Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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We're on top of the Brackett material. My main priority is to polish off the remaining Eric John Stark stuff (one more book of odds and ends, really), after which I would prefer to move on to stuff like The Nemesis from Terra. A lot of what you mention falls into that category. Much of it was recently reprinted in hardcover from Haffner, and out of respect I'd prefer not to tread to carelessly through his garden.
I am totally with you on the longer series, largely for the reason that agreeing to publish that material would fill up virtually all of our slots and leave no room for anything else. Plus, many of those really long series have loving homes with micro publishers who clearly are in it for the love, so that community (at least as far as Akers is concerned) is relatively well served.
At the current frequency of six books a year even a trilogy is claiming a significant chunk of an annual offering, and I suspect just about everyone (ourselves included) appreciates variety.
We're on top of the Brackett material. My main priority is to polish off the remaining Eric John Stark stuff (one more book of odds and ends, really), after which I would prefer to move on to stuff like The Nemesis from Terra. A lot of what you mention falls into that category. Much of it was recently reprinted in hardcover from Haffner, and out of respect I'd prefer not to tread to carelessly through his garden.
I am totally with you on the longer series, largely for the reason that agreeing to publish that material would fill up virtually all of our slots and leave no room for anything else. Plus, many of those really long series have loving homes with micro publishers who clearly are in it for the love, so that community (at least as far as Akers is concerned) is relatively well served.
At the current frequency of six books a year even a trilogy is claiming a significant chunk of an annual offering, and I suspect just about everyone (ourselves included) appreciates variety.
Totally cool about the Brackett,all the Stark stuff is excellent,probably her best. It's alright for me,I have all of the ones that have been published in book form,but yes,'The Nemesis From Terra','The Starmen of Llyrdis','Alpha Centauri or Die' and all those things would be a treat for your readers!! One of my favourites was,'The Lake of The Gone Forever'. What a cool title and a great story too(I stole that for a song title once). You're doing a good job guys! People here seem to like Merritt,so one I would suggest is 'The Metal Monster'. Have you read that one?
Totally cool about the Brackett,all the Stark stuff is excellent,probably her best. It's alright for me,I have all of the ones that have been published in book form,but yes,'The Nemesis From Terra','The Starmen of Llyrdis','Alpha Centauri or Die' and all those things would be a treat for your readers!! One of my favourites was,'The Lake of The Gone Forever'. What a cool title and a great story too(I stole that for a song title once). You're doing a good job guys! People here seem to like Merritt,so one I would suggest is 'The Metal Monster'. Have you read that one?We're on top of the Brackett material. My main priority is to polish off the remaining Eric John Stark stuff (one more book of odds and ends, really), after which I would prefer to move on to stuff like The Nemesis from Terra. A lot of what you mention falls into that category. Much of it was recently reprinted in hardcover from Haffner, and out of respect I'd prefer not to tread to carelessly through his garden.
I am totally with you on the longer series, largely for the reason that agreeing to publish that material would fill up virtually all of our slots and leave no room for anything else. Plus, many of those really long series have loving homes with micro publishers who clearly are in it for the love, so that community (at least as far as Akers is concerned) is relatively well served.
At the current frequency of six books a year even a trilogy is claiming a significant chunk of an annual offering, and I suspect just about everyone (ourselves included) appreciates variety.
I should have had a look at the Wikipedia Leigh Brackett page! There are quite a few I've never heard of. Well,that's good,something to look for. One thing I hate about trying to collect this old stuff from the magazines,is that they are often re-published with a different title or as part of an 'expanded' version etc. (as in 'Secret of Sinharat'/'People of The Talisman',which were expanded versions of 2 other titles). Also several of the stories I thought had not been published in book form,'Teleportress' etc,I already have as part of later books,with different titles and nothing on them to let you know what it is. At least that Wikipedia entry is fairly comprehensive,so now I know what to look for. I don't have 'Creep,Shadow,Creep' either,but I think someone said it was a sequel to 'Burn,Witch,Burn',in which case I won't be buying it unless I see it for a couple of bucks,it's not fantasy. There are a few short stories that I don't have,'The Fox Woman','People of The Pit' etc.
