Room For Improvement

Monday, January 3, 2011

It's a brand new year, and if there's anything the turning of a year is good for—other than spending New Year's Eve partying while dressed like post-apocalyptic air pirates and biosculpted mutants, like Editor Judy and I did—it's taking stock of how far we've come, and how we might do better.

While there's always plenty of room for personal improvement (and no, Wes, I don't need any suggestions on that front), here I'm really thinking about Pathfinder Tales. In the last year—heck, in the last six months—we've come a long way, from just a dream of publishing Pathfinder-related novels to having two excellent books on the shelves, a third off at the printer, and a thriving line of free, serialized short stories and novellas available on the website every week. Not too shabby!

Yet we want more. Not just to publish more novels—because we will—or to find and woo more excellent authors to join our camp—because we are—but to assure both that the books continue to get better, and that they manage to make it into people's hands.

Which is where we turn to you. If you're reading this blog, odds are good that you're one of the hardcore Paizonians, the folks who post on the messageboards, play the games, and read the books. And we want to know what you think. Therefore, if you have a free minute—maybe the kids are down for a nap, or your boss just left for lunch—please post in the comments thread and answer a few Pathfinder Tales questions for us:

1) Is there anything you'd like to see more of or less of from the novels or web fiction?

2) What do you think would help new readers unfamiliar with Pathfinder pick up the novels if they ran across them randomly in a bookstore?

3) Which cover art do you like the best? Why?

4) Are there any fantasy-related book blogs or online communities that you think might enjoy Pathfinder Tales, if only we were to advertise/send review copies/etc?

5) Any other ideas for how we can get more books into readers' hands?

Thanks, and we look forward to hearing what you think!

James Sutter
Fiction Editor