Wards of Faerie, Book I of The Dark Legacy of Shannara, will be published on August 21, 2012 in the US and a week later in the UK.
But the process of publishing a book is a long one that takes almost a year to come to fruition. It goes far beyond the writer finishing the final draft of the book. A few weeks ago, Terry received the final edited proof pages, where he had to go over the book one final time before it heads to a final production editing team, the marketing team, critics and reviewers, and the various buyers B&N, Amazon, etc. who decide how many copies to order for their bookstores.
For the reviewers and corporate book buyers, Advance Reading Copies (ARCs) are created once Terry approves the pages. These trade paperback books usually come without the full color cover, might have a few unedited errors that will be fixed, but are otherwise the entirety of the book. These typically come out four to five months before the book’s hardcover release.
These also typically hit the secondary market quickly and the people who are lucky enough to come across one as a book buyer or reviewer charge a great deal of money to fans.
Sad but true.
Nevertheless, there are readers who love collecting ARCs. They would salivate at what came in the mail today.
A box arrived today with eight copies of Wards of Faerie. Terry will sign them and most will go to his Forum moderators, who work hard at keeping a civilized online forum where his fans can meet and discuss all things fantasy unmolested by internet trolls. The moderators deserve this nicety. They do it out of love for Terry’s work.
When I first started as webmaster, I told Terry I didn’t want to be paid with money but with two ARCs. So two of them are mine, to do with what I want. Ha!
The two I possess will be put up online in June 2012—one in a contest that all can enter, the other up on ebay.com to help pay my medical bills. So get ready for that.
In the meantime, here is a super sneak peek at the first page of Wards of Faerie, courtesy of Terry, Del Rey Books, and yours truly! Hope it doesn’t get you too riled up!
13 responses to “ARC Pictures of Wards of Faerie”
I need the rest of the pages. What a tease .
A true teaser. But cannot wait for the book. Wish I was one of the lucky moderators.
Curse you Shawn & the Moderators!
Mildly jealous, speaking of uncorrected errors though…
line 10: …begining to wane, and her longing for bed to grow. She had been reading…
Aren’t errors on the first page the easiest to find cause a reader is freshest then?
Craig can you state what the error is and how to fix it?
I’m just not seeing it, and I didn’t see anything so noticable when I read the page that I would have been grumpy about it. I may have my blinders on at the moment but it looks good to me and yes curses for the huge tease.
i think Craig is right, the sentence, for one is very long. he says “and her eyes” “and her longing” but only “her concentration”
“were burning” “concentration beginning” “to grow”
if i had written the sentence, not that im a writer, and no offense to Terry because i love his books more than anything besides my children, i would have written it as such –
It was late, her eyes were burning with fatigue and dust. As her concentration began to wane, her longing for bed grew.
in the previous sentence, he uses “she read”
in the following sentence, he refers to the past tense “had been reading”
maybe my version is not correct, but i do have to agree with him that there is something in the wording in this sentence that doesnt sound right, and the more i read it in my head the more it doesnt sound right.
ahh the anticipation for this book. i cant believe i spent 20 minutes on this thread, but im excited
i can think of a few other variations as i sit here, but my children 4 and 1 , are way to loud for me to put them into words, plus its dinner time!
thanks again Terry, plus all the web guys for all you do. the world would be a much worse place without your wonderful work.
Thanks, Troy. I wish I could clone myself! Ha!
did i do good? 😀
This is such a a great time to be alive. I was just coming to the site to see if there were any new updates on new books etc., and found this in my reading.
I must confess, it would be a great opportunity to be able to win such a rare and slightly covetous prize.
I wish to ask, when will the contest begin? Is that too forward? Huh!?
I still look forward to getting a signed copy of the completed hardcover this year.
Great job Shawn!
And I will never forget our wonderful favorite author Terry. Keep up the great work!
And the next page says…?
Shawn your cruel lol
Any idea when the first chapter will be posted on the forum?
I have several of the ARC’s and I will not part with them. One of them I was fortunate enough to receive as a previewer. The rest I have purchased as I come across them. They are as precious to me as the first three original books. I even found one is a second hand store. Yeah!