Note: This blog entry is outdated and from January, 2020! BEES will be published on November 21, 2021 in the U.S.A. and U.K. More information.
Dear All—
Geez. Spend the day in a car driving from California to Arizona, and all Hell breaks loose…
On the Amazon websites (in the U.K. and various other countries!) there is a page purporting to give a release (or publication) date of October 20th, 2020, for GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE (with a rather gloomy-looking cover) and providing a link for pre-orders—
NO, IT ISN’T TRUE!!! (but I’ve certainly been getting a lot of apologetic email from publishers…)
First off:
1. NO, the publication date for BEES of October 20th, 2020, (or the 15th, as another Amazon site had it) is NOT CORRECT!
As I told you, the U.S. publisher (who decides the pub date) tells me they aren’t even going to think about a pub date until they have the whole manuscript in hand. (Which they don’t, though it’s only a matter of weeks now…)
2. While the Amazon page for BEES popped up on amazon.co.uk (Amazon’s website for the U.K.), amazon.fr (Amazon’s website for France) and amazon.de (Amazon’s website for Germany), and probably a few others I don’t know about, all the announcements pertain to the U.K.’s release of what’s called an “English export edition”:
The English (original) version of the book is allowed to be sold in other countries, by the U.K. (or U.S.; I think both Random Houses in the U.S.A. and U.K. get to do export editions, but maybe to different parts of the market—it’s been a long time since I read the small print in the contracts—I do read a contract before signing it, every time, but I don’t normally need to review them). So all of this kerfuffle surrounds the U.K. export edition—not the translation editions into other languages done by the German, French, etc., publishers.
3. Not only is the pub date not correct (it can’t be, because there isn’t one yet), the cover is not the one that will be on the book. This was an early design, which I didn’t really like.
4. Apparently, all the erroneous Amazon pages were posted accidentally—and automatically—by what’s being described as “a systems glitch.” You know how it’s possible to set up tweets and Facebook posts ahead of time, so they’ll post automatically at a set time? It works something like that. It’s common for a publishing company to set up a dummy page for a book and add information as available, then when there IS a pub date <ahem>, set the page to go live for pre-orders. You can see that the erroneous page is missing a few things—like the author’s name….
5. I’m assured that the erroneous pages have all been taken down. So—apologies for the kerfuffle, but I repeat (again…) —
I’LL TELL YOU when the pub date is known. And it’s not been set yet.
Once a publication date is set, it will be immediately posted here on my official web pages, including on my official GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE webpage, (bookmark it, please) and on my official “home” web page. For those who use social media, of course I’ll post the news on my official accounts there right away, as well.
Thanks!
-Diana
This blog entry was also posted by me on my official Facebook page on January 15, 2020.
I only discovered your books in 2017, but I read the first eight in less than three months while I was still teaching high school English full time. (And I am not a fast reader as I enjoy soaking up the words and the story.) As are all of your fans, I so look forward to reading Bees, and, at almost 72, I hope to be around to read the final novel in this beautifully researched and written series. I have also purchased and read your other novellas and Seven Stones to Stand or Fall. Thank you so much for providing so many people thousands or, perhaps, millions of hours of reading pleasure.
BlitheAllison Reed
P.S. I still cannot believe it took me all those years to find Outlander. I love historical fiction, and even though I double majored in English and history, I never truly understood the Jacobite cause until I read your books.
Hi:
I suffered the drought every year since I “discover” book 3. And I waited patiently knowing that research takes time, and to write a good story that keeps you going at the same time is very difficult.
I did not want to spoil it reading the little parts that Diana was writing. I want to read it as I did the other ones and be surprised at each corner and eat the whole book. That’s the way I love to read.
I these series were great, I love them.
Diana, when you finish with the series, what are you going to do? Rest?
Thank you for introduce us into a world that we can get lost into. In a way that not a lot of writers can do that.
hi can you please tell me when the next outland series will be shown on uk tv, love the series and the books, waiting impatiently for the last book go tell the bees, please please finish asap thanks
Hello,
The answer to your question is on Diana’s webpage: http://www.dianagabaldon.com/other-projects/outlander-tv-series/where-to-watch/
And Diana’s “Where To Watch” webpage says (for the U.K.):
Episodes of the new series 5 (aka season 5) became available from Amazon Prime Video (U.K.) service on Monday, February 17. New episodes will appear on Mondays, a day after they debut in the U.S.A. You may purchase episodes individually or a season pass.
Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk
“After clicking on the above Amazon (U.K.) link, search for “Outlander Season 5.”
And if you read Diana’s webpages further, you’ll find that BEES is not the “last book” in her Outlander series of novels. There will be a Book Ten.
Cheers,
Loretta
Diana’s Webmistress
Hi Ms Gabaldon, I live in Toronto, Canada and heard about your books Outlander just a few months ago. I have
Read and enjoyed them all and just can’t wait for the Bees. Please hurry!
Thanks so much for the update. I have read or listened to every novel and I so envy your writing and research abilities.
Kind regards, Sam
First I would like to thank you for your incredible stories, and to say you take all the time you need to finish. While reading your books I never feel that they are rushed through. The show on Starz helps us get through. From the bottom of my heart THANK YOU again Every book takes me through all the emotions I laugh, I cry I get mad but best of all I Love. Looking forward to all yet to come.
Now with the corona virus and social distancing/isolation, you can finish your latest book – PLEASE!!!! I have been waiting so long and would love to be reading it during this time!!
I am not a reader, I enjoy baking, woodworking, and crafts of many kinds.
I am a passionate Scot, so my friend thought I would enjoy reading the first book in the series. That was over 20 years ago, and I have been hooked ever since. I have read the series 3 times, and watched reruns of the tv show. Your books are captivating, and so detailed, and I am so looking forward to the next book. Slainte!
Waiting patiently but wish I had Bees to help get through this virus “stay in, stay safe” time. To everyone…..keep well!
Dear Diana, I have read all your books of Outlander and most of Lord John, and I am anxiously awaiting the release of “Bees”. Do you know when Season 5 will be released in Australia? It is usually on Netflix. Like some of your other readers I sometimes don t like the adaptation of your wonderful books but understand the needs of a different adaptation. I have read your books 3 times as I am 78 years old and have spent some time in hospital over the last few years so am really grateful for your wonderful gift. Much love and blessings to you and your family.
Was just listening for the 3rd time my audio library of the outlander series. Love them all! Was just thinking how a series would sound fromDiana if we fast forward thirty years or so and have Amanda time travel to a different country and time in her grandmothers footsteps. Africa? Australia? India? There are some wonderful history lessons and topics. I wish I could write like Dians!!! Thanks for giving me years of a wonderful world to excape to !
I have just read book 8again and loved it, every time you reread a book in the outlander series you find something new. Diana is a marvellous author and in this time of lockdown, books do help to get through the isolation. So thank you for your writing.. I am so looking forward to “Go tell the bees”
God bless you. Ann Wright (England)
Any idea what the cover of the book will look like
Dear Kim.
In a word, no. My U.S. publisher won’t begin to work on cover ideas until after I finish BEES and it goes through their editing, typesetting, and publication process.
And many international editions outside the U.S.A. tend to have unique cover art that differs from the U.S. edition, as well.
Thanks,
Diana
Thank You! I eagarly await Bees! As I will likely go madd without Outlander in my life!
♡Susie♡
SNJ-US
Thank you …I await the continuing saga ..with joy
Andrea Lake
Has it been decided how many novels will be in the series? I remember some discussion about this years ago and was wondering if there was any new info on it. I read that there might be a tenth novel and a prequel, too. I understand that it’s not possible to always anticipate how long it will take to properly develop and bring to an end the story lines, but I hope it’s okay to ask if there are any new thoughts on how long the Outlander series will go…Thanks!
Hi,
I am working on Book Nine now, GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE.
After BEES, there will be a Book Ten. Book Ten will (likely) be the last Outlander major novel featuring Jamie and Claire.
After that, I have a prequel novel planned about Jamie’s parents, and a future novel about Master Raymond also. Plus a contemporary mystery set in Phoenix.
Thanks!
Diana
I am so excited to hear that there is a book 9 and there will be a book 10. I am let to the party and just finished book 8 and was sad because i thought that was it! I love Jamie, Claire and their extended family. Thank you so much for writing this series!
Juliette Pouliot
By any chance will Jamie visit the Pacific Northwest in the 1790s (via someplace cold)?
Dear Shannon,
Diana doesn’t reveal what is to come in her books, except in the Excerpts (“Daily Lines”) that she posts.
So you’ll have to wait and see!
