The last few days have been just a flurry of admin craziness. I am stuffing all of it into this one post. Also please see Gordon’s announcement regarding Steve West. You get double post today. We had to divide and conquer.
Fated Blades India
The Amazon India algorithm suppresses releases without covers. This is by design and will resolve itself once the cover is up, which should be soon. The direct link to purchase Fated blades: click here.
Print Editions
We understand that some of you would like print editions of Small Magics and Kinsmen Universe. Originally these print editions were not available, because we didn’t want them to compete with Subterranean collector editions. However, enough time has passed and we are good to go.
As always with our selfpublished releases, these are Print On Demand, POD, and unfortunately they are more expensive than typical paperbacks. They are being formatted now and should be available in the next few weeks. We will link them on the blog when they are ready.
Writer PSA
If you filed Form 8802, you might want to double check with your agent on its status. Apparently an IRS fax machine broke down. I am not making it up. Email me for details, if you want to know more.
Yay for the paperbacks!!
Yay for print versions! I purchase digital when it’s the only option, but my eyes really prefer print. Thank you for understanding and accommodating.
+1 🙂
I know what I want for Christmas!!!
Yes! Thank you so much! I’m so excited, this is the only series I have not got to read yet, as I prefer print. I love everything you write, so I am so looking forward to this.
The IRS is so incompetent you’d be hard-pressed to make up a rumor that I wouldn’t believe.
“The IRS is one of the world’s most efficient tax administrators. ” Direct quote from their website. *insert eye roll here*
You’d think a 3.5 trillion dollar per year agency could replace out their fax machines with something more efficient….
Well, tbh, they probably are. There is no such thing as a beloved tax administrator, anywhere in the known world. Every last one of them is staffed by human beings, with all the inefficiency that implies. All of their machinery: also operated by human beings. Never worked for the IRS, nor at any desk job, but I’ve been around enough large workplaces to know. You can reduce errors but you will never eliminate them, unless you can afford multiple layers of redundancy, not something most taxpayers are willing to fund ever, and especially not for a tax agency.
Yep, it’s 2021 and the IRS is still using fax machines. Not very efficient if you ask me.
Yet from what I found out from a friend of my who works for the CDC, one of the statistical software they still use is SUDAAN. That software is so out of date, it’s not even funny. I shook my head when she told me.
Oops, it should say mine not my. Apparently my fingers and brain aren’t working together today. 😀
People laugh when they find out federal agencies use outdated software. Well when you have thousands of employees the cost of updating software is ridiculous. Also federal agencies have to cycle through a list of suppliers, many who are small business owners, as the government wants to spread the wealth. I was tasked one time to buy an erasable white board on wheels for the office, while researching the cost the same product was listed from $499 up to $4999 depending on the supplier. I was shocked but I was also told it’s not your money it is the governments money, depending where you worked and if that office was cycling through a list of suppliers, yes, that white board purchase price could have been over four thousand dollars.
Relatively speaking it costs less to create a new program from scratch then it does to run it for twenty years. The problem is that someone will approve several million dollars to create a program that works great but the contract may only be for 3 or 4 years and many non technical people do not understand the cost of running an application and when they are told they don’t want to add the expense to their budgets cause they will get the developers to fix it. Once the contract is over there is no one to maintain the application and once it starts to break there is no one to fix it.
The trouble with government is once a decent process is in place it is there for a long time as the cost to constantly update and replace it is astronomical.
I maintained a website that was 20 + years old and it worked fine. However there came a time that it needed to be replaced and the politics and difficult contractors that had to be dealt with could fill a book.
IRS fax machine broke down, gotta laugh. And so unexpected (snort). Hope their snafu doesn’t cause anyone too many problems, but we know it will, of course.
Ugh!!! I am annoyed all over again that the boosted funding for the IRS proposed in the human infrastructure bill was cut in negotiations. Of course anything could still happen but they aren’t exactly popular.
+1
YES!!! I am SO excited!!! YAY!!!
