The Engineer ReConditioned, will be published last rather than second to last. This book will be the first of the ‘Owner Sequence’ comprising two further books titled Zero point and Jupiter War. After that I’m signed up for three as yet to be named books, so I’ll certainly be writing books for Macmillan for some years to come.


I see the future now. New employees at Macmillan will express momentary bafflement and surprise, “Neal Asher? I thought he was dead?” whereupon oldtimers will point nervously to a big iron-studded oak door, “We keep him in there”. Neophyte editors will be ushered through that door, “Keep to the right. Do not touch or approach the glass. You pass him nothing but soft paper…” Meanwhile, those working in book shops will check their latest delivery and dubiously eye the sagging ‘A’ shelf. A Hogwarts trained shelf-stacker will remove the books from their box with iron tongues, whilst a second employee affixes the chains.


Thanks all at Macmillan, it’s great working with you.


If anyone has any press queries, please email cdothealyatmacmillandotcodotuk
 
Marvellous news, Neal :) To be signed up for three years sounds like a really great future!

A drunk author who pilfers books? I'm surprised at you!
 
Great news, Neal - congratulations on the new 5-book deal! Should keep you busy for some time to come ...
 
That's a superb cover. Your books all have a pretty distinctive look. Just out of curiosity, how much say do you have over the cover art?
 
Selling off my backlog:

So, it’s time I cleared a few of these out. If anyone wants to buy a signed copy of any of my books, well, my email is over on the right here at the bottom of my profile. I’m selling them at cover price (if $ then converted to £) plus postage and packing. Just detail what you want and I’ll check to see if I’ve got it – my aim in the end is to retain just two copies each of my English language books and one each of the foreign language ones.

Signed, of course.
 
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of those video clips. I’m told by various people that they like them but, unfortunately, I’m not getting enough questions. Here are the questions in the comments of the previous clip:


ChrisW: You've probably answered this before somewhere, so feel free to ignore, but, what's up with "The Departure"(the HB not the eBook) not being available/published in the USA? Is it going the way of "The Line of Polity"?

Still annoys me that when I look at my Asher shelve that there is no Line HB. Bloody publishers! :)

Spaceoperaghost: Will you ever expand on the story of The Quiet War?

Taylor Preston: When you write, do you revise/edit as you go or do you just hammer out the first draft before you put pen to paper and start making changes? I know you've said before you don't normally outline, so I'm wondering how much revision you end up doing and how you go about it.

Huan: What size are Amistad and Sniper?

arj209: Have you reached the lofty heights of stardom of being recognised in the streets?

Friso: Your Wikipedia article mentions "runcible" is an homage to ansible. Is that how you intended it?

Thezzphai: In an interview you talked about your next Polity book possibly being called "Penny Royal". Can you already tell something about the content (pretty please) and when it will be released approximately? Are you already working on it or is it just an idea for the time being?

The last one here has been answered and is being answered on the blog but I suppose I can go over it again a bit, and the first one here is just a ‘don’t know’ but I guess I could waffle on about the subject for a bit. But I could do with some more questions. Please append questions in the comments section over on my blog: http://theskinner.blogspot.com/2012/01/video-clips.html
 
Hi Neal,

Just registered and just bought Snow in the Desert- and then the kindly Amazon people suggested I might like the Science Fiction Mega Pack for only 99p and the second SF Megapack for only 1.40 and then I saw John Meaney has a new book out and there is the complete work of HP LOvecraft for a mere 2.99...........
 
I’ve been going back through my blog selecting out old reviews I’d done and posting them on Good Reads. While doing this I was reminded of various ways in which readers of this blog can get involved beyond just commenting.

There is the ‘Who Reads My Books’ thread. For this you send me a biography (doesn’t have to be very long and I will edit the English) a photograph of yourself and, if you like, a few more photos of related interest: maybe something about what you do, maybe your family, maybe your book collection. Here’s Huan Tan’s example.

There are the ‘Five Desert Island Reads’ thread. Send pictures of the books concerned (if you can) along with an explanation of why you would like these books on that island. Here’s Andy Oliver’s example.

Pictures of people’s books collections have often been a talking point here, so, if you haven’t sent in pictures of yours, why not give that a go?

My email is below my short biog to the right here.
 
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