BL current state - A discussion

[Pariah32]

This is becoming very sad now by BL. This has to be the bleakest December run up to Christmas i've seen at BL in years.

 

Where are the books? Where are the authors? The back log in publishing that some has alluded to seems not to affected any other publisher (at least none of the ones I read). WHAT IS GOING ON!

 

I'm still waiting for the Ravenor Rogue limited edition, I have the first two but no word on the final one?

 

Where is ADB these days? he has two series (Black Legion and Emperors spears) plus his Siege of Terra novel and not a single peep from BL when?

 

Fair enough Chris has had a recent release but what about his Custode's series and his inquisitor series? Is he working on something else?

 

Of course the master himself Dan Abnett has not had much in releases recently, there was the Ghosts prequal which was only a short novel a while back, but since then, again no word on what he's dong next?

 

Would love to know what Guy Haley is working on next? As well as john French? Im hoping he's working on his inquisition series, as they were, for me fantastic!

 

Anyone know what Mike Brooks is working on?

 

I was expecting at least some more Primarch books by now and the Dawn of Fire series seems to be whimpering away somewhat.

 

Honestly I don't know what to look forward to anymore! I have kept a load of money aside for the usual ''surprise here are 3 limited editions by Black libraries top author's coming this Saturday'' aaaaannddddd................nothing.

 

Oh there was the limited edition of The wolftime (no internal art, maps or anything to justify its price)

Oh there was the rerelease of Mcneils Mechanicus trilogy (again no internal art, maps or anything to justify the price tag) and yet the Ravenor series is printed one book at a time instead of a trilogy like this??

 

If anyone could shed some light on just golly gee is going on with this publisher that be great.

 

P.S. Sorry for my rant i'm just super frustrated with the lack of communication.

[DukeLeto69]

Just to come back on a few of those points:

 

ADB - suffered mental health issues approx 18-24 mths ago that basically stopped him writing for a while. He has been quite forthcoming about it (brave I would say). He has written first drafts if both the next Black Legion and Spears books but both got put on hold so he could write SoT7. I reckon we will see all three books in 2022.

 

Wraight - also cleared his schedule to focus on SoT6. He is returning to both Vaults and Watchers as well as the next WHCrime novel. Some of this (but maybe not all) will come in 2022.

 

Abnett - released both Penitent and Vincula and spent this year writing Interceptor City (finally) and then most of the rest on SoT8 (and now we are told SoT9 as book being split into two as too big). He will then turn to Pandaemonium.

[Noserenda]

I suspect a lot is being held up by shortages and delays in the print industry generally. If only there was some format not beholden to dead trees eh? :/ 

[DarkChaplain]

I miss the two Davids, Annandale and Guymer. Feels like forever since they had novels out. Guymer's last was the Lion Primarchs novel, which isn't exactly a recent one even if we're being charitable. Annandale's last was an AoS tie-in that's soon getting its paperback release, beyond that there was a single Warhammer Horror short during the Horror week.

 

I suppose they're busy writing for other publishers lately. Ones that more likely than not have their stuff together and know how to treat their freelancers properly.

 

As for Abnett... I for one welcome the next 3 years of waiting for Pandaemonium...

 

 

 

I suspect a lot is being held up by shortages and delays in the print industry generally. If only there was some format not beholden to dead trees eh? :/ 

This excuse simply doesn't fly anymore when pretty much every other publisher has learned to adjust to the changes early into 2021. Heck, I have easily a half-dozen books preordered from other publishers that are due from December to February alone. New releases drop left and right, and BL used to be somewhat of a pioneer in digital releases way back when the digital adoption rate wasn't even close to what it is now. They gave up on that just before the pandemic, and now they're too stubborn to reconsider that.

 

With the way things are, looking at their tiny print runs - something that long-predates the pandemic shortages! - they could easily delay or scrap hardcover prints altogether and go digital-only until the inevitable trade paperback, outside of flagship titles like the Heresy. But instead, they decided to make away with digital shorts almost entirely and publish Inferno.... which had 3 volumes out before they had to delay the next by almost a year. A year in which they could have decided to release the stories piecemeal again like they used to - any intern could've whipped up the epubs for that and put some layer brushes onto stock art for the covers.

 

It boggles my mind just how nonsensical BL/GW are being. Heck, GW, too, has made away with e-codex/battletome releases, haven't they? Not that their epub3 releases were in any way pleasant experiences, mind, the fixed format meant that none of my devices could properly display them without squishing fonts, or those that did lacked zoom capabilities due to the fixed format, resulting in them being utterly useless. But at least a digital avenue existed!

