Jake Schafer
asked
Michael J. Sullivan:
Hey Mike, I've been a long time fan (I read the whole Riyria Revelations in a week :3). I backed your kickstarter for your new Riyria Chronicles book, but I noticed you changed up the names for the First Empire books. As a person that loved the out of the ordinary and unique names that you previously had, I am wondering why you changed them?
Michael J. Sullivan
Hey Jake...when self-publishing, the author, of course, decides the titles. When you sign with a publisher, there are a bunch of things we have no control over. Among them are title, cover design, price, formats, and a lot more.
Del Rey was concerned about the titles of the books because:
1. Online sites don't deal with misspelling well - so they felt a lot of people would spell Rhune as Rune and Dherg ad Derg and Fhrey as Frey...and if they did they wouldn't find the books.
2. There was a method to my madness in the titles - but really only I know what it is. Dherg, Fhrey, Rhist are words that have no context. There is no reason for the reader to pick them up because for the most part they are just five random letters. The editor thought it but a barrier between the reader and the books.
3. The names didn't help to build a strong unified brand. They were just single words that again had no relation to one another.
So, the editor asked me if I could come up with other titles that would solve some or all of the problems above. Something similar occurred when Orbit took over the Riyria books. So I did what I did for them.
1. I thought about the "content" of each book and what each one was about at it's core. Del Rey really can't do this as they've only read one book (the first) but as I know the entire series arc I have a good understanding of what happens in each.
2. So the context of each book can be summed up as follows:
1 - The destroying of myths as Rhune learn Fhrey aren't the god they think they are.
2 - The need to advance from stone-age spears to swords and get said weapons from the Dherg to help defend against the Fhrey.
3 - The first serious conflict between the Rhune and the Fhrey - the true begining of a war between the two.
4 - Ordinary people who must do the seemingly impossible. They become heroes and legends for making the attempt .
5 - The forming of the first empire and the conclusion of that part of Elan's history.
So based on that context the keywords that I came up with were: Myth, Swords, War, Heroes (or Legends), and Empire.
But those words by themselves didn't have any unifying theme or branding. Given that this is series is a historical narrative of how a primitive people rise in power and because each book marks a substantially different advance that completely upends their society the term "Age" seemed to fit. Using that gave the unifying thread and branding. I liked the idea, but I was pretty sure that they would already be taken.
One of the good things about the original names is the "made up words" meant they were likely not used by others...although to my dismay there was another book called Rhune and a few books with Phye in the title (and one named Phyre). Based on this I thought there was no chance that the new titles I came up with would be unique. I thought I would be okay with Age of Swords but I thought there would be no chance of uniqueness with Age of Myth, Age of War, and Age of Legends (Age of Heroes is of course already used by Brandon Sanderson) and of course Age of Empire is a popular video game.
To my surprise Age of Myth and Age War weren't used at all. Age of Swords was used by a self-published author for a book in 2010 but it has no ratings or reviews on Goodreads so I don't think anyone knows it exits. Age of Legends is a series by Kelly Armstrong - but that's a series name not a book name. And of course there are a few issues with Age of Empire but not nearly as much as I would have thought - Given it was the last book in the series, and the branding would be pretty well established about this - I thought I might get away with it. I did report my findings with title conflicts to Del Rey but they weren't confused about any possible confusion. The editor LOVED the new titles and ran off to discuss them with other groups in the company who also thought they fit all the requirements they were looking for.
So with the new names we have:
1. No "odd words that people can't spell or prounounce
2. Titles that have direct correlation to the content of the books
3. Titles that allow for a tight branding of the series
4. Titles that are not heavily used by other books
5. Titles that both I and Del Rey are happy with.
That's probably way more than you wanted to know but I wanted to be complete in my answer.
Del Rey was concerned about the titles of the books because:
1. Online sites don't deal with misspelling well - so they felt a lot of people would spell Rhune as Rune and Dherg ad Derg and Fhrey as Frey...and if they did they wouldn't find the books.
2. There was a method to my madness in the titles - but really only I know what it is. Dherg, Fhrey, Rhist are words that have no context. There is no reason for the reader to pick them up because for the most part they are just five random letters. The editor thought it but a barrier between the reader and the books.
3. The names didn't help to build a strong unified brand. They were just single words that again had no relation to one another.
So, the editor asked me if I could come up with other titles that would solve some or all of the problems above. Something similar occurred when Orbit took over the Riyria books. So I did what I did for them.
1. I thought about the "content" of each book and what each one was about at it's core. Del Rey really can't do this as they've only read one book (the first) but as I know the entire series arc I have a good understanding of what happens in each.
2. So the context of each book can be summed up as follows:
1 - The destroying of myths as Rhune learn Fhrey aren't the god they think they are.
2 - The need to advance from stone-age spears to swords and get said weapons from the Dherg to help defend against the Fhrey.
3 - The first serious conflict between the Rhune and the Fhrey - the true begining of a war between the two.
4 - Ordinary people who must do the seemingly impossible. They become heroes and legends for making the attempt .
5 - The forming of the first empire and the conclusion of that part of Elan's history.
So based on that context the keywords that I came up with were: Myth, Swords, War, Heroes (or Legends), and Empire.
But those words by themselves didn't have any unifying theme or branding. Given that this is series is a historical narrative of how a primitive people rise in power and because each book marks a substantially different advance that completely upends their society the term "Age" seemed to fit. Using that gave the unifying thread and branding. I liked the idea, but I was pretty sure that they would already be taken.
One of the good things about the original names is the "made up words" meant they were likely not used by others...although to my dismay there was another book called Rhune and a few books with Phye in the title (and one named Phyre). Based on this I thought there was no chance that the new titles I came up with would be unique. I thought I would be okay with Age of Swords but I thought there would be no chance of uniqueness with Age of Myth, Age of War, and Age of Legends (Age of Heroes is of course already used by Brandon Sanderson) and of course Age of Empire is a popular video game.
To my surprise Age of Myth and Age War weren't used at all. Age of Swords was used by a self-published author for a book in 2010 but it has no ratings or reviews on Goodreads so I don't think anyone knows it exits. Age of Legends is a series by Kelly Armstrong - but that's a series name not a book name. And of course there are a few issues with Age of Empire but not nearly as much as I would have thought - Given it was the last book in the series, and the branding would be pretty well established about this - I thought I might get away with it. I did report my findings with title conflicts to Del Rey but they weren't confused about any possible confusion. The editor LOVED the new titles and ran off to discuss them with other groups in the company who also thought they fit all the requirements they were looking for.
So with the new names we have:
1. No "odd words that people can't spell or prounounce
2. Titles that have direct correlation to the content of the books
3. Titles that allow for a tight branding of the series
4. Titles that are not heavily used by other books
5. Titles that both I and Del Rey are happy with.
That's probably way more than you wanted to know but I wanted to be complete in my answer.
More Answered Questions
Michael
asked
Michael J. Sullivan:
This question comes from Kim, posted in my Riyria Group. "how long after the publication of the books do do you decide whether or not you'll also publish on audio? Tim Gerard Reynolds does a fantastic job! I'd love to find them released simultaneously on audio and in traditional format."
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