Dan Moren

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The Nova Incident

  • All’s rights with the world

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    If you watch TV and movies, you might think the life of a writer is nonstop glamor: jet-setting book tours, adoring fans, prestigious college gigs. But a lot of times it’s about the nitty-gritty: filing estimated taxes, wrestling with Track Changes in Word, dealing with contracts and rights.

    Don’t get me wrong—I actually kind of love the nitty-gritty. It’s a balm for when the creative part of the job starts to feel like a slog, like I’m plodding along putting one word after another with no end in sight. The nitty-gritty feels like getting stuff done.

    This is an admittedly long way of getting to the point of this post, which is that I’ve already had a few people reach out to me to note that they can’t currently get ebook copies of The Aleph Extraction and The Nova Incident. Never fear, this is not a bug but a feature! I’m currently in the process of getting the rights for those two titles reverted.

    Allow me to translate from authorspeak: when you sign your publishing contract, you—the author—grant certain rights to the publisher as a term of the contract. That’s what allows them—the publisher—to sell the book, on your behalf, whether in physical, digital, or audio capacities. But most publishing contracts also stipulate points at which a writer can ask for the rights to their works to be “reverted”—that is, to say, returned to them to do with as they will. Sometimes it’s after a certain amount of time, sometimes there’s a threshold of sales below which reversion can be requested—every contract has its own terms.

    In most cases, it’s also a process that involves some back and forth between the author and publisher or some specific period of time. After all, if the publisher is holding inventory of physical copies of a book, it generally can’t (or doesn’t want to) just flip a switch and have to trash all those. Likewise, it takes some time for those books to get back up for sale: there’s layout to be done, new cover art in most cases, fixing typos that might have slipped through the cracks of the previous edition, and so on.

    All of that is under way right now so never fear, The Aleph Extraction and The Nova Incident will return. I certainly have no intention of them being lost and gone forever.

    I’m sure some of you will also be wondering what this could mean for the future of the Galactic Cold War series. This process makes matters a little more convoluted for the moment, as Angry Robot continues to hold the rights for The Bayern Agenda and The Armageddon Protocol1 and The Caledonian Gambit is still at my initial publisher, Skyhorse. (That’s not even getting into the audiobook versions, which are still published by a variety of companies—but they should continue to stick around for the moment.) And, of course, my non-Galactic Cold War sci-fi novel, Eternity’s Tomb is still coming in November!

    So, while I don’t have any immediate (or imminent) announcements, when and if I do, I’ll certainly share them on my mailing list or here. In the meantime, if you’re jonesing for those two volumes, you should be able to still get the audiobook or, hopefully, find a friend with the physical copies to borrow. Or you can always reach out and maybe I can find a way to help. Thanks, as always, for reading: whether it’s the creative side or the nitty-gritty, you reading the stories is what makes it all worthwhile.

    1. Don’t ask: like I said, contracts all have their own peculiarities.↩

  • Cover Story: The Nova Incident

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    We’re six months out from the debut of my next novel, the latest installment in the Galactic Cold War series. The Nova Incident is a departure from the previous books: without getting too much into the details, it’s the first book in the series to lean more heavily on what’s come in the preceding volumes, and the action takes place entirely on one planet.1

    One thing that isn’t different from its predecessors is the excellent cover art, this time courtesy Tom Shone.

    However, long-time readers know that I often do my own sketches2 when discussing cover art with my publisher. This time was no different there, either.

    When I started thinking about what I wanted on the cover of Nova, my mind was drawn immediately the book’s opening scene, where a bomb explodes in the Commonwealth capital city of Salaam. It’s a big, jarring action scene that sets the plot in motion, and I felt like it really emphasized what Kovalic and crew will be dealing with as the story unfolds.

    So, emboldened by Angry Robot Managing Editor Gemma Creffield, who made the dubious decision of telling me that she loved my drawings, I took my usual crack at it, picking up my iPad and Apple Pencil and attempting to represent the idea that was so vivid in my head: a futuristic city on fire, a space station hanging far overhead, and our hero caught unaware.

    The Nova Incident cover sketch

    I don’t know, I think I’m getting better?