 

At the rate we're going, BL is pissing away whatever goodwill and excitement I have for their publications. Thankfully, there's no shortage of material from other publishers in this industry. Heck, I might even find the time to read Perry Rhodan one of those days, when I'm growing tired of romcoms and PKD.

Edited December 1, 2021 by DarkChaplain

[Pariah32]

Just to come back on a few of those points:

 

ADB - suffered mental health issues approx 18-24 mths ago that basically stopped him writing for a while. He has been quite forthcoming about it (brave I would say). He has written first drafts if both the next Black Legion and Spears books but both got put on hold so he could write SoT7. I reckon we will see all three books in 2022.

 

Wraight - also cleared his schedule to focus on SoT6. He is returning to both Vaults and Watchers as well as the next WHCrime novel. Some of this (but maybe not all) will come in 2022.

 

Abnett - released both Penitent and Vincula and spent this year writing Interceptor City (finally) and then most of the rest on SoT8 (and now we are told SoT9 as book being split into two as too big). He will then turn to Pandaemonium.

 

Thank you DukeLeto, I am aware of ADB's status it was not him I was refering to but BL (sorry if that did not come across). Why do they (BL) not just announce them? why are we hearing about them via forums and twitter accounts? I'm  not after dates i'm more interested in actual facts from the publisher. Same as all the other authors really i'm aware via here and other forums the rumours and whispers about what they are working on, just no official reveal. I simply cant understand why.

 

In regards to Darkchaplain I could not agree with you more, the shortages because of print delays simply does not fly at all. Like yourself I read from many other publsihers and many other I.P's and they have not had any trouble so why BL publishing?

 

Its this lack of communication from BL that is frustrating me. The coming soon section needs a serious looking into. I use to love coming here on Bolter and chainsword and speculating about upcoming books and now well...... there is not much to speculate about at all. Its a shame really.

Edited December 1, 2021 by Pariah32

[DarkChaplain]

That's really the key problem here: Communication. Or rather the lack thereof.

 

I can accept whatever delays, production woes, whatever. It's all well and good and understandable.

But you cannot understand what isn't explained or at least acknowledged.

 

Other publishers, even in other industries, will tell you what's going on at least semi-regularly - GW and most notably BL do not. Things must be truly terrible for them to acknowledge any problems. They had better days, not that long ago actually. But now? Now it's all just surface-level marketing, and even that is delivered half-heartedly by people who don't even know the products they're advertising (I mean, hell, they did advertise Haley as having written novels about Helbrecht just a few weeks ago, when at most he wrote a novella, and these sorts of errors are frequent with BL products on WarCom).

 

Instead of saying anything about upcoming products, they'd rather announce a teaser for a teaser for a teaser that, in the end, falls flat on its face in terms of excitement because it either is simply unimpressive to begin with as far as announcements go, or the leaks we get weeks beforehand have more relevant information than the official reveal. And for those leaks you don't even need to listen to some dudes faking enthusiasm and calling everything amazing that they're showcasing that hour... even when they themselves don't play the system or know the fluff.

 

We had a timeframe filled with genuine communication and fan-outreach. They seemed proud of their products in a wholly different way from right now, where the focus is on selling the product with as little effort as possible, instead of making people want to purchase it by showcasing its merits.

Even their Youtube channel has become worthless, as painting vids dried up (to be moved to Warhammer+...), charismatic people left the company (Duncan, for example) and the humor left. And I'm not talking about the "haha funny it's James Workshop" brand of comedy, but self-awareness. Duncan and Peachy had that in spades. The hobby looked genuinely fun even to people who never took up a brush or tape measure.

 

Frankly, the whole pandemic situation has only revealed that corporate GW has reverted to being extremely soulless. How? By lacking in products to cover it up with a steady flow of customer excitement.

[Knockagh]

Call me a conspiracy theorist but given the highlighted trouble in the writers camp this year coupled with some

reveals about how GW pay staff. We could perhaps be seeing the results of a battle over royalties. Their could be a revolt in the writers camp. I’ve always said I hope GW are treating BL authors well. Writing novels is shocking hard work. Maybe not but speculation is always a laugh

[Sothalor]

I'm beginning to wonder now if Warhammer+ has had any influence or impact on Black Library at the corporate level.

 

We know that Games Workshop as a whole is first and foremost a miniatures company, that BL makes up, what, single-digits percentage of their total revenues, and that they see putting out BL works as a way to develop and market the IP.

 

Could it be with the advent of WH+ and animations and lore videos the corporate board/bean counters/decision makers have decided to pivot towards their streaming service instead of spending those resources on novels? Let's be honest; there's probably quite a disparity between the potential customer base sizes of prose novels versus VODs.

