Life And Times Print Version Update · 5:19am Nov 18th, 2015
It’s heeeere…
That’s right—after much work, time, and polish, The Life and Times of a Winning Pony is almost ready to go to print! We have a few details left to hash out, but we’re at the final stretch.
Haaaaalelujah! Haaaalelujah!
Ceeeelebration! Ceeeelebration! Heebreeeeeew words here!
What does this mean?
One more month.
Yeah, that’s it—one more month, then we can take orders.
Holy crap, a whole month?!
Yes, one more month. Here’s why: First off, Thanksgiving is going to slow everything down. Believe it or not, myself, Comma, and everyone else do have lives beyond writing and editing pony fiction. Additionally, we're going to print a test-copy of each book to make sure it’s up to snuff before we place a larger order.
Wait, ‘each’ book?
Yup! The story’s long enough that it was split into two volumes.
Awesome! How much is this going to cost?
That depends a little bit on how many people order a copy of Winning Pony. However, the current estimate for the full story is $70 USD. That may sound like a lot, but it boils down to $35 per volume.
Remember, we’re printing each copy from scratch—these books aren’t going to be mass-produced, which means they cost more per unit to make. The good news is that $70 is a high estimate, and the more people we get onboard with this, the more that cost drops for everyone.
That month also gives everyone time to get some money together for this. Again, I won’t have a more exact estimate for the price until I know exactly how many people want a hard copy, so $70 is a safe estimate.
Once the books are officially shipped out, I'll also update Life and Times itself to match the print version. No story-breaking changes have happened, but there's been plenty of general cleanup, some continuity work (as a couple folks noticed, a few bits of it conflict with Freeport Venture) and one or two problematic scenes got reworked. The end result should be a Winning Pony with even more win in it.
Also, I'd like to give a special thanks to Comma-Kazie, who's been doing a ton of the behind-the-scenes work to make this happen, and to InuHoshi for the awesome dust jackets for the books.
When are you going to be taking orders?
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imgfave-herokuapp-com.global.ssl.fastly.net/image_cache/1389634682454141.jpg
BOOK.
So... volume one presumably ends when Cloudy decides to kill her mother, or when she finds out her mother is missing in action. Or possibly when Blossom gets the kiss. That's appropriate, since the tone shifts into a dark place after that.
Also, Chengar, there is a Drama tag now. Winning Pony needs it. Maybe Sad and Tragedy don't fit but Drama is perfect for that story.
... Actually, you should add that to every one of your stories. Get on that.
3549982 This point goes double for you, Mr. Deadderpyverse.
From pixels to paper, congratulations.
I want
though that price
who knows I may be able to get volume 1 in a month or so
congrats on the book
Well you have my money when orders go out
If/when this happens, I'm sorely tempted to buy in
Also, question about the book, anything fancy we need to know about? The pictures aren't working for me, and I am curious about cover art and if maybe there are any little goodies like chapter-art or something in the book too. Just curious
The images aren't loading
That's really cool! This would make only the second story on this site that I've seen get a print version, with the first being Pen Stroke's Past Sins. And as always, InuHoshi is an amazing artist. When you do get around to updating Winning Pony, mind just saying what chapters had edited content?
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Bah, the hosting site's being a pain again. Try these links:
https://s16.postimg.org/41zq40jmr/Lifeand_Times_Vol1.jpg
https://s16.postimg.org/h8p63jfc3/Lifeand_Times_Vol2.jpg
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Yeah, probably do need to go over all my stories and re-tag them. Because Winning Pony needs a drama tag. Badly.
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All of them have some updates, even if it's just general cleanup.
Oh man this post totally made my day
This is just the sort of thing I love waking up to. Now if the image site would get it's butt into gear :D - I wanna see those images!
3550038 Neato burrito! Thanks for that!
3550038 Yeah, they still don't load (at least for me) in chrome. I had to launch them in firefox :)
It looks fab! Looking forward to seeing it in print.
But, that means you'll be releasing in December ... I have no money in December ...
(I guess I'll have to figure something out)
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Hence, the advance notice. It gives everyone time to save.
Alright so ive been dormant for a while and I cant seem to find another relevant blog post sooo
how would i go about buying these?
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We'll be setting everything up for that in the coming weeks.
Hmm, two books? Meshes well with the school of thought that Life and Times was supposed to be a light romantic comedy with Blossomforth and then a short timeskip to a sequel dealing with the wedding and her family issues, but Cloud Kicker derailed the romantic comedy so hard and dragged it out for so long that the sequel's scheduled plot ended up bleeding into it.
3550125 Aight, thanks, glad to know I didn't miss a deadline or anything, I'll be looking forward to it
I didn't know I needed this.
Now to save an extra $70 around Christmas... OK, I can do this!
my body is ready
I will be ordering a copy
This will make eight such books that the fandom has produced. Of the seven so far, I have five, all autographed.
This is the one thing in the fandom that I am a serious collector of.
So wait, am I still editing for this? You send me the first few chapters to look over, and nothing after that. I see how it is. I'm not good enough to edit for you anymore! Well pshaw, I say! George Bernard Pshaw! I see how it is!
...
Really looking forward to this. Have been since you announced it. You can consider me a buyer.