We're on top of the Brackett material. My main priority is to polish off the remaining Eric John Stark stuff (one more book of odds and ends, really), after which I would prefer to move on to stuff like The Nemesis from Terra. A lot of what you mention falls into that category. Much of it was recently reprinted in hardcover from Haffner, and out of respect I'd prefer not to tread to carelessly through his garden.
I am totally with you on the longer series, largely for the reason that agreeing to publish that material would fill up virtually all of our slots and leave no room for anything else. Plus, many of those really long series have loving homes with micro publishers who clearly are in it for the love, so that community (at least as far as Akers is concerned) is relatively well served.
At the current frequency of six books a year even a trilogy is claiming a significant chunk of an annual offering, and I suspect just about everyone (ourselves included) appreciates variety.
Yeah, variety is is fine. You are planning to do Black Amazon Of Mars, etc., do you mean?
I would like to take this opportunity to conduct my quarterly reiteration of the fact that no-one has reprinted the complete Hounds of Tindalos since Jove's Arkham reprint back in 1978.
Brilliant idea!
I would like to take this opportunity to conduct my quarterly reiteration of the fact that no-one has reprinted the complete Hounds of Tindalos since Jove's Arkham reprint back in 1978.
Brilliant idea!
I concur.
Yeah. Possibly with Queen of the Martian Catacombs, Enchantress of Venus, and Stark and the Star Kings.
We'll see.
Are you aware that 'Black Amazon of Mars' is the earlier,shorter version of 'The Secret of Sinharat',and 'Queen of The Martian Catacombs' is the short version of 'People of The Talisman'? Both of the short ones are in that 'Fantasy Masterworks' edition from Gollancz (Sea-Kings of Mars and Otherworldly Stories)..btw,'Sea-Kings' is 'The Sword of Rhiannon' etc etc etc....
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Yes, I am aware of that. They're both different, in any event, and in one case significantly so. A lot of people believe Edmond Hamilton "touched up" the original Planet Stories novellas to make that Ace Double, and it's interesting to compare the two...
...almost as interesting as comparing the poor-quality Jove edition of The Hounds of Tindalos to the superb Paizo Planet Stories edition...
Yes, I am aware of that. They're both different, in any event, and in one case significantly so. A lot of people believe Edmond Hamilton "touched up" the original Planet Stories novellas to make that Ace Double, and it's interesting to compare the two.
Ok,well I have the Paizo 'Sinharat/Talisman',but haven't read it yet. So is that the same text as the Ace double? (which I don't have,I only have the short versions in that Gollancz one from 2005)
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I sincerely request a link from the Planet Stories product page to these messageboards!
I do understand that your product pages don't have links to these boards, but Planet Stories is incredibly bare of options. Wouldn't you think that "Discuss Planet Stories Here" would at least help newbies on your site?
I might also add, that having a community of readers at the fingertips of potential subscribers is an asset.
Need some pre-Burroughs Mars novels.
Gustavus Pope-A Journey To Mars/A Journey To Venus
Ellsworth Douglas-Pharoh's Broker
Percy Greg-Across the Zodiac
Robert Cromie-Plunge Into Space
Need some pre-Burroughs Mars novels.
Gustavus Pope-A Journey To Mars/A Journey To Venus
Ellsworth Douglas-Pharoh's Broker
Percy Greg-Across the Zodiac
Robert Cromie-Plunge Into Space
Yes,I do need these...thanks
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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The Percy Gregg book is unreadable.
Some of the others are possible candidates, though I haven't read them yet and I'm having trouble seeing how we might be able to make even a dollar selling them. The audience for this ultra-obscure stuff is a lot smaller than you might think.
Maybe not a request in the sense that it's meant here, but....