This is really great news. Thank you.
Today has been full of frustration for me, so this works as a “reset” so I can get back to work without being grumpy about my stupid morning.
YAY!!! Thank you!!!!
Will you be releasing a hard copy of the Innkeeper chronicles?
No plans regarding that at the moment 🙂
Can I just appreciate the IRS’ fax repair team and the workers shuffling around the paperwork? I think they’d also rather be off decades old stuff, too, at this point, if only so some of them can retire. It isn’t as if IRS funding is increasing, either, so hiring and retaining staff must be a challenge compared to the larger tech literate workforce who’d prefer an option to work from home.
There’s job security and there’s having to stuff yourself and some obscure part onto a plane or trying to get some non-technical person to move over a spare unit via videoconference during a pandemic so the IRS can get their print outs.
The IRS has only one fax machine? I understand that they feel they have to accept documents by fax as long as people send them that way, but surely they have more than one machine.
YES!!! So excited for in-print Kinsman. The special edition Subterranean version looked gorgeous, but was a little bit out of my budget. Can’t wait for this version!
I reread the Kinsman universe this week and noticed a really small continuity error. This would be my third or fourth reread and this is the first time I’ve noticed, so very minor. Do you want to know or let sleeping books lie? I had a look at your FAQ, but not sure if you have a process. I’m really sorry if this is annoying.
Hi Kat,
The reader contact form is here 🙂 https://ilona-andrews.com/contact/#inquiry. Chose whichever reason, they al reach me 🙂
I hope this helps.
I’ve been meaning to comment this literally for YEARS, but I’ll say it now.
I love so much that y’all always consider cost when discussing your books, and clearly realize not everyone has the disposable income for them. It always makes me feel so seen—from when I was a VERY poor 17 year old to now, when life hasn’t been very kind lately.
Any amount of money is a lot when you have nothing or very little.
One of the many reasons I will always, always scrimp and save to purchase your books as soon as I possibly can.
*Hugs*. Hope better days are ahead!
House Andrews always say this: “I am not going to prescribe to the readers how to buy our books. If you buy in paper, thank you. If you buy it in ebook, thank you. If you borrow it from the library, thank you. We want you to buy it in the most convenient and easiest way for you. Just don’t pirate them. That’s all we ask.”
Thank you for the print versions of Small Magics and Kinsman Universe!! ????????
Have many p.o.d. paperbacks by several authors, and they are worth every penny!!
Re the foibles of the IRS: in the early ’80’s I worked for a well know tax preparation firm. One particularly crazy tax season, clients were not getting their refunds nor an explanation for the delay other than “your return has not yet been processed”. Then there was a major plumbing crisis at the main processing center – entire floors with flooding washrooms because of jammed up plumbing lines. Turns out, thousands of returns had been flushed down the toilets by desperate employees unable to keep up with the volume of returns. (This was in the days of all paper returns. Took the IRS a long time to get that straightened out.)
Print editions!! Clap-clap-jump-up-and-down! I know it’s old-school, but I stare at screens all day for work. I love the feel of paper universes in my hand, going everywhere with me. I swear my brain “sees” them differently.
WOO!!! Print editions!!!
Just a side note for the IRS, I’ve had to work with them a few times in the past for clients, and every person I talked to was super-nice and super-competent. I’m actually rather fond of them, hee!
That said, I overheard a postal worker comment that even a couple years after the “Pets” stamps came out, people were still saving the rats and snakes stamps for mailing stuff to the IRS.
lol lol on stamps
The art on the books are so beautiful! So excited to get them when they are offered in Print too!
Fax Machines? FAX MACHINES? in 2021. Oh my word. The IRS needs to upgrade.
It has been so funny reading the comments about fax machines. I have gone back to school to study Medical Office Administration which includes a course on clerical work. The number one machine that will be used the most…the fax machine! Some of the younger students have never even seen one before. We are covering how to protect patient privacy and security of information using a fax machine or MFU/MFP (multi-function unit/printer) and they have a lot of neat security features that weren’t around even 10 years ago. It has been interesting to see just what hasn’t changed since I last worked an office job, 20 years ago.
