Good on Baen (although they were probably had an advantage as it looks like CR published with them back in '21 and did some editorial work - it's all about relationships in the end)
It's a shame about DAW, despite what one feels about publishers, you do want them to succeed enough that they remain viable. Every loss hurts everyone.
DAW's looming demise probably precipitated that rant Patrick Rothfuss' editor had about 18 months ago in relation to him not finishing the Kingkiller series. The cash injection of Doors of Stone would have saved the publisher twice over, and she was probably already under the pump at the time.
Lost several people their employment during a pandemic, good job, Pat, good job. He could have fucking hired any writer to finish off the series for him (Hell, I'd do it for $100K).
I've noticed some publishers (including mine) have been very cagey about including "series" information on books now, launching them almost as standalones without "first in a trilogy". I finished mine because I'm not a lazy oversensitive retard, but the author who debuted the same time as me for 20X more money, never finished their series even though Publisher X pushed the everloving fuck out of it, and the author themselves. that's gotta hurt. (There's more I can say but the powerlevel is off the charts at the moment)
At the time I was annoyed that my book wasn't being advertised as a series from the beginning but now all their books are marketed like standalones, even though I know they are series books.
Anyway, they suck and I wouldn't have sex with them.
Ruocchio has that connection, but as a whole, Baen has been incredibly smart about picking up the cream of the crop from the collapsing DAW and St. Martins.
For example, they got Howard Andrew Jones and Scott Oden from St. Martins, and they are two of the best authors of sword and sorcery on the planet - and Baen's already done more to pump up Jones' upcoming Hanuvar series than St. Martins gave him in a decade.
Honestly, as much talent as the other publishers are throwing away, Baen's biggest issue is they aren't big enough to snap up all of them.
As for DAW, Rothfuss absolutely had a hand in screwing them. Not just for the book he owed them, but for the second trilogy they paid a massive advance for.
He cost them millions. To say nothing of overpaying for the likes of Seanan McGuire and Nnedimma Okorafor who, for all thier press and fashionability, don't sell terribly well.
Now the Chinese own them lock stock and barrel, and damn near every author is being cut once thier contracts expire.
So falls the house Donald A. Wollheim built.
Can someone with a little more expertise in the publishing world explain how this works? Wouldn't Mr. Ruocchio already have a contract with DAW. Thus being unable to transfer his Sun Eater series to another publisher and an obvious competitor at that? Or are DAW simply washing their hands of a money maker. (Lord knows I've spent too much money on Ruocchio already, myself.)
He had a contract for five books. Now that he's done five books for DAW, he's jumping ship from that fiasco and finishing the series with Baen. DAW will still have the rights to the first five books though.
The Baen press release and Ruocchio’s announcement video are actually pretty open about that.
DAW had a five book contract with Ruocchio, which with the publication of ASHES OF MAN in December was fufilled. I'm sure there were some negotiations and horse trading, though given even the Baen release mentions turmoil at DAW, I would put money on DAW cut him. Which, is insane, for reasons I will get into in a bit.
I would also notice that Baen signed him damn near to the minute after his contract with DAW was fulfilled. Which means they probably had been scouting him for a while.
As they should. As iffy as a publisher continuing a series can be, Ruocchio is damn near a perfect prospect for a publisher - he can consistently put out absolute doorstopers, knows how to promote himself, has a growing fanbase, gets rock solid reviews, and an absolutely insane sell through rate on his books - the hardcover for his first actually sold out entirely, which simply doesn't happen.
All that in spite of DAW's steadfast refusal to print second editions of his books despite brisk sales, and largely not doing any actual promotion of Ruocchio themselves.
He's the perfect package - toss in that he's not even 30 years old, and could potentially be putting out books for decades, and its absolutely insane that DAW didn't try to keep him... and why I suspect he will immediately become one of Baen's top tier authors.
He's essentially an Italian-American Roman Catholic Brandon Sanderson - he just needs to have his Wheel of Time moment that blows him up to the big leagues.
I hope he gets it. Both because I can only imagine what Ruocchio or Baen would do with that kind of windfall, and because he's proof positive that other publishers (mine included) obsession with desperately trying to make whatever diverse female LGBTQ flavor of the month be a thing will still get its teeth kicked in by the first stright white guy with some actual talent.
Did they learn nothing from lindsay ellis (or that billy eyelash fat music girl) even though it resulted in a publishing executive literally crying to the nyt about social media followers meaning nothing for book sales?
Ah, that's the difference.
Having influencers push books is cheap marketing that's occasionally effective.
Publishing books BY influencers is setting money on fire.
