As we hurtle towards the Tenth Armadaversary, it's slightly daunting but also extremely satisfying to acknowledge that in a few months' time, this is what the line-up will look like...
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USA: Barnes and Noble!Readers who cannot or will not shop at Amazon may be pleased to hear that Armada Wars has now occupied territory on the world known as "Barnes and Noble". The Books 1–3 Omnibus is already listed on the site, as are A Storm to the Savage and I Dream of Damastion. These are all the latest versions of the texts (polished up in the approach to the Whom Gods Shall Fear release date), with the new covers. The Books 4+5 Omnibus will also be listed on B&N when it becomes available in 2024. So while the individual paperbacks for the main sequence novels are not yet listed on B&N, fans of the series will still be able to purchase the whole of the first series as matching omnibus editions (which will also save money). All of those paperbacks will be eligible for the B&N free shipping offer (shopping cart containing $40 of eligible items). Premium Member bonuses also apply! Watch this space for the individual editions appearing... UK: Waterstones and Blackwells!UK shoppers have not been left out — the same titles are currently invading the Waterstones and Blackwells web sites. The Books 1–3 Omnibus has landed already, and the expansion episodes should appear soon. As with B&N, the books are eligible for the Waterstones shipping offer. On their site you need £25 worth of qualifying items in your cart to benefit from free shipping. On Blackwells, all titles include UK delivery. The books are also populating to other stores in the UK, such as Foyles, so if you have a favourite book retailer you may well find soon that you can purchase Armadaverse titles from them. Don't forget that discounted 'previous version' paperback editions of the main sequence novels are also available in the official store. Shop at Blackwells:Shop at Waterstones:Anyone who joins the Armada Wars mailing list before the start of September will be entered automatically into a prize draw for one of three signed copies of series finale Whom Gods Shall Fear. The winner will be picked at the time of the book launching, so anyone joining until the end of August 2023 will be entered into the draw. Anyone who joined the mailing list previously has been entered retrospectively. The winner will be picked at random from people on the mailing list/s at the time of the draw, with a joining date prior to 31st August 2023, so you need to be still on the list at the time of the draw to be in with a chance! Winners will be contacted, using the email address registered on the list, to arrange delivery. Quick note on a change to the newsletter: Until March 2023 there were two separate mailing lists, one for the general newsletter and one for people who only wanted to be notified of new releases. These have now been merged into one list, with the two groups within it tagged by their content preference. If you were subscribed already your content preference will be respected and you do not need to take any action. It just makes organisation much easier at this end! The one difference subscribers will see is that if you click the "update list subscription preferences" link at the end of any newsletter sent during or after April 2023, you will now have the option of switching between the 'General Newsletter' and 'New Releases Only' options at any time. Caution! There is also an 'unsubscribe' link, which is not the same thing. That link will unsubscribe you immediately when you click it. Be sure to use the link labelled "update list subscription preferences"! A few things about the books, all of which are connected.
Firstly: the hardcovers have been removed from sale for the time being. If you have an order being processed it will continue, but no new orders can be made on Amazon. But don't worry, they will be returning soon in a much better and more affordable form. There may also be... something special in them. Over the past couple of weeks the eagle-eyed may have noticed the cover images of the Armada Wars books changing. This was A:B testing of new designs. The current favourites are in the image gallery on the home page. The covers have been standardised across the range, and some have had their artwork tweaked. The interiors have also been spruced up using new software, which has also been used to create new interiors for the paper editions. There are now no discrepancies between Kindle, paperback, and hardcover, guaranteed — they all come from the same source file. I Dream of Damastion and A Storm to the Savage have the new interiors, and their new covers are being processed now. Both Kindle and paperback editions are on revision 1.5 for both books. They are the example of what the main sequence novels will look like once the interior files are ready. And because of the new layout, the page counts have been reduced, making both of those paperbacks cheaper. A minor update has been issued today for From Shattered Stars.
Updates have been delivered for the Kindle edition (now rev. 1.4), as well as the current imprints of the paperback and hard cover editions. The paper versions are now live for all new customers. The Kindle version is live for new customers, and available as a free update for existing customers. You can check for waiting updates on your "Manage my Devices and Content" page, accessible from the Kindle section of your local Amazon site: UK Customers ↗︎ • USA Customers ↗︎
With the release of A Storm to the Savage, quite a few background changes have also come to pass...
