'Unfettered' Vanity

'Unfettered' is a fantasy short story anthology put together by Shawn Speakman to pay off his medical bills(lucky him). It's probably the strongest fantasy anthology line up since the original 'Legends'. Among the contributors are Patrick Rothfuss, Mark Lawrence, Peter V Brett, Tad Williams, Brandon Sanderson, Jacqueline Carey, RA Salvatore and Daniel Abraham. That's a stellar line up just there and the book is guaranteed to sell a lot of copies if it gets widespread distribution. Even with just selling from his own website it should sell plenty of copies given the authors involved will pimp it to there respective online followers.

All that is good.

What is not good IMO, is that Mr Speakman is linking the sales of the Limited edition of this book to sales of his own self published book 'Dark Thorn'.

The most important aspect of Unfettered for some of you who are collectors: Those who own the signed & numbered edition of The Dark Thorn will have the first chance to order the same number of the signed and numbered edition of Unfettered.

Oh great, so if I want any chance to get a copy of the limited edition which will be highly sort after, I have to buy his crappy book that no publisher wanted.

I have written an urban/high fantasy novel titled The Dark Thorn. I’ve been largely ignored by traditional publishing houses but I’ve had too many fantasy fans want to read it.

Largely ignored despite him having this advantage.

Due to my work with Random House and The Signed Page, I have befriended two dozen bestselling authors over the years

So all those connections and you still couldn't get it published.....I highly doubt he's the next Anthony Ryan or Michael J. Sullivan.

One could argue he's packaging the two books like that to raise(make) more money. That for me doesn't hold up as the limited edition of this book will be so highly sort after, that he could easily just bump up the price of around $125 to $200 and still raise(make) the same amount or more given he wouldn't have to print copies of his own book that harldy anyone will want.

To me it just appears he want's to sell copies of his book to to sate is own vanity.

Will I buy the limited edition of 'Unfettered'? If I can, otherwise it will be the trade for me. I certainly won't be buying 'Dark Thorn'

Do I think this is a good cause? Not really, but heh, if you've got the connections why not use them. I just don't appreciate being "forced" to buy a crap book.