New Official Rifts Novel: Duty's Edge (author Q&A thread)

[Hotrod]

From the weekly update:

We also have a new Rifts® novel in the pipeline from Will Erwin, Duty’s Edge

Now that Kevin has announced it officially, I’m happy to take general questions about Duty's Edge. For obvious reasons, I won't be giving spoilers or plot points

The story takes place in the Middle East, and the protagonist and point of view is Steffan Meyer, an NGR soldier.

[Orin J.]

Given kev neglected to, would you care to give us a quick line of the book's opening concept to whet our whistles for more?

[Hotrod]

Given kev neglected to, would you care to give us a quick line of the book's opening concept to whet our whistles for more?

I added a bit to the OP.

The story mostly happens in the Middle East, a region that hasn't previously been well-defined in canon. It's a tale of exploration, culture shock, mystery, and nuclear explosions.

[DhAkael]

Well now. A not CS-centric story located in a land only breezed-past in Rifts Africa (and by breeze I mean light zephyr), with a polity that hasn't seen any story love in ages.

I approve.
4 thumbs up.

Question though; does this take place before or after the Minion War incursion? Meaning; are the 4 HORSEmen of the appocalypse gonna be riding or has their timecome & gone?

[Mack]

Congratulations!

[Hotrod]

:nuke:
Well now. A not CS-centric story located in a land only breezed-past in Rifts Africa (and by breeze I mean light zephyr), with a polity that hasn't seen any story love in ages.

I approve.
4 thumbs up.

Question though; does this take place before or after the Minion War incursion? Meaning; are the 4 HORSEmen of the appocalypse gonna be riding or has their timecome & gone?

Thanks! I hope you enjoy it. Some demons and subdemons are factors in the story. Knowing when in the timeline this story is set would be a minor spoiler for those who, like you, know their Rifts history well; my hope is that figuring out when the story takes place could be fun for fans; it was for Rex Barkdoll, who edited the manuscript.

Congratulations!

Thanks!

[Warshield73]

Congratulations. I too am looking forward to a novel exploring other parts of Rifts Earth.

Question: Are you doing anything with the Nimro kngdom in Turkey, briefly described on Pg. 94 of Conversion Book One Revised?

I had a lot of fun with this place after my players did the Four Horsemen campaign and I have always wanted to see it given some love somewhere.

[Hotrod]

Congratulations. I too am looking forward to a novel exploring other parts of Rifts Earth.

Question: Are you doing anything with the Nimro kngdom in Turkey, briefly described on Pg. 94 of Conversion Book One Revised?

I had a lot of fun with this place after my players did the Four Horsemen campaign and I have always wanted to see it given some love somewhere.

Thanks! The story does not take place in Turkey; it's all to the south of there. So no, no Nimro kingdom in this story.

[drewkitty ~..~]

Congratulations!
You made to the announcement stage.

I do hope they get it out soon.

[Mlp7029]

Does the release plan include a real ePub for it?

[Hotrod]

Does the release plan include a real ePub for it?

The current plan is to publish it on DriveThruRPG as a PDF. It's up to Kevin whether or not to publish it in other forms. I'd certainly be happy to see it in an E-reader format. I'm not familiar with how to format for Kindle or other ebook readers, but Wayne might be.

[Prysus]

Does the release plan include a real ePub for it?

The current plan is to publish it on DriveThruRPG as a PDF. It's up to Kevin whether or not to publish it in other forms. I'd certainly be happy to see it in an E-reader format. I'm not familiar with how to format for Kindle or other ebook readers, but Wayne might be.

Greetings and Salutations. If you'd like to know how to format and/or convert to the more popular formats, I found this link:

https://kimgarst.com/format-ebook-for-publishing/

There's links included for formatting guides. While I've never done so myself, looks like you should be able to figure it out from the information provided there. If you need any help, I'd be willing to give it a shot (though I admit I don't have any experience, just a willingness to try and help and figure it out). Hope that helps. Farewell and safe journeys.


P.S. Oh! And congratulations.

[Hotrod]

Does the release plan include a real ePub for it?

The current plan is to publish it on DriveThruRPG as a PDF. It's up to Kevin whether or not to publish it in other forms. I'd certainly be happy to see it in an E-reader format. I'm not familiar with how to format for Kindle or other ebook readers, but Wayne might be.

