Jump to content

Bakker XLIX - From Bashrags to Riches (No TUC Spoilers!)


.H.

Recommended Posts

July 4th to the 11th. So far, UK date is stable so this year the Fantasy Fatherland gets the new release first - despite Orbit's complete lack of promotion (but blessed boon Orbit's e-book is available same day as their TUC paperback - they're going to rack up e-sales that Overlook/Orbit missed out on last year).

EDIT: UK is the 6th and Canada is the 18th.

EDIT: Because July, not June... Dates.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lol - I'll leave Wilshire to the task of disparaging Overlook.

I mean, you apparently already read the end but I really hope ARC-pocalypse doesn't happen this year and they actually get into the hands of reviewers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last year Wilshire, (#2 at SA and the smarter and human version of myself), found and posted thirteen ARCs sold on eBay in the two months preceding TGO's release. Two of them sold for $150+, obviously no proceeds going to Bakker et al..

I'm hoping that Bakker, redeagl, and I have mediated that this year by supplying Overlook with a huge list of online reviewers whom Penguin/Overlook/Orbit sent ARCs to up to and including WLW.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Madness said:

Last year Wilshire, (#2 at SA and the smarter and human version of myself), found and posted thirteen ARCs sold on eBay in the two months preceding TGO's release. Two of them sold for $150+, obviously no proceeds going to Bakker et al..

I'm hoping that Bakker, redeagl, and I have mediated that this year by supplying Overlook with a huge list of online reviewers whom Penguin/Overlook/Orbit sent ARCs to up to and including WLW.

Wait are you saying that someone at Overlook auctioned them off?  Or was it a bunch of ARC recipients?  Please clarify.  

Did Overlook give TGO ARCs out to a drastically different list of people than they did for previous books?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

55 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

Wait are you saying that someone at Overlook auctioned them off?  Or was it a bunch of ARC recipients?  Please clarify.  

Did Overlook give TGO ARCs out to a drastically different list of people than they did for previous books?

I'm not sure who or how or why. I'm sure that bakkerfans, Wert, Pat, Grimdark Magazine, and Grim Tidings podcast didn't sell their ARCs.

There's a huge list of online SFF venues that were previously sent ARCs up to and including WLW by Penguin/Overlook/Orbit but not TGO. And at SA we heard about a number of random ARCs that ended up in the hands of bookstores across the US and family or friends of people in the industry. A certain number of those were auctioned off on eBay while some other individuals actually approached me directly in order to share them around with active members of the forum, who inevitably populated the hidden ARC subforum I created.

Very strange situation. This year looks even worse since the only actual ARC I've heard about is the one sent to mrganondorf (bakkerfans) and the copies he'll be able to giveaway on SA and it doesn't look like they repeated their deal with SpiralHorizon for promotional images either. (Wert and Pat received their ebook proofs direct from Bakker and @Werthead mentioned that Orbit isn't sending out ARCs this year, I believe?)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Madness said:

Lol - I'll leave Wilshire to the task of disparaging Overlook.

I mean, you apparently already read the end but I really hope ARC-pocalypse doesn't happen this year and they actually get into the hands of reviewers.

Wait, what does it mean that "you apparently already read the end"? Did someone leak the end of TUC? I'm going to have to avoid the whole interwebs for a month. Ugh. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

I'm not sure who or how or why. I'm sure that bakkerfans, Wert, Pat, Grimdark Magazine, and Grim Tidings podcast didn't sell their ARCs.

I still have mine, so no.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Hello World said:

I doubt they just made one arc for MG.

Right, they make them to send out to private resellers, given last year's ARC-pocalypse.

11 hours ago, unJon said:

Wait, what does it mean that "you apparently already read the end"? Did someone leak the end of TUC? I'm going to have to avoid the whole interwebs for a month. Ugh. 

This is probably the "telephone effect" at work: someone mentioned to me in Quorum at SA that DR claimed to know the end of TUC. I haven't been checking in here for a minute so I'll chalk it up to hearsay.

10 hours ago, Werthead said:

I still have mine, so no.

Yeah, as I wrote, I'd have never believed that any of those mediums sold their ARCs. I know Andy and Rob personally and you and Pat are two of the longest standing online SFF bloggers in human history. EDIT: [Grimdark Magazine is the only wildcard and they've garnered some serious respect since their advent - and no single leak would account for 13+ eBay ARCs of TGO sold.]

By the way, is that accurate regarding Orbit not sending out galleys?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As I've said in the past, typically publishers send out ARCs to either common reviewers and writers (Scalzi gets, like, 15 a week) or - and this is kind of a big deal - they send them to book buyers. At Amazon they used to have a big room full of the things where anyone could go in and grab them - and there were 10000 or more. 

Given who the sellers are on eBay and how many ARCs and books they sell, chances are pretty good that these came from people like Powells or B&N or Amazon.

I'd be surprised if Overlook/Orbit doesn't send them out like this, mind you - especially if they've already created one hardcopy to send to someone. For most publishers this is sort of an automatic part of the publishing loop - you create a final draft, send it to get printed, usually create a couple of proofs and runs (which include ARCs), and then do the final run. Those ARCs just get auto-sent out to the usual suspects. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Kalbear said:

For most publishers this is sort of an automatic part of the publishing loop - you create a final draft, send it to get printed, usually create a couple of proofs and runs (which include ARCs), and then do the final run. Those ARCs just get auto-sent out to the usual suspects. 

Given the information available, I'd have to suppose that Penguin was previously sending out the majority of the ARCs to the aforementioned "Big List" of online SFF venues who received ARCs excepting TGO. A noteworthy discrepancy is Publishers Weekly, who only review pre-release, weren't sent an ARC for TGO, and who favorably reviewed every novel preceding it.

The only upside to ARC-pocalypse last year was that those fans who happened upon ARCs, like yourself and those at SA, shared them with other fans, and the majority of that sample still bought the book on release.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have been told the end by a friend who got to read an ARC. How he/she got to read it I don't know and I'm not going to ask. Nor am I going to say peep about it til the book is out. It's possible the person who told me could be lying their ass off as well although I doubt it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finished The White-Luck Warrior last night on my re-read, and started TGO. This is the first time I've read WLW all the way through from the release back in 2011. 

Overall, I think TJE may be slightly better written, but the spectacle of WLW makes it a much quicker and satisfying read. It's also, for some reason, a bit of a slog in the middle. Esme/Momemn chapters are the least interesting IMO, except for the Maithanet and Imrialtis part. I was a bit surprised by how small the Ordeal sections seem on the re-read--there's really just two battles, and they are fairly repetitive. 

Even just 2 chapters in, the lack of polished editing in TGO is pretty obvious. Hopefully TUC received a more careful line edit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...