    Anyway, I got a very kind response from both Gemma and AR’s associate publisher, Eleanor Teasdale, who declared “I love this sketch with all of my heart.” The way, I can only assume, one loves a misshapen cake in which one has accidentally swapped the amounts of baking soda and baking powder.3

    Naturally, the final result puts mine to shame and I’m delighted with how it turned out. But I’ll reserve a small amount of pleasure that most of the elements from my sketch made their way into the actual cover (albeit with the acceptable loss of our little stick-figure pal down there for scale). And, of course, the very perceptive amongst you might notice that the book had a different title at this point, the result of some input from my agent, Joshua Bilmes.4

    As ever, I appreciate the willingness of the Angry Robot team to indulge my burgeoning artistic habit. Here’s hoping that I haven’t ruined my chances of sketching ideas for any future installments in the series, should they happen. (Not that I expect it to make up any percentage of my writing income, ever.)

    Just a reminder: The Nova Incident debuts six months from today, July 26! You can pre-order it now, which you should absolutely do, especially if you want another book.5 Pre-orders remain the best way to show your support for an author, as I’m sure I’ll be reminding everybody out there for the next, oh, half a year or so.

    Update: And, as of the day this was posted, Barnes & Noble is offering 25% of all preorders, both ebook and paperback, so there’s never been a better time to get yours in!

    1. See if you can guess from the title which one it is 🤔.↩

    2. Terrible, terrible sketches.↩

    3. Don’t ask me how I know.↩

    4. I’ve yet to have one of my working titles survive to publication, but there’s always next time.↩

    5. I haven’t hit the end of the story yet…but it’s rapidly approaching is all I’ll say.↩

  • Preorders for The Nova Incident are live! Plus, get a signed copy

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    Buckle in, friends. If you’ve been waiting for your chance to preorder the latest installment of the Galactic Cold War series, the time is at hand! Preorders are now live from all your favorite bookstores, online and off. Get ready for the newest adventures of Eli Brody, Simon Kovalic, Addy Sayers, and the rest of the team as the ongoing conflict between Commonwealth and Imperium hits home—in more ways than one.

    And, for the first time, you can get yourself a signed copy of the paperback when it arrives, thanks to the good people at my local bookstore, Porter Square Books. Just head over there to place your preorder—you can even specify a personalized message from yours truly. I will literally write whatever you ask. Almost. Within reason.1

    As a reminder, preorders are very important to authors. They help register interest in a title, which is one of the key things when it comes to that author being able to publish more books. So if you want more stories in the Galactic Cold War series (or, heck, more books of any kind by me!), then please consider preordering. It helps count towards first-week sales, which can be make or break for a lot of books.

    Also, I can say that while it’s not yet available for preorder, there will be an audiobook version of Nova coming. I’ll share more details about that when I have them, but if you’re holding out for that, rest assured that it’s on its way.

    Finally, people often ask when buying a copy of my books what’s the most beneficial place/format for me, to which I say, pick whatever’s best for you. I talk about this a bit over in my FAQ2, but the end result is that, for me, it all comes out in the wash. But you should definitely buy it from the place where you’ll get the most enjoyment out of it.

    Thanks again for all your support. I’m looking forward to all of you getting your hands on The Nova Incident and I can’t wait to hear what you think.

    1. Don’t try it, Yankees fans.↩

    2. Yes, I have a FAQ, where I A all your most F Qs.↩

  • Going Nova

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    The Galactic Cold War hits close to home, in more ways than one…

    The Nova Incident

    If you thought you’d seen the last of Simon Kovalic and his trusty band of misfit spies, think again. I’m delighted to announce that The Nova Incident, the third book in the Galactic Cold War saga1 will be in stores and on shelves on July 26, 2022. What’s it about? So glad you asked:

    When a bomb explodes in the bustling Commonwealth capital city of Salaam, responsibility is quickly claimed by an extremist independence movement. But after a former comrade, an ex-spy with his own agenda, is implicated in the attack, Simon Kovalic and his team of covert operatives are tasked with untangling the threads of a dangerous plot that could have implications on a galactic scale. And the deeper Kovalic digs, the more he’ll uncover a maze of secrets, lies, and deception that may force even the most seasoned spy to question his own loyalties.

    There’s a lot more I want to share with you about The Nova Incident, but if you want to take a look at the gorgeous new cover designed by Tom Shone and an extensive Q&A with yours truly, the good folks at SciFiNow have graciously given me an opportunity to talk a bit more about it.

    Of course, I’d like to entreat you to get your pre-orders in; it remains the best way to tell publishers and stores that you like these books, which in turn helps ensure that the story continues. You can find more about the book, including pre-order links, over here. Spread the word!

    1. Well, depending on how you count, I guess↩