A Conversation with Christopher Ruocchio (Author of The Sun Eater)

[@sonkhuu2204]

Just got signed copies of books 1-3 from Quailridge books. Thank you so much, Christopher! And thanks Petrik - wouldn’t have known about it without this interview!

[@PetrikLeo]

You're so welcome! Glad to hear you earned the signed copies! 😄

[@nazimelmardi]

Christoper in two live streams in a row, we can hope authors will follow his best practices both in this and the hard work he did in writing this much. 🤟

[@PetrikLeo]

Luck and hard work breeds success! :)

[@calumlott]

Two absolute gems!

[@PetrikLeo]

Thank you, Calum!!

[@focusrelax8838]

1:28:32 I’m here 1,5 h and haven’t read 1 book of him😅 but he seems genuine guy and seen 2 other interviews! Gonna give him a try because of his nice personality.

[@PetrikLeo]

Time to read more of his books!! :D

[@focusrelax8838]

Hos much art Will it be on Christopher’s 2 edition books compare to the broken binding? 37:02 here around you said about 5 art sketches in broken binding wig in is awesome.

[@PetrikLeo]

They will have more art compared to The Broken Binding's! That's for sure.

[@focusrelax8838]

@@PetrikLeo I see. I guess the broken binding is cheaper, hmmm… I want to support you aswell so I’m going for broken binding 👌

[@pappywinky4749]

I'm so happy they are reprinting empire of silence, already ordered a copy. Still waiting after 3 weeks though 😭 I missed out on the diamond edition. Now if only they would reprint 2-3 and 4...

[@PetrikLeo]

I'm sure from the success of Empire of Silence they will reprint Howling Dark as well!

[@pappywinky4749]

​@@PetrikLeoyou 2 mentioned a reprint of the slipcase hardcover for dregs of the empire, do you happen to remember where it is in the video? I'm trying to find it lol

[@egilgarberg9893]

Do we know about any difference in paper quality and binding when comparing Anderida and Diamond edition?

[@PetrikLeo]

Paper and binding won't be as good as Anderida and Diamond edition. The pricing alone is most likely half the price of Anderida and Diamond.

[@egilgarberg9893]

@@PetrikLeo Thanks for answering Petrik. But do we know if Anderida will be on Diamond level?

[@heretic124]

@@egilgarberg9893 I own the story collections from Anderida and they are top class. If anything, the question should be will Diamond edition match Anderida :) And I hope so but if Diamond is using the same paper and binding as Sanderson's leatherbounds (since it's also the same bindery Sanderson's using) then it will feel a bit cheaper - as in the pages sag easily under the weight. But still well worth the price. And Diamond is leatherbound instead of clothbound.

[@Broon88]

Thank you both for the stream - just managed to finish it now. Have tried the link for a hardcover of the first book but not sure if they have run out now as the only option is "ask a bookseller"?

[@PetrikLeo]

You're welcome. Thank you for watching! And that's a good question. I didn't know that! Maybe it's indeed sold out already.

[@Broon88]

@@PetrikLeoJust for information for everyone, I received a reply from Quail Ridge Books and the books is able to be ordered again. Thanks again for the stream Petrik!

[@focusrelax8838]

Do you read the sun eater books that you have (hardback) or you have back up you read from (e-book)

[@PetrikLeo]

From the hardback! 😄

[@michellesreadingshelf]

Hi! I’m coming in late to the broken binding editions so forgive the question, but when and how can we purchase these? I just finished EOS and plan to continue. Love this series and exciting artwork.

[@PetrikLeo]

You're not late! The Broken Binding edition is not available yet. It will be available to order this summer. I will make sure to post the announcements on the channel! :)

[@michellesreadingshelf]

@@PetrikLeo Awesome - thanks so much!

[@michaelgrovenburg46]

Take your time on the Diamond Editions. Delays on Kickstarters are normal. Don’t stress about it.

[@PetrikLeo]

I agree with this! 😃

[@teddited9682]

Can we get links to these special editions. I was recently on Broken Binding and couldn’t find the Sun Eater books! I’ll settle for some decent hard backs with good size print! I don’t know if it’s ‘cause I’m an over 65 woman (although I programmed in Fortran and PL1 (truly ancient languages) in my time), I can’t get some of these sites to show me the books I want! Anti-Boomer prejudice! I read the entire Sun Eater series and LOVED it…but don’t understand Mr. Ruocchio being inspired by The Dragonbone Chair et al…is this one of those books that I have to force myself to read through to get to the better books?! (And I started reading LOTR in middle school and have reread, and loved, many times…so not against classics)

[@offworlder4694]

He wasn't inspired by Dragonbone Chair! He says in here he never read Williams.

