Wheel of Time series coming to ebooks
By Paul Biba
This is really great news for all Robert Jordan fans, myself included. The series is coming to ebooks. I stopped reading the series after book 7 as i wanted to wait until they all came out before I continued. Since they are big and unwieldy to carry around I’m definitely going to get the book editions. Here is the press release I received today from Macmillan:
The Wheel of Time series is one of the most highly requested series on Kindle, and they are finally becoming available to fans as ebooks. Beginning on October 27th, Macmillan will release one ebook per month, beginning with The Eye of the World. The full text of the books has been retypeset to better accommodate the ebook format and all original illustrations and maps will be retained in these new releases. We’ve also commissioned new cover art for each book, and I can announce the first four artists now: David Grove, Kekai Kotaki, Donato Giancola, and Sam Weber.
The next book in the WoT series, The Gathering Storm, will be available for sale on 10/27/09. For the first time ever, the entire first chapter of The Gathering Storm is available to read before the book comes out. The chapter is available only on Tor.com until September 17th, when it will be distributed to other online retailers like Amazon and BN.com. You can read the chapter here: http://www.tor.com/gatheringstorm/register
The prologue to The Gathering Storm will be available to purchase as an ebook beginning on September 17th. The prologue will be available to purchase through Tor.com, as well as the traditional retailers Amazon.com, BN.com–for $2.99.
September 6th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
AWESOME. Now the hard part. Which format to buy?
September 8th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
hey! *thaaat’s* why i never got a response from macmillan to the message i sent them last week. they were preparing a press release!
very happy about this. i haven’t read any of ‘the wheel of time’ yet. it’s too huge to carry around. i will definitely hover around the amazon site, waiting ’til i can pre-order.
October 28th, 2009 at 12:59 am
This is rather bittersweet.
Why not release them all at once? I’ve been following this series for years and would greatly appreciate it if the newest release was available in a digital package. So if this information is correct I am to understand that if I want a digital copy I have to wait an entire year for availability?! Absolutely ludicrous. I have already translated the series to a kindle friendly format and now it looks like I’ll be pirating and translating this next one. We’ve waited long enough and I refuse to wait anymore. I own a tangible copy of each book and will be purchasing the next one but until all of them are available for purchase as ebooks I will be dispersing unauthorized copies over the internet medium. Get with the program and shuffle off the archaic business model.
October 28th, 2009 at 7:56 am
@Brandon,
With all due respect, you’re acting like a spoiled child. If you have the books, you can still read them, and even scan and OCR them for yourself. But putting unauthorized copies onto the web isn’t likely to encourage the publishers to digitize any more of the series, is it? (And by the way, we’ll have the F.B.I. stop by to see you this week.)
We’re all impatient to see old series converted to digital formats… I’ve a hankerin’ for the Wild Cards series, myself. But being irresponsible and outright illegal isn’t going to help matters… it’s only hurting. So, from us e-book writers, readers and enthusiasts: Man up, and Knock it off.
October 28th, 2009 at 9:33 am
He said he was going to distribute it to the net, not distribute it to the hands of people wanting to pirate the book. I myself am going to pick up a physical copy of the book this week but don’t want to carry it around with me, so I’m going to get a digital copy. Taking away people’s rights because you assume they are criminals is fascist
October 28th, 2009 at 10:38 am
“Distributing it to the net” without having the legal right to do so IS pirating the book.
October 30th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
It’s amazing that publishers believe that they can resist the digital age. Perhaps they should see how that’s been working for the music industry. Now there’s a industry that has adroitly managed technological change successfully, NOT! I do strongly believe in copyrights and therefore will not be one who digitizes the new Wheel of Time book. However, I also believe in the convenience of ereaders and therefore will read other books until the publishers get some sense in their heads. When they finally wake up, realize that the game has changed, and publish this book in a digital format, I might buy it. Then again, I might have lost interest completely and the author can kiss my cash goodbye.
November 1st, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Meh I have all the books and the pirated ebooks… Why would I want to wait a year to read te latest book??? And after I read it what’s the point of buying the ebook?
November 4th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
The biggest disappointment for me is the cost of the ebook. I understand the delayed release is designed to sell more copies, but charging more for the digital copy than paperback, which was released however many years ago, is ridiculous.
I was prepared to buy every single ebook as they came out in order to reread the series if the price had at least been EQUAL to the paperback($6.99 new). Charging $9.99 for a digital copy which has no publishing, shipping or stocking costs is insulting.
My next move is back to the library where I will spend exactly ZERO dollars thanks to their greed. I hope a publisher reads this and realizes that fighting the digital age this way is only hurting them.
November 8th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Thank you so much! I’ve been looking everywhere for information about the Wheel of Time books in digital format. I have them all in dead tree edition already, but for re-reading, it will be so much more convenient to have them in e-book form.