Among the many things going on behind the scenes at AWP as I struggle valiantly to finish Antithesis 3 by the deadline, it has been decided (by those who know better than my inner philosophy geek) that The Antithesis Progression is a series that suffers from title sabotage.
Sure, they say, it respects the intelligence of your audience that you’re letting them share in the series of elaborate philosophy jokes that you call titles, but in branding the series this way you’re telling readers “I know it says ‘science fiction’, but it’s really Hegelian fanfic,” which basically turns of 90% of your potential audience.
This admonition, for some reason, is always followed by a half-spoken “duh!”
So, in the interest of not having the rest of my series bounced by a publishing house I helped found (because that would be WAY embarrassing), The Antithesis Progression is going to be getting a face lift to coincide with the release of book 3 late this year.
The New Titles
The series will be called The Mannix Initiative, and comprise the following volumes:
The Recreants (formerly: Predestination and Other Games of Chance)
The Vindicators (formerly: Free Will and Other Compulsions)
The Statesmen (formerly: Avarice and Other Acts of Charity)
The Escapists
The Kabrakan
The Podcast
The podcast is still going on. I haven’t decided whether to rebrand it or not–that decision is low on my priority list, and I don’t know how to make it (though I’d love your input if you’re a listener–please leave it in the comments below).
The podcast will probably not return till Labor Day. We’ve had some terminal cancer in the family and a set of client deadlines slam down on us at the same time, and that’s left little time and mental energy for creative work, but the deadlines will be all behind us by the third week of August. If I can sneak in an episode before then, though, I will. (For the terminal cancer, “deadline” is the wrong term to use, but hopefully that one won’t come around for quite some while yet. It does make life unpredictable, though).
Fear Not!
Don’t worry, though. The philosophy jokes will remain IN the books themselves, as the titles for the “parts” of each book. They just won’t be on the cover where they scare people away.
I mean, given the choice, it’s better to scare people away AFTER they’ve already started reading, right?
Anyway, cover reveals for the rebranding will be coming out soon–and they are lookin’ pretty sweet!
More news before too long…
jdsawyer
After a childhood in academia, J. Daniel Sawyer declared his independence by dropping out of high school and setting off on a series of adventures in the bowels of the film industry, the venture capital culture of silicon valley, surfing safaris, bohemians, burners, historians, theologians, adventurers, climbers, drug dealers, gangbangers, and inventors before his past finally caught up to him.
Trapped in a world bookended by one wall falling in Berlin and other walls going up around suburbia and along national borders throughout the world, he rediscovered his deep love of history and, with it, and obsession with predicting the future as it grew aggressively out of the past.
To date, this obsession has yielded over thirty books and innumerable short stories, the occasional short film, nearly a dozen podcasts stretching over a decade and a half, and a career creating novels and audiobooks exploring the world through the lens of his own peculiar madness, in the depths of his own private forest in a rural exile, where he uses the quiet to write, walk on the beach, and manage a production company that brings innovative stories to the ears of audiences across the world.
For news and free stories, sign up for his occasional newsletter. Or find his contact info, podcasts, and more on his home page at http://www.jdsawyer.net
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@dsawyer I hope you won’t mind people still calling it Antithesis even if it isn’t the name now.
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