Camulod Goes to Britain: Part Two

Here's what's in my mind:  I ended the first part of this long update by saying that the UK publisher, Sphere, is now going to rename the series yet again, this time to “Legends of Camelot”, shaping it to current British tastes and sensibilities, and that the British marketing drive will start with ebook publication, splitting the nine-book cycle into several rapid-fire “mini-series” releases. The spelling of “Camelot” in the series title caters to the instant-recognition factor and makes good marketing sense, I think, but my spelling of the name, “Camulod”, will be retained throughout the books.

A proviso about the “Miniseries” titles before I go any further: To the best of my knowledge, the names of these individual section titles have not been finalized. Nor have the new names of the individual books. The titles below are still under development and in the “idea” stages. They might well be changed as things progress. But that aside, the new approach makes sense to me and I endorse it.

So here’s the way it’s shaping up right  now, undert the proposed new overarching Series Title: Legends of Camelot

ANTICIPATED PRODUCTION SCHEDULE:

JUNE 2013

Miniseries Title: Arthur the Hero

Book 1: Excalibur (formerly The Saxon Shore)

Book 2: The Boy King (formerly Sorcerer 1, The Fort at River’s Bend)

Book 3: The Sorcerer (formerly Sorcerer 2, Metamorphosis)

JULY/AUGUST 2013

Miniseries Title: Arthur the King

Book 4: Lancelot (formerly Clothar the Fran; The Lance Thrower)

Book 5: The Last Stand (formerly Golden Eagle 2, The Eagle)

SEPTEMBER 2013

Miniseries Title:  Arthur the Son

Book 6: Merlyn (formerly The Eagles’ Brood)

Book 7: Pendragon (formerly Uther)

DECEMBER 2013

Miniseries Title: Arthur the Dynast

Book 8: War of the Celts (formerly The Skystone)

Book 9: The Round Table (formerly The Singing Sword)

It wouldn’t surprise me at all to hear a storm of abuse and cries of “sacrilege” from some of  my faithful readers here and in other English speaking countries, all of whom have become accustomed to the canon of the works as they’ve been published here over the years, but I have to register my own strong support for what’s being visualized by the UK publisher Sphere… Bear in mind that this is a completely new marketplace for these stories and that, twenty years after the original Skystone was published here in North America, there’s an entirely new young generation in Britain who have never heard of these books. Sure, there are people in the UK who have read and still love them as they've always been, but the truth is that those people (God bless them!) represent a really tiny minority of the potential readership in Britain, and they all came to know these novels essentially through some kind of accident of serendipity, since there has never been any form of marketing or advertising over there to promote the Camulod books.

Bear in mind, too, what I said in my last post about the linear aspect of the stories: they have existed to this point in the order in which I wrote them. Now, many years later, they exist as a single entity—a collection of nine novels—so it’s conceivable, and very possible, that by rearranging the individual books into a different sequence, and by pitching them using new ebook marketing techniques, the people at Sphere can bring the entire series, quickly and appealingly, to the attention of a new generation of readers…

As for the individual titles, both for the four miniseries and the individual books, those may be changed before actual publication; that’s part of the next stage of the production process. I really like some of the suggestions, while there are a couple that make me feel we could do better. Overall, however, I’m all in favour of what I’ve heard so far. I believe the direction is clear and right… It’s exciting, and it’s a different and refreshing way to view the entire project.

I’ll be interested in any reaction anyone might care to register.