[theSpirea]

While it is true the BL represents only a fraction of GW's profit, it serves as a gateway for new fans to enter the hobby. Completely different means to attract new audience and expose the IP outside of wargaming. Majority of people I know (those aware of WH) were introduced into the hobby through BL novels and over the years started collecting/painting plastic minis.

 

I'm totally fine with slower/lower output. I don't mind if the series is put on hold for a different project (SoT taking over Horusian Wars/Watchers/Vaults, etc). I even accept the over priced LEs. What I'm getting fed up with is the absolute lack of communication and the necessity to look for updates every single week because Hardbacks are new Limited Editions and if you don't get it on the day one, either wait 3-6 months for paperbacks or pay scalpers.

 

The BL official page on FB is run by ..., I can write a bot providing better answers than they do. Most of the time they are completely clueless (I suspect GW is outsourcing their Customer Support) and they are not even aware book X or Y is already out or that the recent article on WH Community actually answered customer's question, yet they still reply "we don't know but we'll make sure to post an update as soon as we hear anything". Their Instagram is another joke. A 16 year old would do a better job if you give them a free e-book weekly.

 

I have stopped counting how many times someone on Reddit/FB/other forums asked (even now) how come they can't buy physical books on BL website. They assume it's not available and move on. Covid has been here for what two years? and they still haven't even bothered slapping a banner there "physical books are available only through Games Workshop, click here".

 

They absolutely don't care about promoting anything. I haven't seen a single ad outside of WH Community articles about the Crime/Horror imprint. Even the most senior dinosaur operation manager has to understand you need to put the word out. To me it feels like GW has the mindset of "our plastic crack is so awesome it will promote everything else we do".

 

Not only books but they are don't do any interviews with the new writers (I think there was only one or two this year with Nate). This is an absolute gold mine of material for WH+. Short interview with writers, audio books narrators, artists, etc.

 

There are so many publishers, and plenty of new ones, doing way better job. They are engaged with the community, authors are not bullied by the company because they interact with fans (Reynolds), and they are winning me over.

[cheywood]

There’s a lot of rather baseless speculation going on in this thread, which is what happens when there’s not much communication with the fan base.

 

Personally, from spending too much time browsing Twitter, I haven’t heard about an issue on the authors’ end. Some authors have begun working more for Aconyte or other publishers, yes, but besides Josh Reynolds it seems most of them are continuing to work for BL. Annandale put out two BL books this year and Guymer supposedly has a few waiting to be published for instance. Wraight, Haley, Brooks, Abnett, ADB all seem to have books awaiting publication and or being written. New authors like Rath and Crowley seem excited about their current work in the setting from what little they can say.

 

WH+ certainly seems to be taking up Andy Smilie’s time these days (and maybe John French’s). But going forward how many series is GW producing itself? My understanding of the upcoming series was that a lot of them are being made by fan teams GW has decided to support.

[Taliesin]

 

Instead of saying anything about upcoming products, they'd rather announce a teaser for a teaser for a teaser that, in the end, falls flat on its face in terms of excitement because it either is simply unimpressive to begin with as far as announcements go, or the leaks we get weeks beforehand have more relevant information than the official reveal. And for those leaks you don't even need to listen to some dudes faking enthusiasm and calling everything amazing that they're showcasing that hour... even when they themselves don't play the system or know the fluff.

 

Frankly, the whole pandemic situation has only revealed that corporate GW has reverted to being extremely soulless. How? By lacking in products to cover it up with a steady flow of customer excitement.

 

One of the things thats just so strange is...who and where is the face of Black Library?

It seems like there is no one there, that the company is completely hollow. Who is the face of BL?

Neil is the manager, seen him at the Weekenders, you never hear from him. But it doesnt need to be him per se, it can be another person who comes with stuff regularly, someone who might do the author interviews for instance ( btw what happened to those, are they going to blame a pandemic for not being able to engage with the authors anymore either? Why dont we ever see face to face interviews anymore or even digitally?)

 

Its way more notable since Track of Words took a step back on this front too, he was basically BL's best advertiser and I mean that in a good way.

 

Now youre in this situation where there is barely news, no interviews, zero depth in the warcom articles... a coming soon section without upcoming books...but also no fan engagement whatsoever. If anybody could be called the face of BL its Abnett himself who at least gives the occasional enthusiastic talk. But out of BL/Warcom? You dont see anything. Its like it couldnt be more anonymous if they tried. There is no one at the BL facebook page, not at warcom, nothing on YT.

