Project Announcement: Royal Banquet Print Book

Hello there! 

How's the new year started for you? Hopefully good.

We only just completed a long, long journey a couple of weeks ago, but hanging back and chilling is not on the menu. As effectively shown by the calendar, time isn't stopping, and neither are we. 

There are a lot of things I'd like to bring out this year, so without further ado, let's kick things off teasing with a new project, which I'll share with you before anyone else.

Well, new/old, however you choose to view it.

I'm glad to tell you that Royal Banquet, the first part of 'A Hero Past the 25th', will become available in print for the first time ever on Amazon. The release is tentatively planned for February 14.

Collectors will be able to take their pick between a standard paperback edition, as well as Amazon's new, experimental hardcover format.

There have been requests for a physical version since the story was first uploaded, and I've always wanted to make one too. It was originally written as a regular novel, after all, as you may guess by the cumbersome chapters. 

But even though it would've made for a quick answer to the wishes, I didn't want to simply print the text from the web version and call it a day. No, I wanted to lift the story as close to proper professional level as I could, in terms of both the quality of the content, as well as the print layout. And now, over five years since the story first came out, I finally felt the time was right to do this.

Izumi's bizarre adventure in another world is no longer just a hazy dream in the back of my head. The road has become clear from the beginning to the final end, so I had everything necessary to assemble this book now. 

The text has been completely revised and rearranged, with newly divided, shorter chapters. A lot of fluff was cut out or rewritten completely, or otherwise adjusted, to ensure that the style of the narrative, the worldbuilding, and characterization keep faithful with the later episodes.

Nothing about the plot itself was changed. 

The series has been somewhat controversial from the beginning. Some readers feel the protagonist is an unforgivable monster, others that she isn't savage enough—we've heard rather extreme opinions over the years. Authors as well tend to look back on what they've written with mixed regret and shame, but though there was a chance to, I didn't personally want to change anything about the scenario itself.

What I was more concerned with was the language and the flow of the narrative. I've written more stories and read more books since five years ago, and the added experience made the shortcomings of the prose easier to see.  The extensive rewrites and adjustments were to bring out the real meat of the tale better, and I believe I managed to do just that here. Everything is more concise now and sharper.

Like a movie remastered from 720p to 4K. Kinda?

Less noise.

Well, I couldn't resist throwing a couple of all-new elements into the soup too, to give the veteran readers a reason to stay awake and make up theories.  They're not really "changes" as they are "alternative perspectives", I think. You'll see.

Now, this is going to be a physical-only release. 

That is to say, there won't be an accompanying Kindle edition. I don't want to remove the fiction from Royal Road, and having two rivaling digital versions of the same story, of which one is free and one is not, wouldn't make much sense. It would only confuse people more, I'm afraid.

I won't update the revised text from the print book on Royal Road either. Too much work, and it wouldn't be very fair for those who buy the book if everyone got the same experience free anyway. Simply owning a tangible copy is probably not enough to justify the purchase for most people.

Plus, there are always a few extremists around who consider original versions sacred and any changes to them sacrilege. And I don't want to hear anyone cry about how "IT WAS PERFECT EXACTLY THE WAY IT WAS AND YOU RUINED IT AAAAA!" Or seek to take justice into their own hands and spread copies of the poorly edited web novel in shady places. That would be embarrassing.

It gets so complicated, I don't even want to think about it.

The original is far from perfect but it's there, with all its ups and downs, and it stays there. Don't worry. I'm not touching it anymore, even to fix any of the typos.  (So please, don't waste your valuable time proofreading it anymore, okay?)

Back on topic, Saintly Girls Zone last year was a bit of an experiment on how Amazon handles print, and I was personally quite pleased with the result. They're not the biggest for no reason, I guess. The material quality and letter quality are all very nice and the system easy to use.

I'm confident we'll get a nice, clean-looking book done that'll be a pleasure to read and put in your bookcase. And to frequently wipe dust off of. And to rip and throw at walls. And to burn at campfire. The possibilities are virtually limitless.

There's still some work to be done on it, but I'm confident the book will be out by the aforementioned date. I'll still need to order a proof copy and make possible corrections, and so on, but I'll let you know right away if any changes happen to the plan.

I'll write another, longer article on my blog closer to the release date, with pictures and a detailed list of the elements changed compared to the web novel. So you'll know more then.

If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer too.

Hope you'll look forward to being summoned to Ortho for the first time again and rediscover your childhood dream of becoming a sword hero.

Until then, enjoy the winter and stay safe!

Ciao!