Source: https://www.booksbirds.com/p/october-20 ... eases.htmlRootbound is set a month after the events of Tangled, in which the rookie princess Rapunzel and her rogue-turned-suitor Eugene are pulled into a high-stakes diplomatic mission to a mysterious kingdom, where they must uncover the secrets of the royal family, Rapunzel's lost magic, and Eugene's past in order get back home.
Source: https://www.tumblr.com/what-eats-owls/7 ... st-the-oneMargaret Owen wrote:Back in spring 2023, Disney asked me to write a follow-up to Tangled (a horrible decision, really) and since that movie’s one of my all time faves, how could I say no? It may have also given me the chance to put “Give that horse a sword” in a book. No regrets. Rootbound is about the awkward period after leaving a bad situation, when you’re sorting out what you want to salvage, what you want to leave behind, and what you’ve outgrown—and finding the person you want to be somewhere in there too. Also weaponized seagulls; I have an image to maintain.
Source: https://www.instagram.com/what_eats_owls/p/DDcT13_xfNS/Margaret Owen wrote:I also suspect some fans of the animated series might be eyeing this with consternation, and I want to assure you that while Rootbound explores a different story, I have a lot of respect and admiration for the show, and this doesn’t impact the animated series’ place in the canon. I hope you enjoy it like you would enjoy a new flavor of a favorite dessert!
Source: https://www.tumblr.com/what-eats-owls/7 ... ts-spinoffMargaret Owen wrote:I just want to be really clear so readers have the right expectations going into Rootbound! (While also not getting too deep into the fifty pages of publishing context.) It's more of a continuation of the original movie and separate from Tangled: The Series. The one thing I'd like to clarify is that I wouldn't call it solely my vision/version! When I was approached for the project, the lovely folks in charge had an early seed concept for the story, and from that, I was able to build a more detailed outline, and once that was approved, draft the manuscript. This is pretty normal for when you're working with another entity's IP! That initial seed concept directly followed the original film, but did not draw on any characters/plot/lore introduced in TTS, and explored different takes on some things TTS covers, such as Eugene's history. Now obvs, I'm not an official spokesperson here, but my view on it is that Rootbound is only as canon as you want it to be. TBH, I think that's the better approach—the TTS fandom is enormous and passionate, and I'd rather not tinker with a story already told so well. (And if anyone's worried that Rootbound will be the basis for a sequel film... let's just say for multiple reasons, no one would be more surprised than I, haha.) Characters and lore from TTS are not part of Rootbound and I think that's a good thing (why mess with perfection?) I hope y'all enjoy my spin on things while knowing TTS isn't going anywhere. If you notice the tormented route I take around referring to Rapunzel's kingdom by name, it is because it is never referred to as Corona in the film and thus I couldn't call it Corona in the book. Considering the book is about an international diplomatic mission this created a few challenges.
Source: https://what-eats-owls.tumblr.com/post/ ... ver-revealMargaret Owen wrote:The cover for Rootbound is finally here! Thank you so much to the inimitable Noor Sofi for this gorgeous cover, and including so many fun little details! I can’t wait to see what y'all spot when the book comes out in October. Please note an earlier draft of the cover may still populate on some sites with a few minor differences, but this is the final art!
Source: https://what-eats-owls.tumblr.com/post/ ... ushed-backMargaret Owen wrote:There were some business shuffles with Disney’s publishing arm that led to a LOT of books getting rescheduled. So the unsung wheels of publishing are printing (the process and logistics of printing thousands of copies of one (1) book at time) and distribution (the process of moving enough copies from the printer to various bookstores to meet demand.) There are a limited number of mass printing facilities worldwide, and hundreds of books published every year, so that alone means publishers have to schedule their books to go to print far in advance. Factor in shipping (especially if the books are printed overseas), authors running late, books being “crashed” (the publisher pays a LOT to skip the queue so a book can sell ASAP), the chaos of tariffs impacting material costs…. the further out you can schedule, the better.
Now distribution, that’s its own set of logistics. And it’s not unusual for a publisher to actually contract with another publisher to handle their distribution—for example, Bloomsbury has been distributed by Macmillan for a while, at least in the US. It just costs less to pay Macmillan to share services than to try to set up and manage their own distribution. Similarly, Disney Publishing had a distribution agreement with Penguin Random House, where PRH’s distribution systems also handled Disney books. Emphasis on ‘had’! This past May, PRH and Disney announced a HUGE licensing deal. This means instead of JUST handling distribution, PRH would be taking over the entire process for all the titles they’d licensed, editorial, printing, you name it, for the Disney tie-in books. But as you can imagine, that means hiring more staff to handle the additional load for editorial, marketing and publicity, production, etc. It also means they need to figure out where and when to print all these books, and also WHEN they can release them for best impact.
On the author side, we could tell there was some sort of shakeup in the works as far back as last fall, because huge layoffs were hitting at every level. My editor Flannery put in a herculean effort to make sure I got the last of my substantive editorial notes before she was let go. As a result, Rootbound is more or less done! The final stage remaining is called pass pages, where the text is laid out in a PDF as it’ll look in the book, and I do a final read and make any cosmetic tweaks. Then it ought to go to print!
You might be reading this with some degree of horror at how little control it seems I have over this process, but frankly, that is typical of publishing. Stuff gets announced and changed for books all the time, and it’s not a reflection on the work, it’s a reflection on an unpredictable market with a lot of variables. While I would have loved for it to go out into the world sooner, it gives PRH’s team more time to make the most of the launch. And honestly, having release dates shift on me quite a bit, this may not even be the final change. All I can promise is I’ll keep you updated as best I can!
Source: https://www.amazon.com/Rootbound-Tangle ... 1368101046Rapunzel knows nothing about her neighboring kingdom, Astera – and not just because she only left her tower a month ago. The famously reclusive island has limited its contact with outsiders for decades. So when a suspicious invitation arrives welcoming Rapunzel to the Asteran princess’s coming of age ceremony, and offering her a chance to be useful for the first time since she lost her healing powers, Rapunzel accepts – and unwittingly plunges herself and her companion, Eugene, into a tangled knot of political intrigue and magical secrets. Eugene is just happy to get one last adventure with Rapunzel before his criminal background catches up with him and prevents their happy ending. Yet as they’re drawn further into the country’s problems, they uncover truths about Eugene’s parentage that point to deeper unrest in Astera, and suddenly the fate of their own kingdom, not just their personal dreams, is at stake. Thrust into a power struggle between Astera’s beloved princess, Verette, its domineering king, Enver, and a mysterious secret society, Rapunzel and Eugene race to protect their home from an unsettlingly familiar threat and discover that the past can either hold them back, or help them blossom.
Source: https://www.instagram.com/what_eats_owls/p/DFgKqoKv1Ed/