 

Its not just BL though, its the same with the Heresy. Andy Hoare is leading Age of Darkness for the last 2 years and he' used tohave interesting stuff to say but I dont see much from him either on Warcom. 

Edited December 1, 2021 by Taliesin

[DarkChaplain]

It's already telling that they don't even slap the editors' names onto their anthologies anymore. Even early HH entries had Edited by Nick or Lindsay or Marc or indeed Laurie on there. You could at least attribute the selection to someone on the staff, rather than just assuming that it's all the leftovers they had flying around, thrown together without rhyme or reason.

 

I'll also never understand why bloody author's introductions are something reserved for LIMITED EDITIONS. It's absolutely insane that you don't get to read, say, Gav Thorpe's introduction to The Wolftime - which, funnily enough, explains a good bit about the themes he wanted to tackle, some of which we discussed here! - unless you get a hold of the limited edition of the book within its 5 minute window of availability, even though this sort of preamble would benefit the work and the audience as a whole.

 

It's kinda emblematic of BL/GW: Like they believe that even an author talking about his work, the book you're about to read, is something that should be kept exclusive to a tiny part of the audience, while the plebs don't need to know or be catered to with something as silly as communication.

[skylerboodie]

I feel Nick Kyme should be stepping up and doing a better job of communication for Black Library; as well as a writer he is the senior editor and appears to be the 'creative' in charge, compared to Neil's 'management' role.

 

They are so overly secretive, it's ridiculous. Everyone knows Aaron is writing Siege of Terra Book 7 and Dan 8 (& potentially a 9). But, what could have been an exciting announcement/reveal by BL years ago on this was an opportunity missed; they've still not officially acknowledged them!

 

Similarly,there's been so little said about Dawn of Fire, it's insane. If you want people to jump on board - especially with expensive Limited Editions - why not give them an idea of what they're committing to. A six book series? Nine? Sixty Three? Why so secretive of the writers involved. Yes, we know someone might drop out or things may change, but that doesn't mean it's better to never say anything at all.

 

It feels like they're trying to strangle out Black Library quietly until it dies, and hope no one notices. They give the impression of not wanting any readers any more and doing everything they can to piss us off. IMHO.

[Petitioner's City]

Do you think maybe you guys are expecting too much?

 

But also, have you reached out via twitter to track of words to ask his thoughts? Or asked (maybe via dm) any of the writers and editors who are really active on social media - Guy, Gav, Chris, John, James S, etc.? Of course they cannot disclose what they aren't allowed to disclose, but it's worth checking in with them rather than just ... speculate or rant? Guy and Gav are very active, and James on other forums, so why not check in?

Edited December 2, 2021 by Petitioner's City

[Noserenda]

Yes the answer is to do our own marketing ;) 

[byrd9999]

Can we give the BL-bashing a break now, please?

 

Is there anything more to say?

 

We're at the level of discourse now to criticise BL decisions made pre-Covid, and "author X put out 2 books in 2021, but what has he done for me lately!?"

[DukeLeto69]

We’ve known for years that GW/BL marketing is pitiful (although there was a couple of years where things were better) but I’ve looked back and there has still been a fair amount of output/releases.

 

This year I have read 21 BL books including nine released this year (admittedly 8 of the books included a re-read of Abnett’s inquisition books in prep for Penitent).

 

That is still a lot from a single publisher.

 

I am going to stay optimistic for next year.

[cheywood]

If my count’s correct 27 new novels and four novellas came out this year. Some of those were limited editions, some were ‘short novels’ and some were AOS. Anyone know how that compares to previous years? It feels like a somewhat lower volume than usual, but I don’t have any numbers for previous years. The relative lack of audio books, digital shorts, and omnibuses doesn’t help either. That said, I have very much enjoyed most of this year’s releases. Edited December 2, 2021 by cheywood

[Kelborn]

Totally agree on the points regarding the current state of BL, their marketing and whatsoever!

 

Certain authors don't get time in the spotlight. Interviews have been fallen flat in an instant. Especially these days, digital communication is more prominent than ever. Why not give some of the newer authors a moment of glory, to give us an insight in their thought process and so on?

 

What broke my patience recently is that we don't even have an anthology at all. Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't there an anthology as store gifts in the last year or so? This year, we get a bunch of excerpts of noves which again act as starting points for the hobby. So a starting point for a starting point...the heck?

 

I'm missing a lot these days. Fancy stuff we can be excited upon. Things which are getting the attention they deserve. A freakin' working upcoming stuff page! It's not that hard to keep that one running, eh?

