I just do not see the appeal of ebooks. I mean, I realize that it saves space but I love my book shelf and I love watching it grow all the time. And I love old school cover art.
|
I just do not see the appeal of ebooks. I mean, I realize that it saves space but I love my book shelf and I love watching it grow all the time. And I love old school cover art.
Agreed.
There's nothing like the feel of paper beneath my fingertips as I read a book.
I think ebooks are fantastic for textbooks, so students don't need to haul around 200lbs of textbooks or for readers who aren't concerned with the 'collecting' aspect of books.
Here's a point where it becomes quiet attractive: You're physical book collection gets to the point that it is outgrowing your home and your SO's tolerance. Another, is the ability to take many more books with you travelling than would otherwise be possible.
As much as I love the sensuous, even sensual, aspects of reading and collecting, I'm very excited about eBooks.
Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
|
I recently picked up an Ace anthology called Swordsmen in the Sky edited by a pre-DAW Donald A Wollheim. This got me thinking about these older anthologies. Have you guys thought about doing one of these with old, lesser known pulp S&S and S&P authors? That might be a great idea for authors like Clifford Ball and others.
I have books like this completely outlined. We'll see if we get around to doing it. We haven't had tremendous luck with multi-author anthologies to date, but I have some hopes that Before They Were Giants changes the perception a little bit.
I have books like this completely outlined. We'll see if we get around to doing it. We haven't had tremendous luck with multi-author anthologies to date, but I have some hopes that Before They Were Giants changes the perception a little bit.
It might be a bit of apples n' oranges, though, as the previous (and soon-to-be-released) anthologies have been of modern authors. It seems that most folk around the interwebs are clamoring for anthologies of pulp or out-of-print authors. I know I am. :)
It might be a bit of apples n' oranges, though, as the previous (and soon-to-be-released) anthologies have been of modern authors. It seems that most folk around the interwebs are clamoring for anthologies of pulp or out-of-print authors. I know I am. :)
It may be that this thread is a little deceptive in that regard... So far, it's been our experience that very few people are clamoring for pulp and out-of-print authors, and that anthologies are even harder to sell than novels (and reprint anthologies the hardest yet). I highly encourage the world to prove me wrong, though! :D
That's too bad. I still want the Worlds of their Own anthology, which I missed.
"James Sutter"
... So far, it's been our experience that very few people are clamoring for pulp and out-of-print authors...'
;) Well,you're up against Harry Potter and Merlin you see? I watch that with my grand daughter. That's what's happening in Fantasy. It's a scene for 6 year olds. Girls mainly. ;)
I just do not see the appeal of ebooks. I mean, I realize that it saves space but I love my book shelf and I love watching it grow all the time. And I love old school cover art.Agreed.
There's nothing like the feel of paper beneath my fingertips as I read a book.
I think ebooks are fantastic for textbooks, so students don't need to haul around 200lbs of textbooks or for readers who aren't concerned with the 'collecting' aspect of books.
Yes,I realise a lot of people will have this problem with the ebooks...it's not the same as a book. It's always going to be difficult to change to something like that. I was the same a few months ago,but I'm now a total Ebook convert. I will always read the ebook version if I have both,I just like it better. The only reason I bought the Ebook reader was because there are literally thousands of these old interplanetary romances,Gothic romance,historical,crime,a million other kinds of adventure,whatever you want...stories from Weird Tales,Planet Stories,Fantastic Adventures,Amazing Stories,etc etc etc etc etc that will never see the light of day in paper books...and it's all free!! (well,I like the really OLD stuff,it's public domain,a lot of it)
I'm sure that you guys covered this somewhere else, but I was wondering if Planet Stories was planning to do Kline's Peril books.
Erik, you gave some examples of how Kline's Mars books were cut up. Do you know how bad his Peril books were cut. I mean the 1929 A. C. McClurg & Co. edition ran to 358 pages. So did the Grossett & Dunlap edition, yet the 1963 Ace was only 160 pages. What did they do, cut out every other word?
|
I have to admit to more than a small amount of trepidation at the massive explosion of product from Paizo so strongly resembling the waning days of TSR in the latter years of 2nd edition D&D.
I do wish you luck with the books lines and such, just concerned a bit is all.
We are not slowing down our production, and a whole staff of speed demons needs things to do.
Turin, there are posts on the Paizo boards indicating Paizo's is not just sustaining, but explosively growing much of it thanks to the Pathfinder RPG. And while it may disappoint some fans, Paizo's insistence to not reprinting older works, avoiding magazines, careful licensing, etc., shows they're keenly aware of the bottom line (and advantage of near empty warehouse). Finally, they've actually hired folks, which is not usually a sign of a collapsing company (unless said personnel is assisting the closure of said company).
I just finished rereading my very battered copy of 'The Valley of Creation' by Edmond Hamilton. Very good read. Pair it with something like Hamilton's 'A Yank at Valhalla' and you would have great Ace Double that I would buy.