Greetings and Salutations. If you'd like to know how to format and/or convert to the more popular formats, I found this link:

https://kimgarst.com/format-ebook-for-publishing/

There's links included for formatting guides. While I've never done so myself, looks like you should be able to figure it out from the information provided there. If you need any help, I'd be willing to give it a shot (though I admit I don't have any experience, just a willingness to try and help and figure it out). Hope that helps. Farewell and safe journeys.


P.S. Oh! And congratulations.

Thanks a lot for the link and suggestion! I'll see what I can do to make this happen.

[Mlp7029]

Does the release plan include a real ePub for it?

The current plan is to publish it on DriveThruRPG as a PDF. It's up to Kevin whether or not to publish it in other forms. I'd certainly be happy to see it in an E-reader format. I'm not familiar with how to format for Kindle or other ebook readers, but Wayne might be.

Greetings and Salutations. If you'd like to know how to format and/or convert to the more popular formats, I found this link:

https://kimgarst.com/format-ebook-for-publishing/

There's links included for formatting guides. While I've never done so myself, looks like you should be able to figure it out from the information provided there. If you need any help, I'd be willing to give it a shot (though I admit I don't have any experience, just a willingness to try and help and figure it out). Hope that helps. Farewell and safe journeys.


P.S. Oh! And congratulations.

Thanks a lot for the link and suggestion! I'll see what I can do to make this happen.

That would be awesome. Since the pdfs are locked we the customers cannot do this. I am very disappointed to date in the pdfs I have purchased because they are just scans without even an index or even OCR dome on them in many cases. I volunteered to do that for Palladium but they did not even respond to my offer.

[Hotrod]

Does the release plan include a real ePub for it?

The current plan is to publish it on DriveThruRPG as a PDF. It's up to Kevin whether or not to publish it in other forms. I'd certainly be happy to see it in an E-reader format. I'm not familiar with how to format for Kindle or other ebook readers, but Wayne might be.

Greetings and Salutations. If you'd like to know how to format and/or convert to the more popular formats, I found this link:

https://kimgarst.com/format-ebook-for-publishing/

There's links included for formatting guides. While I've never done so myself, looks like you should be able to figure it out from the information provided there. If you need any help, I'd be willing to give it a shot (though I admit I don't have any experience, just a willingness to try and help and figure it out). Hope that helps. Farewell and safe journeys.


P.S. Oh! And congratulations.

Thanks a lot for the link and suggestion! I'll see what I can do to make this happen.

That would be awesome. Since the pdfs are locked we the customers cannot do this. I am very disappointed to date in the pdfs I have purchased because they are just scans without even an index or even OCR dome on them in many cases. I volunteered to do that for Palladium but they did not even respond to my offer.

So I discussed it with Palladium. Unfortunately, since Kevin has an exclusive deal with DriveThruRPG, that will be the only place you will be able to buy a digital copy of the novel. That said, from what I've seen, the more recent PDFs Palladium has produced are proper PDFs, not just scans of books, and I believe Palladium will format Duty's Edge that way as well.

While I would certainly like to see my story distributed on as many book-selling platforms as possible, DriveThruRPG is where Palladium sells all its digital products, and it makes sense for them to keep those products in the same digital place. That encourages customers who are interested in one of their products to consider other Palladium products.

I love reading on my Kindle, and I understand folks who prefer to read their fiction on such devices or books rather than backlit screens. If PDFs are a hard no, then your best bet is to hope that enough people buy the PDF for Kevin to invest in a paperback edition. Alternately, if you can print for cheap/free, you could buy the PDF, print it, and bind it at an office supply store. That's what I did with the physical copy of Duty's Edge that I handed to Kevin.

[glitterboy2098]

drivethrurpg is able to sell ebook formats as well. i have several books in those formats i obtained through there. can be a bit tricky to get them onto my kindle at times due to the extra steps you need, but you can do it.

so if you can put the books text into a .mobi and a .epub you'll cover most of the e book readers and can still sell through drivethru

[Hotrod]

drivethrurpg is able to sell ebook formats as well. i have several books in those formats i obtained through there. can be a bit tricky to get them onto my kindle at times due to the extra steps you need, but you can do it.

so if you can put the books text into a .mobi and a .epub you'll cover most of the e book readers and can still sell through drivethru

Well allrighty then! I just spoke with Kevin and got his OK. Once the central crew finishes the final editing and layout process, I'll start working on converting it into epub and/or mobi to sell on DriveThruRPG. It will likely get released on epub and mobi after it comes out as a PDF. For Kindle users, this will require a file conversion.