Lawrence Watt-Evans' Publishing Experiment

Posted on May 16, 2005

So what happens when you have two successful fantasy series, but one is selling better than the other one? Lawrence Watt-Evans faced this situation with his popular Legends of Ethshar series. The series was selling well, but not as well as his other series for Tor, so Tor decided to concentrate on the better-selling series, leaving Ethshar fans high and dry.

To remedy the situation, Watt-Evans is following in Stephen King's footsteps and offering the next book as a serial on his ethshar website, so long as fans pay incrementally. It's an interesting experiment, and will certainly make long-time fans happy. But Watt-Evans is hoping to snag some new readers as well; each book in the series can be read as a stand-alone. His next project for Tor is a trilogy, which begins with The Wizard Lord, which will be released in spring, 2006.

For Curious Readers: The first book in the fantasy series is The Misenchanted Sword.