I'm a big fan of these Planet Story books, I have about 10 now. What I would really enjoy seeing is Edgar Rice Burroughs' Carson Napier of Venus Series. I've never been able to find any in print, and would love to have Planet Stories editions of the Venus series.
I know that it is unlikely that it would be done, but if any ERB was going to come out from Planet Stories, I would love to see the Venus books. I would buy them.
Same goes for the Mucker books.
I'll save space on my shelves for them right now :-)
Karl Edward Wagner is long out of print and overly expensive...
Just finished Kuttner's The Dark World, and I have only 4 words to say: Dwellers in the Mirage. Abraham Merritt wrote that 14 years before Kuttner hamstrung it to produce The Dark World, and it's a far superior read, in my opinion. Having both of those works available through Planet Stories for purposes of historical sequence (from Merritt to Kuttner to Zelazny) would be an invaluable resource for subscribers.
|
Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
|
With a couple more years of reading behind me, it's pretty clear that Kuttner was hugely influenced by A. Merritt, and indeed wrote a few stories that come across as outright pastiches for Startling in the era in which The Dark World appeared.
Kuttner/Moore's The Mask of Circe is, in very many ways, analogous to Merritt's The Ship of Ishtar in the same way that The Dark World resembles Dwellers in the Mirage. The actual conclusion is different, but the set up is very similar.
Other Kutter stories from this period that bear huge Merritt influence include Lands of the Earthquake and Well of the Worlds, but these are more in terms of style and framework than specific plot elements (that I'm aware of).
C. L. Moore's writing in general seems significantly influenced by Merritt from the very beginning, and indeed I think "Merrittesque" is an excellent way to characterize her use of poetic descriptive language.
Merritt is one of the greatest talents in the history of the fantasy genre, as far as I'm concerned (and probably as far as Kuttner and Moore were concerned), so a tale heavily influenced by his work is likely to be far more entertaining than a lot of other material out there, so it's not really a black mark I can hold against a story.
I read a SF book called Come Hunt an Earthman, by Philip E High a very long time ago - I haven't been able to find a copy since.
The premise is decadent aliens use earth as a game park to go hunting. Its told through the eyes of the game warden..
Wiki link for Philip E High .
I've been curious about Clark Ashton Smith's work since X2 Castle Amber days. I searched a couple of previous posts and it sounds like he was still in print in 2007, but looking at those books now they are going for like $270.
Are there any reasonably priced current collections that focus on his Averoigne and Zothique series?
EDIT: Wiki says that Ballantine never published it's Averoigne collection and Zothique is out of print. A Rendezvous in Averoigne looks to be out of print as well...
I've been curious about Clark Ashton Smith's work since X2 Castle Amber days. I searched a couple of previous posts and it sounds like he was still in print in 2007, but looking at those books now they are going for like $270.
Are there any reasonably priced current collections that focus on his Averoigne and Zothique series?
EDIT: Wiki says that Ballantine never published it's Averoigne collection and Zothique is out of print. A Rendezvous in Averoigne looks to be out of print as well...
Night Shade Books have just finished off a hardbound 5-volume complete works, but there are a lot of cheaper short story collections out there, if you look.
I'd love to do Dwellers in the Mirage, btw. That's an excellent suggestion! :)
I'd love to see Planet Stories do this one myself, as "Dwellers" is easily my absolute favorite Merrit story, reading like a bizarre combination of Bob Howard and Lovecraft with enough twists to make it fresh.
Of course if we're talking Merritt, I'd like to see Planet Stories bring out some of his horror work too (like BURN, WITCH, BURN and CREEP, SHADOW, CREEP) or a reprint of his short story collection "The Fox Woman and Others".
|
|
Hey, Erik, Any news regarding the likelihood of seeing some Gardner Fox in the future from Planet Stories? I remember a while back you mentioned that we might see some Kothar or Kyrik down the track....
(I'd still love to see some Karl Edward Wagner at some point - his works have been out of print for a while now. In addition to the Kane stories, he did some great old-school horror)
Having finished devouring the Silver John short stories in Who Fears the Devil?, I feel compelled to ask again -- any chance of some of Wellman's Silver John novels? The Voice of the Mountain, in particular, is nearly impossible to find existing copies of.
|
Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
|
1) Gardner Fox: Probably not in the cards at the current moment.
2) Karl Edward Wagner: Sent pitch to the estate, which never responded. Someone is going to make a lot of money and make a lot of people happy when they decide to reprint this series, but I am afraid that someone is not going to be me, at least not presently.
3) More Wellman: I'd love to do this, but we need to watch sales for Battle in the Dawn before we can commit to anything. It would be great, though!
I've been looking at bits of old Weird Tales mags - cover, contents and some letter reprinted in the Haffner Edmond Hamilton - and Seabury Quinn seems to have been popular in a very early UF sense.
I understand Lovecraft was not a fan, but lets face it, the man had issues with the publishing side of writing, so Quinn may be worth thinking about bringing back to the masses.
