Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Agent, graphic novel, kickstarter, shawn speakman, skybound

Skybound Get Into Novels with Shawn Speakman's The King-Killing Queen

Skybound Entertainment has published prose novels before, but only ones related to The Walking Dead. Now it seems they are expanding further afield with Shawn Speakman's The King-Killing Queen.

Shawn Speakman, editor of the Unfettered fantasy anthologies, and author of The Tempered Steel of Antiquity Grey and The Dark Thorn, has a new book coming, though it has been partially released before. On his website, Speakman speaks "In late 2020, Grimdark Magazine editor Adrian Collins invited me to write a story for his forthcoming anthology, The King Must Fall. I had worked with him before on a different anthology and had a great time, so it was an easy choice to make. I submitted my novella—The King-Killing Queen—and it was accepted. Once done, I moved on to write other things as writers do. Then in March 2021, I received an email from a major Hollywood company's CEO. He was eager to partner with my SF&F specialty publishing house Grim Oak Press to produce beautiful and limited editions of a book series they had acquired. I liked the idea immediately. Out of those early discussions though came some interesting requests. The CEO wanted to share my writing catalog—along with books by other authors I felt strongly about—with the multiple divisions of the company: Books, Graphic Novels, Gaming, and of course TV/Film. I gave them copies of my books and books by other writers. I was happy to do it. The more SF&F being adapted in various mediums, the better for us all in my view. But the thing they liked best was the novella, The King-Killing Queen. If I could expand upon it."

And that's what has now happened, "Four months later, I had a 90,000-word novel. I sent the book to former Del Rey Books editor in chief Betsy Mitchell who has edited a lot of my work. She loved it and edited it. I sent the book to my agent. He said it's the best thing I've written. I felt like I possibly had something.  The Hollywood company agreed, a first step to a much larger plan, now that we have come to terms."

And yes, yes, that company is Skybound Entertainment. "And Amazon Studios has a Hollywood first-look at anything Skybound produces. That now includes The King-Killing Queen. In case you were wondering, the CEO who emailed me was David Alpert, who has been an executive producer for a long time. He is a SF&F geek like us. His teams are too."

And, as Skybound has done before, this will crowdfunded. "We will launch a Kickstarter in early 2023 featuring regular hardcovers and special editions of The King-Killing Queen. Given the success of the Kickstarter for The Tempered Steel of Antiquity Grey and Brandon Sanderson's success with the platform, it feels like a natural fit. Then, later in Fall 2023, we will publish a regular hardcover with wide distribution to Amazon, B&N, and independent bookstores."

But it's not just the book. This is Skybound Entertainment after all, best known for the comics. "There is a graphic novel prequel in the works too. I've written an 11,000-word prequel short story. But given that Skybound does such an excellent job in the graphic novel market, I thought it would be fun to have that short story adapted. That's what we are working on right now. Long-time friend and comic book writer Robert Napton (Dark Wraith of Shannara by Terry Brooks) and long-time friend and illustrator Nate Taylor (The Boy Who Loved the Moon by Patrick Rothfuss) are adapting."

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