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The Slog of Slogs: Help save The Unholy Consult by R. Scott Bakker!


Bolivar

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I get fans are worried, but a small publishing company may just not have editors to spare for a work that nets them comparatively less profit than other books.

Orbit themselves took out adverts and did a lot of press for The Judging Eye saying that the original trilogy had been one of their biggest-selling works (selling 125,000 copies in three years, quite a lot for a small press), had opened them up more to SF and Fantasy and had attracted masses of acclaim. So Overlook in 2009 seemed very happy with where the series was and what it was doing for them.

It seems, according to Bakker, that a lot of the editorial team at Overlook has left in the meantime, their commitment to SFF has vanished and they seem a bit bewildered about what to do with the book. Presumably they like money, but it's not entirely in keeping with their image and what they are doing right now.

My main concern is that if they do release it, it's going to be a quickie, rush job and they're going to then bury it so they can move on to something else.

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If Overlook is uninterested in doing the work their contract requires to publish the book why will they not release the book to another publisher to edit and publish?

Because they might make money off it.

Don't even try to apply logic and common sense to publishing decisions. That way leads to only madness.

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Yes it will Scott. I have to say I like what I am seeing lately, folks are getting involved after Scott's message about the book's disconcerting status, people sending letters and mails to Overlook is already very good, I'm glad it's being done. I do hope more people will do so. This will at least bring it to their attention that people are anxious for the final book.



Is there any indication that the publisher isn't going to publish the last book?

Is the agent being stonewalled? Is Bakker? Have they tried inquiring as to what's going on?


Hi Sci. We've been told by Scott that he is not getting any feedback from Overlook on his manuscript.
It's unclear if they will proceed and if they do, what the release plan is. Scott does not even have an editor anymore apparently.

It would be nice if we could get an update from Scott on what he and his agent are doing and hearing because surely they are doing everything in their power to get this moving? But in the meantime I do think it's good for people to act.

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Because they might make money off it.

Don't even try to apply logic and common sense to publishing decisions. That way leads to only madness.

Yeah - it's shelf-space that one of their books could have, so it could potentially cost them money to let someone else publish it. Publishing logic can be weird and counter-intuitive.

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But again, the numbers I'd heard of his sales were all solid. Not blowing the charts up or anything, but certainly something a publisher would be perfectly happy with from a mid-lister.

We already know that he was dropped by Penguin, though.

eta: On a related note, it seems that Bakker’s ebooks are back on Amazon US, so that’s at least something. eta2: I wonder how these ebook prices are set. For example why is TTT $14 while JE is $10.49? Also, $14, really?

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Hi Sci. We've been told by Scott that he is not getting any feedback from Overlook on his manuscript.

It's unclear if they will proceed and if they do, what the release plan is. Scott does not even have an editor anymore apparently.

It would be nice if we could get an update from Scott on what he and his agent are doing and hearing because surely they are doing everything in their power to get this moving? But in the meantime I do think it's good for people to act.

Thanks for the info. Yeah in light of this it makes sense to have a campaign to contact Overlook.

am drafting lawsuit now seeking an order for immediate publication of volume VI, functional wathi dolls for pre-orderers, and complimentary bobblehead syntheses included as punitive damages.

:bowdown:

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Sent a message to Orbit via the contact us page. Will let you know if I hear back.

Don't hold your breath,i contacted them and posted a message on their blog asking very politely about J V Jones's much delayed book and guess what,they deleted my comment.Very professional. :rolleyes:

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To see how crazy publishers are, let's look at the Kearney situation:



The first book of Paul Kearney's Sea-Beggars series, The Mark of Ran, was hyped to hell and did pretty well when it was released. The sequel, on the other hand, was not only not marketed at all but suffered a nearly-last minute name change (from The Stars We Sail By to This Forsaken Earth) which seemed to confuse a lot of people, including book buyers. So the second book did not do nearly as well. The UK publishers said, "Woah," and held fire on publishing the last volume, Storm of the Dead, which was partially-written. Apparently the publishers, Bantam UK, had taken a shot on Kearney based on the Steven Erikson model, where Erikson had built up his numbers very slowly over a long period of time. However, they had invested masses of money in Erikson up-front so had no choice but to support him through some very lean years in order to (eventually, after a decade or so) a reasonable return. With Kearney they decided not to do this and ditched him.



However, the American editions of both The Mark of Ran and This Forsaken Earth (from Bantam US) apparently continued to sell okay. Not setting-the-world-on-fire or anything, but enough to keep ticking over. So they kept reprinting the books.



Fast forward a few years and Solaris wanted to reprint the existing Sea-Beggars book in one volume with the now-completed final volume. Bantam UK were okay with this and gave up the rights. Bantam US refused. So you'd think that with the American sales doing okay, they'd be up for publishing Storm of the Dead themselves and completing the trilogy?



Uh, no.



So Paul is in a situation where the US publishers won't release the series rights so Solaris can either reprint the whole trilogy or Storm of the Dead by itself because they are still making money from it, but not so much money to justify them doing a new deal to complete the trilogy.



This is the kind of insanity authors have to deal with.



Bakker's not quite in the same situation, as both Overlook and Orbit are contracted to publish The Unholy Consult (probably not the final trilogy/duology though) and they have to fulfil that contract within a set time period. Bakker seems more confident he can get the rights back from Overlook in that case (and there is no beef with Orbit, whom to my knowledge are very happy with sales of the series and want to get TUC out ASAP, but can't do anything until Overlook have signed off on the MS).


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Thanks Wert. Considering this, perhaps it is better for us to talk more to Orbit? I have a feeling they'd have more clout with moving Overlook then we random fans. I could definitely be wrong though...

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(and there is no beef with Orbit, whom to my knowledge are very happy with sales of the series and want to get TUC out ASAP, but can't do anything until Overlook have signed off on the MS)

Why does Orbit need Overlook's approval?

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