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


Bolivar

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This message is a copy of your contact form submission for your personal records.

Which Orbit Branch?

Orbit UK

Name

sologdin

Email

sologdin@***.com

Message

ZOMG where is R Scott Bakker's Unholy Consult? y'all are ruining my life!

very effective system they got here. prompt in replying to my post with a copy of same! and copy is 100% accurate!
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Definitely good to get those emails and messages in if you haven't already. I think the handwritten letters are a good touch too, I'll update the OP a little later so everyone can see where to write to on the front page.

I just got off the phone with Overlook - the call went right through so you guys don't have to worry about being put on hold or anything. Unfortunately, nothing new to report. She gave me the vague, "once we select a season for publication, we'll start working on an announcement." Based on what she told me, it sounds like that process might take them anywhere from 4-5 months from them first looking at the finished manuscript up to finalizing a calendar slot and beginning its promotion. I asked how long they usually take to start looking at a finished manuscript after its been turned in and she said there's no set timeline, it usually depends on the level of communication between Overlook and the agent. I probably should have asked if there's anything we can do to speed that up but that last bit of information made me feel like Bakker's agent either doesn't have much pull with the company or just isn't doing enough.

Anyway, it only takes a minute, so let's get some more calls in. It's ok to keep it short so long as they hear you're asking about Bakker and TUC. Don't be a misanthrope!

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Definitely good to get those emails and messages in if you haven't already. I think the handwritten letters are a good touch too, I'll update the OP a little later so everyone can see where to write to on the front page.

All hand written letters should be written in blood. Black demon blood...

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So, I guess I'll send Orbit an email. Don't see what good it will do. Overlook has gotten dozens of emails and have yet to answer back. Truly, this is the Slog of Slogs. Where's Rhom? Can you give us a slog of slogs? It makes me feel better....
As stated by Wert, talking to Orbit does basically nothing. Their hands are completely tied given where they are in the order of things. Even if they could give approval to the manuscript (they can't) or even look at it (they can't) they'd still have to wait for Overlook to sign off.


It does no good to pressure Orbit. None at all.



Another thought: pressuring Overlook doesn't appear to help a whole lot. Have y'all thought about pressuring Bakker's agent? Overlook does seem to indicate that the ball is somewhat in Bakker's agent's court. Talking to the agent to see what, if anything, can be done to help out or find out more about that situation from that side might be beneficial. At the very least it might give him a bit more collected ammunition to use in negotiating.


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It's a good idea from Kal to contact the agent, but I don't know who that is nor did the google I just processed lead me there.

We'd have to ask Scott himself.

I was never thinking about pressuring Orbit. Maybe Orbit could in turn put the pressure on Overlook. Who's Bakker's agent? I'll give him a email too.

I see what you mean, it could work, people at Orbit might start asking about TUC with Overlook, that is the best that could be hoped for by contacting Orbit.

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As stated by Wert, talking to Orbit does basically nothing. Their hands are completely tied given where they are in the order of things. Even if they could give approval to the manuscript (they can't) or even look at it (they can't) they'd still have to wait for Overlook to sign off.

It does no good to pressure Orbit. None at all.

Care to explain this at all? The word Overlook doesn't even appear in my copies of the books. My copy of WLW is from Penguin, everything else bears the Orbit imprint.

Why wouldn't the credited publisher be concerned with publishing their books? Who are Overlook in relation to Orbit?

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Our role right now is to demonstrate fan interest from the community. The only person who should be pressing Scott's agent is Scott. I think asking Bakker for his agent's personal info so we can tell him how to do his job might be counterproductive.



From looking at success stories in the gaming community, these things need to show sustained fan enthusiasm. We should keep at it with Overlook for now, as calling it at this stage would be premature.



I think Orbit is worth continuing an effort with as well. Given what Adam has told us, it would seem they stand to lose more from the delay than Overlook does. I'm not familiar with the literary world but they might be able to come to some duty shifting arrangement. It honestly sounds like Overlook truly doesn't have the resources right now and have hit some road bumps lately. Showing some patience on our end would probably be a nice gesture as well.


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Care to explain this at all? The word Overlook doesn't even appear in my copies of the books. My copy of WLW is from Penguin, everything else bears the Orbit imprint.

Why wouldn't the credited publisher be concerned with publishing their books? Who are Overlook in relation to Orbit?

Overlook is the orginal publisher/editor, everything else is subcontracted out.

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Bolivar, I was being sarcastic. I tried to show that on my 2nd post. No, I wouldn't email the agent of my favorite writer. That's stalker territory and putting your nose where it doesn't belong.

I see zero problem contacting Orbit. Per Wert's post I deduced the same as you. Orbit stands to lose more the longer TUC is shelved. I am sure they are already hounding Overlook, but sending an email to them might just make them press the issue a little more. You know, considering that their PAYING customers are wanting to know why they can't PAY them for their product.

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Bolivar, I was being sarcastic. I tried to show that on my 2nd post. No, I wouldn't email the agent of my favorite writer. That's stalker territory and putting your nose where it doesn't belong.

I don't think it's stalkerish (after all, the agent is the representative of the author within the industry, and their details are public). I just don't think it'd be particularly effective. Literary agents already spend a large percentage of their time going through query emails from would-be authors, in addition to their representative work; they are very busy people, and having to deal with hundreds of "where's the book" emails on top of that? It's only going to be ignored until a public announcement can be made.

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I figured that MSJ!



I mean, that's a short step away from us being on hold with tech support because Bakker blogs how he has Office 2013 issues and Microsoft won't get back to him.



I updated the OP with Overlooks mailing information. I think doing a collective mailing next week might be a good idea. Let's try to get some calls in before that tomorrow!


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Overlook is the orginal publisher/editor, everything else is subcontracted out.





So Overlook hold the worldwide first rights to Unholy Consult and only sold partial rights for each book on a case by case basis? (I don't think publishing and distribution without any mention of your company is a sub-contracting type of arangement).


I wonder, where do you get this type of information and where could I learn more?



It seems like Penguin Canada did the first printing of TDTCB, I assume they have at least sold partial rights at some point but Orbit and Overlook seem to have been publishing/distributing the books pretty much simultaneously, which I would have thought indicates holding limited rights for different regions. In which case I would think that some level of collaboration over release dates needs to happen rather than it being entirely up to one or the other.


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Eh, it was back in another Bakker thread. From what I understand Orbit cant do shit til OVerlook gives the say so(and uh, the manuscript) and Penguin dropped him in Canada.







Cheers man. Well, I'll treat it as hearsay then. Most likely Kal was simply being his usual contrary self :unsure:



I feel like the author's recommendation to contact Orbit remains the best idea in that case.


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