Hourglass Mage/Amazon Question

[Dragonhelm]

Hey, I’m a little confused. I’m getting a ton of questions about Hourglass Mage. We were told a while back that it hasn’t been written, and yet I keep seeing it posted on Amazon as coming out in July and they’re taking preorders.

What’s going on?

EDIT: Per request, here is the Wizards of the Coast customer service line:

Customer Service Representative
Wizards of the Coast
1-800-324-6496 (US and Canada)
425-204-8069 (From all other countries)
Monday-Friday 9am-6pm PST / 12pm-9pm EST

Please remember to keep all communications civil and respectful. Thanks.

[talinthas]

It's not done. It's not coming out in July, and it hasn't even passed the highly developed outline stage yet.

Don't believe the sites, believe the Dark Queen.

[Sephzero]

Because it got listed in WotC Catalog of products, which is what used by the distributors to order the items. Though despite that listing, it won't be making it.

[Tracy Hickman]

Well, we wish truth were happier...

Margaret and I have talked about this and are both deeply hurt and concerned. We don’t want our fans or book buyers to be mislead. To be clear, the book has not been turned in as yet by us.

Further, we were just informed that Wizards of the Coast is not allowing us to turn in the manuscript -- in other words they don’t even want to read it. We have seen the book being pre-sold as coming out in July with our names on it, but the plot described is not ours. If we haven’t turned it in and they are refusing now to accept or even look at the manuscript from us ... we are at a complete loss as to what to think.

It certainly both puzzling and upsetting.

Tracy Hickman for both myself and Margaret Weis

[harthan]

Well, we wish truth were happier...

Margaret and I have talked about this and are both deeply hurt and concerned. We don’t want our fans or book buyers to be mislead. To be clear, the book has not been turned in as yet by us.

Further, we were just informed that Wizards of the Coast is not allowing us to turn in the manuscript -- in other words they don’t even want to read it. We have seen the book being pre-sold as coming out in July with our names on it, but the plot described is not ours. If we haven’t turned it in and they are refusing now to accept or even look at the manuscript from us ... we are at a complete loss as to what to think.

It certainly both puzzling and upsetting.

Tracy Hickman for both myself and Margaret Weis

So...the book is not getting published?

You'd think Wizards would at least see the money to be made on capitalizating off of Dragonlance's most popular character.

Yet another brilliant move by Wizards.

[Carteeg_Struve]

Um. That is disturbing. I don't want to make judgments, but I hope Wizards is doing something out of foolish error rather than something more malicious.

:(

[Queen of Darkness]

Well, we wish truth were happier...

We have seen the book being pre-sold as coming out in July with our names on it, but the plot described is not ours. If we haven’t turned it in and they are refusing now to accept or even look at the manuscript from us ... we are at a complete loss as to what to think.

I want to emphasize that Tracy speaks for both us.

Margaret

[Darth Fistandantilus]

Who do we write to about this?

[talinthas]

wow. That's beyond unprofessional. Yes, i know that wotc has precedence of having one author take over and write another author's books when something goes south, but come on now. This is Margaret and Tracy we're talking about, and its a book about raistlin. Who the hell else is going to step in and try to patch through the Chronicles?

This is utterly asinine. WotC needs to stop being ridiculous.

[Carteeg_Struve]

Who the hell else is going to step in and try to patch through the Chronicles?

To any employee of Wizards of the Coast, I am sure Talinthas meant this question to be retorical. Never under any circumstance answer this question.

(Sorry, Tal. I felt the extreme need to make sure this was spelled out.)