I inferred from a post of Zuxius' (in the thread with videos from a convention in which you guys discussed planet stories) that typos present in the original publications/manuscripts weren't being fixed - is this true?
If true, is it a policy decision or an economic one?
If the former, is there any chance it could be revisited?
I just finished Infernal Sorceress, and while I enjoyed it very much, it seemed to have more than a typical share of errors (some typographical, some editorial). They did detract from the reading experience, particularly when it seemed that characters' names had been put in the wrong place in the text, so that characters appeared to be engaging in witty repartee with themselves.
If it's not true, could the proofreader be persuaded to be more diligent? Proofreading is not something I am terribly good at, so I don't mean to imply that it's easy, but extra effort would be much appreciated, if it can be done.
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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If it's not true, could the proofreader be persuaded to be more diligent? Proofreading is not something I am terribly good at, so I don't mean to imply that it's easy, but extra effort would be much appreciated, if it can be done.
There is no policy to "leave in" typos from previous editions. Any errors in Planet Stories books are our fault, and we try to make sure that there are as few as possible.
Of course, having read as much "classic" SF as I have over the last few years, I know that even the most highly regarded books from the most highly regarded publishers often have a typo or two, so pure perfection is very difficult to attain.
We'll keep trying, though!
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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I second that emotion. This messageboard is not that easy to access. A few more options would be nice. There are a fair number of people I know who are very passionate about this type of fiction, but were unaware of this board.
There is a persistent programming bug that keeps dumping the Planet Stories messageboard link of the right nav bar on the Planet Stories product page. It's been a major source of frustration for me over the last year or so.
I think we've finally fixed it, though.
The links should be there now, and next time I redo the main page text I will add some kind of obvious link there as well.
I'll probably also do up a new "retro" ad for the backs of the books that invite people to join the conversation on our messageboards.
If it's not true, could the proofreader be persuaded to be more diligent? Proofreading is not something I am terribly good at, so I don't mean to imply that it's easy, but extra effort would be much appreciated, if it can be done.There is no policy to "leave in" typos from previous editions. Any errors in Planet Stories books are our fault, and we try to make sure that there are as few as possible.
Of course, having read as much "classic" SF as I have over the last few years, I know that even the most highly regarded books from the most highly regarded publishers often have a typo or two, so pure perfection is very difficult to attain.
We'll keep trying, though!
ok, I clearly misunderstood something then - that's good news.
I applaud any future efforts to clean these up of the last few specks of typo-dirt, and really do enjoy reading them in any case!
If it's not true, could the proofreader be persuaded to be more diligent? Proofreading is not something I am terribly good at, so I don't mean to imply that it's easy, but extra effort would be much appreciated, if it can be done.There is no policy to "leave in" typos from previous editions. Any errors in Planet Stories books are our fault, and we try to make sure that there are as few as possible.
Of course, having read as much "classic" SF as I have over the last few years, I know that even the most highly regarded books from the most highly regarded publishers often have a typo or two, so pure perfection is very difficult to attain.
We'll keep trying, though!
Just to add/clarify... sometimes, with older books, language and sentence structure that was totally normal at the time can seem downright bizarre. It's not uncommon for Chris and I to mark a potentially mistyped section, only to discover that the same weird turn of phrase has been in every edition since the original pulp. In these cases, we generally leave it as it was originally published - only typos that are clearly typos get fixed, as none of us here have the hubris to "fix" the work of someone like A. Merritt or Henry Kuttner, despite the fact that it's sometimes tempting to streamline or modernize it for today's readers. So while we're not averse to fixing typos, our mission is very much to present the work as the author originally wrote it, doing our best to repair any abridgements by previous editors.
That said, if the text talks about muffled footballs when it's supposed to be muffled footfalls... that's our bad, and we make no excuses.
