In the endless bustle here at Empty Set, we often have projects in the works we can’t talk much about. For a business so heavily invested in new media, I spend a lot of time being pretty quiet on the digital front. (As you can tell as I try and launch this site in fits and starts.)
Today, though, I don’t need to be quiet at all, since Del Rey made this announcement:
Executive Editor Mark Tavani at Ballantine Bantam Dell bought World Rights to a science fiction trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Scott Sigler. In the first book, ALIVE, a young woman awakes trapped in a confined space with no idea who she is or how she got there. She soon frees other young adults in the room and together they find that they are surrounded by the horrifying remains of a war long past … and matched against an enemy too horrible to imagine. Further adventures will follow in two more books, ALIGHT and AWAY. The books will be published under the Del Rey imprint.
ALIVE, ALIGHT and AWAY are the result of a work in progress since 2010, so it’s a very cool proof-of-concept for the way Scott and I work: he gets the incessant creative need, we discuss how and where and when it fits. Once it fits, it gets done. That’s pretty much how this worked, and it’s gratifying to see it meet success so quickly after it went to market.
Okay, to be fair, the early draft he wrote on a week long “staycation” in San Francisco when he was supposed to be decompressing from a deadline — so much for that part of our plan. But once we put this into the Empty Set schedule, our system worked beautifully. We worked as a team with his agent to sort out the important details for timing and the market, and then Sigler did what Sigler does best: he delivered an exciting, unique, enthralling story.
Another great part of the deal is that Empty Set will retain the audiobook rights for the trilogy. Audio is an essential part of our business plan, and we wanted to be sure to have audiobooks and podcasts for the Junkies. Coach Sigler’s advice to a younger Scott still guides us: we dance with the ones that brought us.
So today I say congratulations Scott, on a hard earned and well deserved success, and here’s to many more.