I've been looking at bits of old Weird Tales mags - cover, contents and some letter reprinted in the Haffner Edmond Hamilton - and Seabury Quinn seems to have been popular in a very early UF sense.
I understand Lovecraft was not a fan, but lets face it, the man had issues with the publishing side of writing, so Quinn may be worth thinking about bringing back to the masses.
Nah, those stories are pretty bad. Remember seeing an article somewhere where Eric Flint at Baen was looking at this sort of thing of what might make an interesting collection, and I believe he also dismissed these as not of modern interest.
Nah, those stories are pretty bad. Remember seeing an article somewhere where Eric Flint at Baen was looking at this sort of thing of what might make an interesting collection, and I believe he also dismissed these as not of modern interest.I've been looking at bits of old Weird Tales mags - cover, contents and some letter reprinted in the Haffner Edmond Hamilton - and Seabury Quinn seems to have been popular in a very early UF sense.
I understand Lovecraft was not a fan, but lets face it, the man had issues with the publishing side of writing, so Quinn may be worth thinking about bringing back to the masses.
I wouldn't say that they are bad. They are just OK, but very repetitive. If you have read 5 of them, then you have read all 93 of them
Well, it looks like Haffner Press have picked up Wellman's complete Thunstone, so I assume this is off the PS radar for now.
Well, it looks like Haffner Press have picked up Wellman's complete Thunstone, so I assume this is off the PS radar for now.
Except for the two novels, all of the stories were done by Night Shade Books in 'The Third Cry to Legba and Other Invocations : The Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman (Vol. 1)' in 2000.
You should try the KEW stuff again now that Conan the Barbarian 2011 has flopped. I am sure they were just holding out for movie rights. Maybe they were waiting to see how Conan did.
"What about Paizo publishing THE SONG OF KWASIN?
I can happily announce today that THE SONG OF KWASIN will be published as part of the omnibus GODS OF OPAR: TALES OF LOST KHOKARSA, due out from Subterranean Press in April 2012. The omnibus will include HADON OF ANCIENT OPAR, FLIGHT TO OPAR, and the never-before-published conclusion to the trilogy, the aforementioned THE SONG OF KWASIN, completed by yours truly at Philip José Farmer's direction and based on his partial manuscript and outline.
So there you go! If you're yearning for some good old sword-swinging, pulp-inspired action set in a lost civilization, this is the book for you! (Shameless plug over and out ;-) ).
Woo! Congratulations to Chris! I know he's been waiting to announce this for a while. :)
Woo! Congratulations to Chris! I know he's been waiting to announce this for a while. :)
Thanks, James!
Any recent requests for the Karl Edgar Wagner Kane series? Night Shade books did a collection a while ago but that's been out of print for a long time.
More importantly, any chance we'll see ebook editions? My physical capacity to collect is getting more and more limited and I'd like to be able to support more product but without the space to hold it, I'm forced into making only very select purchases or reading and getting rid of the material. Any help here, especially with new entries into the Planet Stories series? I can understand if the initial ones had no rights for such publication but can the new ones have it?
"What about Paizo publishing THE SONG OF KWASIN?I can happily announce today that THE SONG OF KWASIN will be published as part of the omnibus GODS OF OPAR: TALES OF LOST KHOKARSA, due out from Subterranean Press in April 2012. The omnibus will include HADON OF ANCIENT OPAR, FLIGHT TO OPAR, and the never-before-published conclusion to the trilogy, the aforementioned THE SONG OF KWASIN, completed by yours truly at Philip José Farmer's direction and based on his partial manuscript and outline.
So there you go! If you're yearning for some good old sword-swinging, pulp-inspired action set in a lost civilization, this is the book for you! (Shameless plug over and out ;-) ).
any links to ebook publications of said material? As I just noted about Planet Stories in general, I'd like the opportunity to support the writing but my needs are changing to non-physical media due to space limits.
We're working on getting some electronic versions of Planet Stories. As Pathfinder continues to explode (in the best possible way), we haven't been able to devote as much attention to PS as we'd like, but I know Erik in particular has some plans in that regard!
Plans he tortuously keeps from those who really care!
|
Last year I picked up all 5 of Andrew Offutt's Swords Against Darkness anthologies, and I think some of the material in them might merit (re)collection. I'm thinking particularly of Ramsey Campbell's Ryre stories, which offer a nice blend of fantasy and horror. Though the stories were collected in Necronomicon Press's _Far Away and Never_, I think that's been out of print for some time now.
I realize the line is on hold, but when it returns I would love to see Clifford Ball's six stories from Weird Tales collected. Three have been reprinted (in various anthologies like Lin Carter's old Ballantine Adult fantasy series) but the other three have not been, and obviously they were never collected. I read one and it was not great, but it had that vitality and experimentation from the dawn of sword and sorcery, and it was entertaining.
I would also love to see Edmund Hamilton's Star Wolf novels back in print and collected. The writing was very terse and hardbolied, like his wife's (Leigh Brackett).
Thanks for listening!
I've never read any of the Robert Adams Horseclans stuff and wish they were in ebook form.