If it's not true, could the proofreader be persuaded to be more diligent? Proofreading is not something I am terribly good at, so I don't mean to imply that it's easy, but extra effort would be much appreciated, if it can be done.There is no policy to "leave in" typos from previous editions. Any errors in Planet Stories books are our fault, and we try to make sure that there are as few as possible.
Of course, having read as much "classic" SF as I have over the last few years, I know that even the most highly regarded books from the most highly regarded publishers often have a typo or two, so pure perfection is very difficult to attain.
We'll keep trying, though!
Just to add/clarify... sometimes, with older books, language and sentence structure that was totally normal at the time can seem downright bizarre. It's not uncommon for Chris and I to mark a potentially mistyped section, only to discover that the same weird turn of phrase has been in every edition since the original pulp. In these cases, we generally leave it as it was originally published - only typos that are clearly typos get fixed, as none of us here have the hubris to "fix" the work of someone like A. Merritt or Henry Kuttner, despite the fact that it's sometimes tempting to streamline or modernize it for today's readers. So while we're not averse to fixing typos, our mission is very much to present the work as the author originally wrote it, doing our best to repair any abridgements by previous editors.
That said, if the text talks about muffled footballs when it's supposed to be muffled footfalls... that's our bad, and we make no excuses.
Cool - that may have been exactly what I misunderstood - and I certainly would not want to suggest or support efforts at editorial hubris! I vastly prefer unaltered original work, though muffled footballs do knock me out of a story very quickly :)
Anyone read any John E. Muller? 'Edge of Eternity' and 'The Negative Ones' were both cool.
Anyone read any John E. Muller? 'Edge of Eternity' and 'The Negative Ones' were both cool.
Nope, never heard of him. What sort of books are those?
Anyone read any John E. Muller? 'Edge of Eternity' and 'The Negative Ones' were both cool.Nope, never heard of him. What sort of books are those?
'Edge of Eternity': Sun goes nova,mankind sets off in untested hyperdrive ships for Alpha Centauri. It's a good one! 'The Negative Ones': Brilliant nuclear physicist staggers home,a pathetic wreck of his former self,raving about flying saucers and a strange being called Ravan...there are ancient legends about this Ravan and his 'Vimana'(you know,a flying car from the ancient Hindu myths).
John E Muller was actually a pseudonym of R.L.Fanthorpe,a British guy (I think) writing in the 60's. Check out that Fantastic Fiction site for Muller's books,there were quite a few.
Anyone read any John E. Muller? 'Edge of Eternity' and 'The Negative Ones' were both cool.Nope, never heard of him. What sort of books are those?'Edge of Eternity': Sun goes nova,mankind sets off in untested hyperdrive ships for Alpha Centauri. It's a good one! 'The Negative Ones': Brilliant nuclear physicist staggers home,a pathetic wreck of his former self,raving about flying saucers and a strange being called Ravan...there are ancient legends about this Ravan and his 'Vimana'(you know,a flying car from the ancient Hindu myths).
John E Muller was actually a pseudonym of R.L.Fanthorpe,a British guy (I think) writing in the 60's. Check out that Fantastic Fiction site for Muller's books,there were quite a few.
Ok, well people make fun of Lionel Fanthorpe for being highly prolifically bad, in general. Look him up, you might be amused.
Ok, well people make fun of Lionel Fanthorpe for being highly prolifically bad, in general. Look him up, you might be amused.Anyone read any John E. Muller? 'Edge of Eternity' and 'The Negative Ones' were both cool.Nope, never heard of him. What sort of books are those?'Edge of Eternity': Sun goes nova,mankind sets off in untested hyperdrive ships for Alpha Centauri. It's a good one! 'The Negative Ones': Brilliant nuclear physicist staggers home,a pathetic wreck of his former self,raving about flying saucers and a strange being called Ravan...there are ancient legends about this Ravan and his 'Vimana'(you know,a flying car from the ancient Hindu myths).
John E Muller was actually a pseudonym of R.L.Fanthorpe,a British guy (I think) writing in the 60's. Check out that Fantastic Fiction site for Muller's books,there were quite a few.