If you are not subscribed to the newsletter you may have missed the latest in terms of social media. There is a likelihood that the Armadaverse will be quitting Facebook. This web site remains the best source for all Armadaverse news and information. There is also now a linktr.ee account which will be kept up to date with the sites/pages which are active and or useful. A Storm to the Savage is now live on the Kindle store, for both purchases and Kindle Unlimited! The official release date of August 5th was moved to 1st August at the weekend. Readers who had pre-orders can now download to devices. The paperback should also be available (277 print pages). And as a special bonus, this may turn out to be the first book in the Armadaverse to get a hardback release! Get your regional Amazon link on the details page. As I mentioned previously, refreshed versions of the current novels (volumes 1–4 at time of writing) will be released soon. The plan is to release them all together for both the Kindle and paperback editions.
Books 2–4 will only be getting minor tweaks and corrections — nothing major needs changing. The files for the paperbacks, Kindle individual titles, and Kindle boxed set versions will be getting a hard reset to the "master version" of their respective texts (I've noticed slight discrepancies between the editions, thanks to a sloppy workflow.) The rear covers of the paperbacks will also be tweaked to make them look a bit more professional. However Steal from the Devil has had a massive overhaul. I consider this the fourth edition, and some of you won't like this but there's... like... more material. I know, I know, I thought I was making tweaks and I guess I just got carried away. What I can say is that the longest new passages have all been character-based additions with the exception of the climax which gets some more action. I will make sure Amazon KDP pushes the refreshed SFTD as a free update to Kindle customers. For paperback customers, you'll have three options:
So what has changed in Steal from the Devil? Here are some examples:
Let's get this out of the way immediately — we're not talking about 2020. 2021 has arrived, and as you've probably noticed already things are back in full swing in the Armadaverse. This post is a round-up of the plans for this year. Don't forget that there is a mailing list for the Armadaverse. It's recommended that you subscribe, because there's a good chance that the Armada Wars brand will abandon mainstream social media in the near future. Releases Planned for 2021 and Onwards...I am now resuming my original plan of interleaving the novel releases with the novella releases, albeit with the following changes:
My aim this year is to knuckle down and keep up a steady pace. I Dream of Damastion is already available for Kindle, with the paperback proof on its way to me even as I type. I am planning to have A Storm to the Savage ready for a release soon, then all efforts will be focused into Whom Gods Shall Fear. You may have noticed the artwork for IDOD changed in the past week, and the same iconography and cover design has been used for ASTTS. It will also be used for Forge Ruinous, although I have not yet chosen an image for the central glyph of FR's cover. Feel free to suggest your thoughts in the comments below. Steal from the Devil — the ReduxI've said before that there are aspects of Steal from the Devil which I now find embarrassing and or problematic. As a debut novel, although many readers do enjoy it, one can only really say that it was released way before it was ready. I've previously floated the idea of making some quite large changes. On those occasions I have received mostly negative responses, with people saying they would rather it was left just the way it is. I've decided to split the difference. As well as being generally tidied up (see below), SFTD is going to get some enhancements, clarifications, and — of course — a thorough stylistic edit. I want to be very clear that nothing will change substantially as far as the plot goes. What will happen is that characters and situations will get expanded text, so that it is clearer what is happening, and the consequences further down the line are more understandable. I will try to bring the style of the book into line with the sequels, without losing any of its weird atmosphere. I also aim to trim just a little fat — this means the teasers and references that ultimately went unused as the story found its own way through the sequels. If you have strong feelings about this, then please do say so in the comments. Kindle/Paperback RefreshesOver the years, with me having to update the same stories in various alternate files, discontinuities have crept into the published materials. These include vanishing custom fonts, different typographic conventions, and in some cases even material differences in the actual words of the books.
There is also the cap-wearing elephant in the room. A poll was conducted across Twitter and Facebook, and the overwhelming majority favoured a retrospective change to the lore where a certain acronym is concerned. The conventional air and ground assault forces will have to be called something different. Perhaps I just solved it there, and CAGA will be the replacement. The point is that I've had it up to the eyeballs with people assuming that the old acronym is a nod to Trump, despite it obviously having nothing to do with him, so I'm just going to change it. "AGRO" won the polls (standing for 'Air and Gound Recon Operations'), but I think I will save that label for a team of specialists in a future story :o) For all of those reasons, every single Kindle edition and paperback is going to be overhauled over the next couple of months. With the exception of I Dream of Damastion, which from today has the latest typography, corrections, and defined lore, all the updated versions will be released together. I will do my best to convince Amazon to push the Kindle updates out to existing customers, but only the changes to Steal from the Devil are likely to be considered significant enough to justify doing that. |
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