[@michaelgrovenburg46]

Broken Binding hasn’t released the new special editions yet. They will announce it on Twitter/Instagram. Supposed to be sometime this Summer. Still waiting on the Diamond Edition that was done via Kickstarter(not available anymore).

[@PetrikLeo]

No link for the Sun Eater special edition yet! And Chris mentioned he hasn't read Tad Williams books.

[@nazimelmardi]

Let’s just say: Matt can call: he told it: the contracts work like that: you first call it 1 book, then a trilogy, then a …. As he said about that epic fantasy is not dead video. ☝️ Now we just saw how this series worked out.

[@PetrikLeo]

Haha, I disagree with several things he said in that video. He gave no proof to his points, too. But people like what they want to hear. Stephen Aryan has debunked his first point. But for example, the paper shortage. This is not something temporary. I have talked with authors, publishers, and printing companies. They all practically agreed the paper shortage and prices are not decreasing again. It has been 2 years since the pandemic ended, and it's not going away anytime soon. The backlogged books they need to print from the pandemic have pretty much put the printing price at the increased price it is today. They are constantly playing catching up. You can actually search the data online. The only way to prevent or decrease the printing cost again is to halt the publishing industry until all the backlogged books are printed, and we know that is impossible. I agree with what he said about romantasy readers having the potential to become epic fantasy readers, though. But bottom line, I think it might be a few more years before trad pub will focus on publishing big epic fantasy books from a new author again. It's a totally different situation if we're talking about the big names like Sanderson, Joe Abercrombie, etc. There are good reasons why duologies are popular now and why authors like Christopher Ruocchio and many more advise not to write big series lasting more than a trilogy. :)

[@nazimelmardi]

@@PetrikLeo well, they will become epic fantasy readers. It's not a possible thing, it's a fact. Let's just watch the booktok community where is it going. I was there in the last couple of months and. watched how the readers chose the new TBR. They basically from SJM come to Mistborn and from there they go to Spear Cuts Trough Water and to heavy stuff. The "it has spicy" thing is common at 16-25 and it won't go away any time soon but at the same time Robin Hobb's Fitz and so on can gain space. The MAIN!! issue is that booktube didn't make the the effort there. That's what. happened. The lack of booktubers there and the new booktok creators who actually made the effort (and like epic fantasy) are soooo new readers that they just started to read Stormligt Archive as first time readers. And yep, that's on the KZbin creators who have the experience in content creation and the reading experience too. They ignored TikTok for years as a platform to "guide" the readers on it. Now when I went there as a not even native speaker and with an account who doesn't have USA location, I could reach some of the 10K-50K booktok creators with my very first video bc. it was about Malazan. They just didn't have any content that explains what is Malazan about? TikTok is not KZbin. If a content is older, it just fades away. You actually can create your Malazan content in bits in every 6 months. It will be a hit. Or your Stormlight thing. Or whatever is trend there. So that nobody went there, they had teens to 25y olds to create and they hyped up Sarah J Maas and the others. And now it's getting some epic fantasy thing there, but yeah, it will take 3-5 years when they get to it and they start to reach that book count in other genre beside romantasy. But they will. Romantasy has it's bad side even for them - and they admit it - it's very generic, uses tropes very-very much. So it's getting boring after a while. and they can't deny it. Only a few books are original, no matter how much the publishers put out. That will burn out. So did the YA fanatic publishing at the Harry Potter era. Remember? Even the Wheel of Time had a YA cover... You prob. don't remember but at the era of Dragonlance every story was like a D&D game... as Dragonlance... for a short while... and it has 200+ books... And in other languages there are other games not just DD... we have one too. So yeah. It wears off. I read also David Gemmel in the 90s... that was an influence too, and the similar things. Passed that too. Romantasy will go away as a major factor bc it's boring as it is, it will stay as a player just not as the major influence. As for the paper? Yes... And? The publishing industry as always... it's slow. So said Neil Gaiman and others. They can't adjust to the fact: this is the digital era. So... Let's publish the books e-book first mentality and audio second and the paper 3rd... add VERY!!! good edition to it, price it that high and those who actually read it and want it, will buy it. Advertise ebooks more, and the readers for it, and ebook library, etc... even mobile apps for it. We like it or not, a lot of pep. can't drop the mobile phone... so... let's use it for books.