Hmm,yes,an interesting guy,look at his 'achievements' in the Wikipedia entry! Priest,member of Mensa,martial arts instructor etc. Not only prolific with the books,also the pseudonyms it seems! By a ridiculous coincidence,I happen to be half-way through a pretty bad one at the moment by this guy as Karl Zeigfeid,'Barrier 346'
I happen to be half-way through a pretty bad one at the moment by this guy as Karl Zeigfeid,'Barrier 346'
Yes, you may have got lucky and found an upper tier work of his with the other one. :)
However, did read one today that may be of possible interest for reading :-
That Halcyon Drift, by Brian Stableford
First of a series
http://www.librarything.com/series/Hooded%20Swan
A guy crashlands his ship on a planet - ends up with an alien mental parasite - is rescued, by then is indentured to go on missions to pay this off.
First one is to find a Lost Star in a strange nebula.
Certainly better than Fanthorpe, but a similar era - early 70s.
However, did read one today that may be of possible interest for reading :-
That Halcyon Drift, by Brian Stableford
First of a series
http://www.librarything.com/series/Hooded%20Swan
A guy crashlands his ship on a planet - ends up with an alien mental parasite - is rescued, by then is indentured to go on missions to pay this off.
First one is to find a Lost Star in a strange nebula.
Certainly better than Fanthorpe, but a similar era - early 70s.
Yes,good tip,I've read 'Halcyon Drift',I agree it was quite good. I also have the 3rd one in that series,'Promised Land',and another one,'The Florians',which is the first in another series,but haven't read them yet.
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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Thanks for the Bulmer tips. I have a few of his books as random Ace Doubles and a few singletons with neat covers, but I haven't read any of them yet. Your list will be most helpful.
As for new books, I agree that it is appropriate to occasionally publish new material. In fact, we've just announced a new science fiction novel from the excellent modern author Matthew Hughes, who writes in the tradition of Jack Vance's Gaen Reach and Dying Earth stories. The book is called TEMPLATE, and has previously been available exclusively as a high-priced limited edition hardcover.
We also will announce an AMAZING new project with two new sword and planet novels from two VERY prominent modern authors, and have two additional similar projects currently in development.
None of these things are exactly what you're asking for, which involves opening up submissions for new novels from less established authors, but I hope you feel it is a step in the right direction.
Thanks for the feedback!
Interesting about the Bulmer. I've only read the Dray Prescott novels.
We also will announce an AMAZING new project with two new sword and planet novels from two VERY prominent modern authors, and have two additional similar projects currently in development.
Ok, so it is your fault that Scott Lynch's serial dropped off the face of the err...planet then, is it? :)
Queen Of the Iron Sands Here = http://www.scottlynch.us/ironsands.html
(An author that is the exact opposite of a paragon of 21st century communication)
John Shirley also has something along those lines, Sky Pirates - http://freezineoffantasyandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2009/07/sky-pirates- part-1.html
Thanks for the links, but when I said "prominent" I meant PROMINENT. :)
Well, I'd be pretty surprised if you got Stephen King or James Patterson to do you one? They are the sort of people that deserve prominent with a capital PROMINENT!
I'd believe James Rollins perhaps. :)
Coz one of his Sigma Force books had naked camel riding psionic nanotech controlling leopard mistress cultist assassins in a secret hidden city.
Excuse the long response time, been on holiday for a few months.
/I mentioned re-printing Ken Bulmer's novels and Erik asked me to recommend some.
That's a bit of a chore because he wrote about 200 novels and I've read about 100 of them and that was back when I was a teen. Most of them have been out of print ever since.
Writing as Tully Zetford his Ryder Hook novels, the first of which was Whirlpool of Stars...the Hook series was popular, people pointing out that Ken included a lot of sci-fi stuff we see on a regular basis today for the first time back then./--I've read two of those Ryder Hook books. They are terrible. I read his couple of Vorkunsaga? sword and sorcery books, those were just poor to mediocre. Rich Horton has looked at a bunch of Ace Doubles, don't think he has mentioned any of note. Any other suggestions? Always happy to try more fun stuff.