I watched a roundtable discussion Ridley Scott did for The Hollywood Reporter a few years ago. He said he only uses fax because there’s no paper trail. You have the copy you sent and they have the copy received. It’s the most highly confidential form of communication other than private face-to-face conversion. It doesn’t stay in an email account for eternity or anywhere on the internet to be hacked at anytime.
Fax machines are the main way we send information from hospitals for the same reason. We now also send patient information via EPIC or programs like MyChart but only if the recipient is within network using the same EMR software. And we only started this form of sharing this year.
House Andrews is always busy doing great things. Thanks you, the thought and care you put into your work are appreciated.
IRS fax machine broke? I want to know more! And who uses fax these days? 😉
This has probably been answered, but I’m listening to an Innkeeper book and would really like Maud’s book on CD. Has that been done? I can’t find a copy on eBay or Amazon.
Thanks!
Also, I’d be happy to wait for Steve to record Fated Blades but there are a lot of deep-voiced men out there so I’m sure someone great will be chosen.
Hi Sarafina,
There is no CD for Sweep of the Blade. I don’t think that format still exists.
Ok, thanks!
“If you filed Form 8802, you might want to double check with your agent on its status. ”
I don’t think my secret decoder ring is working. Did you really mean the revolution has started?
I know books and all, haha ???? but how is Minou Camille? I hope back to 100%…
Will we get more from the kinsmen universe at any point in the future – distant future is fine with me I am happy to read anything at any time. OR should i get the kinsmen universe all in one now…..decisions decisions
Hey Patricia,
A new release in the Kinsmen Universe, Fated Blades, is set for the 23rd of November. https://ilona-andrews.com/2021/fated-blades-available-for-preorder/
will this print version be coming to amazon.ca as well? I can get it from the amazon.com but my prime membership does not cover the .com only.ca and the shipping doubles the price for me. I have all the other books in print and would like to keep the collection intact.
Thanks
Hi Glen,
We are still awaiting Amazon response on the international availability of the paperback for Fated Blades. The paper version was a last minute addition and things are still being figured out ????.
Thank you for your patience.
Thank you Ilona and Gordon for the work that you do. I have enjoyed so many hours listening and reading your books. My favorite is the Innkeeper series, in all formats. However, now retired, I am getting like Burgess Meredith in Twilight Zone, I have the time, but can’t see to read. Is there anyway your new printed books can come out in large print?
Hi Char,
The increased font for the PODs is not a possibility, unfortunately. But if digital versions are available to you, there are options for increasing the size of the font which would hopefully make the books more accessible. I would be happy to help with that 🙂
Appreciation …
Just a small “thank you” for blog posts. I can only imagine the time and effort it takes the team to keep this up! I’m a hospital pharmacist, and as you can imagine work is definitely “not fun” at the moment. When I get back to the department after team rounds I sit down, wake up my computer, and look for the bright spot – your email. Even the “bad news” gives me perspective, and adding the kitten/puppy photo was a nice touch.
Thanks guys.
Gordon’s announcements? I would love to get them. Where can I find them?
Hey Teri,
Gordon’s announcement is in the previous blog article here https://ilona-andrews.com/2021/thats-the-way-she-goes/
I hope this helps 🙂
I have made my living doing tax returns for nearly 30 years and had never heard of a Form 8802. So I looked it up.
From the IRS website:
Form 8802, Application for United States Residency Certification is used to request a certificate of residency, Form 6166, that residents of the United States may need to claim income tax treaty benefits and certain other tax benefits in foreign countries.
People affected would be non-US citizens living in the US from what I gather.
These look amazing! Would there ever be a chance of a box set or hardback run for Kate’s series?
Hey Amy, no plans for that at the moment :).
I have read all the Kinsmen stories so many times that if my iPad was a book the ink would have faded to nothing. I think my favorite is Silver Shark.