Cheers,
Loretta
Diana’s Webmistress
that is great to hear
I have been reading your books since Christmas 1999. Before each new book, I enjoy reading ALL the books again to delve wholeheartedly bd seamlessly into the newest one. I have no idea how you manage such complex characters and storylines. I don’t think I’ve ever discovered a single storyline that was reused. You create such a tapestry of characters and stories that are interwoven thru time. I have treasured your books and characters and look forward to your next one. I have begun reading Outlander series again (for the 8th time) in preparation for the coming book. I wish you all the best!
Of corse Bees has not been published! Our favorite author has been to busy writing and getting to the presses Book 1 of a completely different series.
‘ The Best American Science Fiction Fantasy’
Got an email from Amazon announcing its availability.
Bees reminds me too much of Game of Thrones. Martin would Tease the heck out of us book readers about the last book. Meanwhile, HBO held him off from publishing!
We were faithful and in returned were burned.
So Seriously, I do not believe Bees will be published and we will be forced to watch the series.
Dear Grigsbe,
Being a guest editor of an anthology work takes several days to a week to do. And yes, I do occasional anthologies and short fiction for variety.
BEES is 700-plus pages long and obviously takes much longer to write and do the background historical research. I thimk it will be worth the wait…
Diana
Diana,
I just wanted to reach out to you and let you know how much I have LOVED the Outlander books. It is love because everything else around me disappears as I read! I’m cast into your beloved world of Outlander.
I know you get this type of email all the time, but I don’t reach out to authors and I felt I had to reach you somehow.
I’ve read and reread the novels several times, as well as enjoyed Davina Porter’s portrayals of the characters in the Audio Books media. So happy to know that she will be reading “Bees” as well.
Very much looking forward to the publication of the new novel.
You are the best!
Love to you and your family!
Yvette Calhoun
Dear Diana, I just finished re-reading MOBY and just want to say again how much I appreciate all the research and depth you put into your work. There is so much more quality here than in those one-every-six-months serials that some commentators seem to want. Since much of my reading (Pamela, Evelina, Kidnapped, letters of ABIGAIL Adams, etc – I particularly remember Abigail Adams pleasing with her husband to send her some more pins, as her area was blockaded and pins were not available for love or money – I didn’t realize until I tried on a replica gown from that period that some of their bodices were entirely held together with pins!) has been novels that were actually current in Jamie’s day or a little after Jamie’s day, or more recent but not current closed canons like the Hornblower series, Aubrey-Maturin, the Sharpe series, and (heehee) Discworld (and am I the ONLY one who sometimes giggles and thinks of Nac Mac Feegles when I’m reading your books? Not Jamie Himself, of course, but maybe Wee Angus…) it’s really a new experience for me to wait for a book in real time. Honestly, I’m glad I didn’t discover the Outlander books until just this autumn, because then I had the ecstatic bliss of devouring twenty years of your hard work in the space of one sleepless month, and the delightful prospect of the next one perhaps coming out some time this year? Ish? Broken shoulder permitting? Anyway, this very parenthetical message is just to say again, Thank You. And Get Well Soon. (And it’s most definitely NOT to ask when the next book is coming out, because anyone who spent five minutes reading any page of your website can see that it’s #No, #No, #NO, #NotYet, #I’mworkingonit, #No, #Soon, #I’lltellyouwhenit’sdone, #Nostompingyourfeetwon’thelp, #AndwhenIsayitwillbereadyinafewweeksImeanthewritingpartnotthepublicationdate, #Justleavemealonemyshoulderisbroken, #Notyet, #Soon.)
What happens if G-d forbid Diana never finishes the Outlander series? Is an outline of book 10 in a safe somewhere? Does her will appoint someone to release at least the barebones info?
Why the heck would you ask that? Geez… get a life.
Loretta
Diana’s Webmaster
Hi,
Do you have any idea yet when the “Bees” will be released?
Sitting around due to COVID-19 lock-down or up, I would ( and I assume many others would)
love nothing better than to immerse myself in the book, to be able to read it with no interuptions…
how wonderful!
I hope it will be soon, (even if it is only in e-book form first!)
Thanks for a great read
No. Please read Diana’s website.
News and updates about BEES is always posted prominently on Diana’s official homepage:
http://www.dianagabaldon.com
and on her official Book Nine (BEES) webpage at:
http://www.dianagabaldon.com/books/outlander-series/book-nine-outlander-series/
As soon as the USA publication date is known, it will be prominently displayed on those webpages.
Cheers,
Loretta
Diana’s Webmaster