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Book?
Book!
This story has been sitting on my to-read list since, like, forever. I just can't resist a nice looking book though, and I've got the money for it. Plus, having them sitting on my bookshelf works as a great motivator to actually start reading them.
I'm curious about the format. Fiction tends to be tends to be printed in a tall and narrow format while these look like they are wider than they are tall. Was it to better fit the artwork you wanted or is there another reason? Out of curiosity, what size will the books be?
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Which ones have I missed? I have Past Sins, Twilight's List, Fallout Equestria (2 volume edition), Inner Glory and FoE: Pink Eyes.
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Nah, we mostly just went with a smaller editing team for the book version to avoid bogging you down with that plus all the other editing I toss at my pre-readers. I already keep my pre-readers pretty busy given that there's almost always at least one chapter/story out for pre-reading. Asking you guys to re-edit all 361k words of Life and Times on top of everything else seemed just a bit cruel for unpaid
minonsfriends volunteering their time.3550193 Still woulda done it if you asked. It's no trouble for me.
3550189 the list that I know of so far
(Have)
Past Sins
Scion of Chaos
Twilight’s List
Pink Eyes
Inner Glory
(Need)
Fallout: Equestria
The Flight of the Alicorn
I've heard rumors about The Secret Life of Rarity having been printed as well, but that has not yet been confirmed.
3550194 Question, I remember you mentioning a while ago about having The Secret Life of Rarity printed. Did that happen?
Awesome!
Is it even legal to sell a book based on characters you don't own?
Just wondering. I wouldn't want this going the way of Button Mash Adventures and possibly taking FimFiction down with it.
3550250 I think it might be similar to Past Sins in whether or not you can print and sell it. I don't know all what Pen Stroke had to go through to get Past Sins printed, but I imagine it's similar to this.
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If there were serious legal obstacles to doing this, I think they wouldn't have made this post. It wouldn't be like CQ and co. to pull a fast one on the fans like that.
Anyway, I know what I'm getting (myself...
) for Christmas.
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I hope you're right. This just seems like the sort of thing that a legal team would issue a C&D for.
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There have been several printed pony fanfics already. They tend to try to "fly below the radar" and not draw unnecessary attention. Orders are accepted for a limited time (about a month) and books are printed as a single run. Still, several of these projects have been announced on Equestria Daily, often several times, and have set up their own webpages where people could place their orders. Inner Glory went so far as to create an Indiegogo project (and then do it again a while later).
Even though fanfiction might be legally questionable, Hasbro wants to avoid closing down fan projects. I'm pretty sure they know how important these projects are for fan culture, a culture that in turn helps fuel demand for their own products. They prefer to look the other way and only take action when they feel they must. Button Mash (and Fighting is Magic) fell victim to their own success. They drew too much attention and the quality was so high they might be mistaken for official Hasbro products.
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Pen Stroke had little to do with the Past Sins books other than writing the story. Basically he was contacted by a group of people who wanted to create a printed version.
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Fallout: Equestria beat them both out...and it has two editions. (Though apparently a second edition of Past Sins is in the works.)
Twilight's List also had a print edition, though I don't think it was as marketed as these others. I remember seeing Alexstrasza selling it at BronyCon 2013. The Fallout: Equestria fanfiction Pink Eyes also got a printing by the same people who did both editions of the original story.
In any case, obviously only the best of the best have gotten printed, and I'm super happy to see Winning Pony join those noble few. It certainly deserves it!
3550973 Haven't heard of Twilight's List, what's that one about?
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It's basically the bible of TwiDash fanfiction. The TV Tropes page for it calls it the Trope Codifier for a ton of the common TwiDash shipping tropes, and in general it's hailed as one of the best shipfics in the fandom.
3550963 I see. It still seems a little risky. I can see writing fanfiction, but to actually profit off of it? I would stay far away from that if it were me.
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Who said anything about profit? Small print runs are more expensive. The goal of these printing projects is usually to get the books into as many hands as possible. Many bronies are young and don't have much income which means the books have to be relatively cheap, ergo no profit. More books also means lower cost per book (the exact price is usually calculated after all orders have been placed). Finally I think many authors feel like you feel, that it's wrong to profit from fanfiction. Even if they were, it'd be very meager pay for the amount of work it takes.
Havnt gotten around to reading these yet
But I'll buy them anyway
3551363 Still, people are handing him money and he's delivering a product. Even if he's not making a profit, I'd still stay far away from even the appearance of making a profit. Again, just my opinion, though.
Cool. Might just have to grab the set. I'd be curious about what printer you guys are using, since I've got a few projects of my own and wouldn't mind a recommendation for a place to get small print runs. Once you've gotten through and see how the whole process goes with your setup that is.
Well colour me hyped like a blue pony on a starlit night. I'm usually not such a massive fan of MLP thar I'd actually buy anything related to it, but this is going to be the exception to the rule.
I suppose a huge than you is in order, not only to Chengar but the team behind the scenes as well. You guys are awesome!
Good thing I'm getting extra hours at work. Time for some holiday hype.
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If this exceeds expectations, does that mean possible releases for other stories like the spin-offs or Freeport Venture?
Awesome! keep me posted on where I need to throw my money when the time comes.