Last fall, when I sped my way through the first 11 books of the Ruth Galloway mysteries, I was just dying to get to the next release, The Lantern Men. Goodreads said that the book would release in February. The Lantern Men, along with Brandon Sanderson’s Rhythm of War, became my top two most-anticipated releases of the year. Then in February, I discovered that The Lantern Men was only releasing in the UK, and I’d have to wait until June for the US release. Sigh. And just a few days ago, I found that the June release date has been pushed back to July. That got me thinking.
How is our current pandemic circumstances affecting the release dates of books? I don’t know enough about the publishing process to know what can and can’t be done while sheltering at home, or how much of release dates depend on tours/promotion, etc. Should I be looking to see if other books I’d planned to read after their release this year have been pushed back, possibly to next year? Will I get to read my two most anticipated books, or will the November release of Rhythm of War get nudged into the spring? How will audiobook recordings work with social distancing and shelter-at-home orders, especially after we get a second wave of illnesses after opening up the country too soon?
It all feels like stuff we need to address as we work toward the “new normal,” if we can figure out what that new normal will be…
PS – Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!
The Zen Leaf 
It’s having a major impact. I follow a few publishing podcasts and there has been talk of delays for works that were not already published because some of the publishers can’t print or can’t get supplies to print full runs. Agents are still taking queries because they’re planning for books to be published in two years. The comic book industry is completely stalled because the one distributor isn’t running. It’s definitely having a trickle-down effect across the whole publishing industry.
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Wow. I had no idea just how much was going on behind those scenes. Makes me wonder how it’s going to boost ebook and audiobook sales, or if they’ll be affected. I remember the slower changes that happened in our country as internet, cell phones, and smart phones became common – changes to everything from how music was sold to post office usage. This feels like another major shift in so many industries, a kind of natural disaster blanketing us and causing earthquake-sized change in a rapid time frame.
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Jeez, this is another bummer thing to have to think about during the coronapocalypse. 😦 That said, I already had a review copy that I read for a book that was supposed to release in June get bumped to February 2021, and here I was being a “good” blogger for once and actually reading my review copies and planning on posting an early review. Now it seems a bit…….too early. so definitely seems like a very real concern, unfortunately.
Hope you had a happy Mother’s day! 🙂
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I hadn’t heard the term coronapocalypse before – I like that! 😀 Which book was it that you saw bumped up? There are so many longterm consequences that I think we’re going to see trickling down from this pandemic over the next few years.
PS – Hi Megan! Good to see you! 🙂
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Good to see you too! The bonus of this quarantine-y life is that it affords me more time for my long lost blogging habit and catching up with all my old friends in the old ways instead of via Instagram likes!
The book that I read that got bumped out to 2021 was The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles.
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I would definitely look at the books you were anticipating. I am finding that at least two or three of my ARCs changed their publication dates every month, sometimes more than once. My YA copies don’t seem to be as affected as the adult ones, interestingly enough, but the delays do seem to affect every publisher and genre. I do not see it affecting the big names either. There was no delay for Emma Straub’s newest novel after all. I’m sure it will get worse for fall and winter releases since that is what they would be working on right now.
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I did just see that Maggie Stiefvater’s newest got moved from November to sometime in the spring, so it seems to be affecting SOME big names. Makes me wonder if as time goes by, more and more folks will be affected.
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