/Now I have to say that I question the re-printing of a lot of books people have mentioned here that are freely available on the internet.
From a publisher's point of view why publish a novel that anyone can download and read off their computer or print out for free?
Doesn't make economic sense that I can see./-- Stephen King is freely available on the internet too. Pretty much all of. Leigh Brackett, Kuttner et. al. too. So that all depends. Plus, not paper. For a limited resource publisher doing one book every 2 months (and not even that, recently) then spending countless hours on a slush pile definitely makes zero economic sense. Not when Mr. Mona may have a couple of dozen people tell him 'Hey, Hughesy's got a book you might like, this guy's got proven ability.' It's even edited etc. Or whoever else might be in the new projects he just mentioned.
/And Erik...I really believe that you should be printing novels by new authors as much as by those who have passed on.
I'm not saying this because I write...I'm saying this because the genre's of sword and sorcery and sword and planet and pulp style sci-fi will eventually die out if there are no new authors writing new books.
Wouldn't it be great to find people who could produce brand new adventure tales equally as good and well written as anything Leigh Brackett or ERB or E.E. Doc Smith wrote?
The only way to do that is to actively go looking for, and accepting subs from, new authors./-- You are so saying this because you write. :) It would be great to find more Bracketts. You will find a zillion people who can write as well as Smith technically, even if not ideationally - just not those that can do it first, or are capable of becoming a phenomenon in the same way. Alastair Reynolds exists, though. So does Neal Asher, or S. M. Stirling, or Peter F. Hamilton - there's your 'new writer competition'. Or Elizabeth Bear, Cherie Priest, Justina Robson, Chris Moriarty, Karen Traviss etc.
Clearly, frying your brain with the horrible crud in a slushpile is not the only way to do it. Erik has proved this to the tune of quite a few books. So has Hard Case Crime, as another example. There are actually lots of out of print books that are good (or even occasionally outstanding), that some people already like. Same with the collectible limited edition deal too a la Template.
I've read thousands of sf/fantasy books - have found one Brackett. In her case, I'd imagine any editor anywhere with an interest in that sort of thing would be happy to find another, or modern equivalent of.
/There's plenty of new writers out there that are quite capable of producing works just as good as the old masters, one just has to give them a chance./
-- There's that 'I'm a writer pleading, again'. :)
To reply to that, no, there are not. There are plenty of writers who can churn out mediocre/competent to decent by modern day standards. Very large numbers, even. There are uncountable numbers of them with delusions of being published that are actually worse writers than I am. I've lost count of the number who have emailed me asking me to read their stuff. Lots of whom clearly don't even read, so they have no chance of ever writing a decent sentence.
Just think about it logically. If there are large numbers of such, then many would have survived from Smith's time that we would be talking about. They haven't.
Out of millions of books and billions of submissions over time, they've still only found one Brackett.
I'd say it is even risky to publish Hughes, who has evinced a few 'WTH' reactions already, even if expressed rather more eloquently and politely than that.
Erik and I had been chatting about the Rhada series - and I have finished 2/3 of the 'Starkahn' book, and it is pretty reasonable. Descendant of barbarian Star Kings is in a military fleet organisation and is really only a titular royal, discovers a 17,000km long starship with a silver eyed girl (think Storm) in cryostatis. He discovers it with his 15 tonne manta-form cyborg survey partner. The ship promptly blows up a sun and vanishes. When you've got stuff like that lying around, who needs slush?
Brian Stableford's Hooden Swan, similarly. Just as a couple of examples of actually decent out of print work that fits the stable - and there will be many others. The number of books published keeps increasing, so Erik would have to take Perry Rhodan's immortality treatments many times to run out of stuff I think. Likely the Earth will be burned up by the sun first though. ;-)