 

It feels like this branch of BL is run by a single person instead of a team. Heck, even my property just hired a student to take over our socal media stuff, which is next to nothing compared to a company like GW/BL.

 

Sure, we had many and mostly good stuff this year. But honestly? I can't even name them five of them cause they were released almost unnoticed. 

 

Just a bit of ranting here. Sorry for that.

[DarkChaplain]

I just wish they'd at least had some art and title teases at Warhammer Day, considering we had no Weekender this year either. Just show off some of the art for upcoming books, let us get excited and speculate about what it's going to be about, and so forth.

 

Used to be they were proud of the art they commissioned and were happy to showcase them even if the book was still almost a year out...

 

I went through my Kindle / Audible log and found that I only managed to finish a few BL books this year - and those I did weren't even releases from 2021, or worse, I had sitting on my shelf for half a decade in omnibuses. Grim Repast, which I was excited for, ended up getting shafted out of an audiobook on launch, and seeing how terrible they are with communication on this front, I decided to wait a couple of months to see if they'll deliver one after all, at least. Like they did with Dark Harvest for Horror. Not exactly confident, but my reading pile is full enough as it is.

Edited December 3, 2021 by DarkChaplain

[Red_Shift]

It’s a sad state after the more recent revival at BL and I hope it doesn’t continue. I have a fear that the primarch series will be quietly dropped, having waited patiently for a Rogal Dorn  book since the series inception.

[nagashnee]

It’s a sad state after the more recent revival at BL and I hope it doesn’t continue. I have a fear that the primarch series will be quietly dropped, having waited patiently for a Rogal Dorn  book since the series inception.

Honestly if its a choice between dropped or James Swallow Sanguinius book i vote dropped.

[Kelborn]

Don't think that they'll drop that series, tbh.

 

The lack of new updates is concerning, though. That's true.

 

If (and I'm stretching that) there are internal issues regarding the continuation of that series due to a specific book (be it Swallow writing Sangi or not or whatever), they can reschedule that to a later point in time. 

 

We still got others left. Perhaps those are currently in the making. Perhaps because of internal beef. Who knows?

 

Think the greatest issue here is not a lack of releases (as mentioned earlier, we had like 29 releases this year it seems) but more about the presentation/ introduction/ teasing/ communication/ marketing/ keep fans intrigued and hyped/ show what's in the pipeline.

 

Why should we be invested in BL if sites like Amazon keep us better informed? As of now, the only reason to bother with GW/BL in terms of books is solely to LE releases. That's it. Everything else can (correct me if I'm wrong) be acquired by other sources. But even those aren't presented as they once were. 

Compare the hype and "exquisite" articles about the Siege of Terra before it even started with that of Warhawk. Wasn't there even a separate, interactive site for the Siege or was it the new state of the 40k universe? What happened to that? Dropped dead.

 

I feel bad for ranting cause there are certainly employees at work, who don't deserve that at all. It's just disappointing as it seemed like BL was on a good path a while ago.

[Felix Antipodes]

With a BL preview announced for next Saturday, we can only hope that some of our grievances are addressed there WRT communicating with their audience.  Really, most of us would be mollified by a return to the coming soon page returning to the standard of yore, when you knew a good six months in advance what was coming.

 

Yes, issues in the shipping and paper industries have created a whack-a-mole uncertainty over what will be deliverable on any given week.  That’s why they changed from a weekly to a monthly release dating system.  A slightly inaccurate, amended schedule is better than the current silence imho.

 

They also need to create a “Face of Black Library” figurehead.  There really hasn’t been one since the days of Marc Gascoyne and/or Laurie Goulding and I feel its hurting the brand.  As senior editor Nick Kyme is the logical choice but he may not fancy such a public role.

[Perry]

If my count’s correct 27 new novels and four novellas came out this year. Some of those were limited editions, some were ‘short novels’ and some were AOS. Anyone know how that compares to previous years? It feels like a somewhat lower volume than usual, but I don’t have any numbers for previous years. The relative lack of audio books, digital shorts, and omnibuses doesn’t help either. That said, I have very much enjoyed most of this year’s releases.

2021 has been a great year for releases, Brutal Kunnin and twice dead king proving what the newer 40k authors can produce.

 

Gav Thorpe releasing the enjoyable Wolftime, which will be a huge boost for the Dawn of fire series

 

We've had one of the strongest Primarch books, Alpharius.

 

And existing authors such as Abnett and Wraight have given us good reads.

 

I think people are missing the interactive side of Black Library, no BL Live or WH world events, but the pandemic has disrupted most things, so hopefully things will be more normal and clear in the coming years.