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


Bolivar

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Is there a story there I am not aware of it did you just recognize the name?

Sorry, yeah, the latter. It's just that when I saw the quote on Kal's link I was like "where do I know that name..." and then I made the connection. I read Rushdie's kinda memoir Joseph Anton and remembered a publisher named Mayer being a big figure in it. Not any actual implications for our topic at hand that I can think of, but this guy has been involved in some serious publishing shit assuming that's him.

ETA: And one can just picture Mayer and Hitchens, and possibly Rushdie too sitting around and saying stuff like the quote from Mayer in that link assuming it's true. And I love Hitchens and Rushdie and think their arrogance is about as deserved as anyone's, but that quote from Mayer is atrocious.

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I suspect Internet trolling. Either that or he just isn't smart enough to know how editing and publishing rights work.

Really? I suppose clever folk are simply born with this knowledge.

Westeros is such a friendly place.

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Really? I suppose clever folk are simply born with this knowledge.

Westeros is such a friendly place.

Well, considering that it was explained to you repeatedly and you remained obtuse about it demanding some "source" to "prove" it when it should be patently obvious that any law involving Intellectual Property is especially finicky (and sometimes downright draconian), made me suspect that you were either a troll or a dullard.

In any case, I hope you're pleased by your link from officialdom explaining the ins and outs of publishing contracts.

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Going back to the original point and as Kal said, yes, publishing rights usually result in one publisher being the "primary" publisher who are in charge of editing, and everyone else is simply reprinting the book in their own markets.



So George's primary publisher is Bantam Spectra, where his editor Anne Groell edits the manuscript, and that MS is then passed on to HarperCollins Voyager who publish the book in the UK. The UK editor, Jane Johnson, can also offer suggestions and is in the loop, but broadly speaking they just accept the book and publish it. What was unusual in GRRM's case is that his final draft was usually pretty close to the final edit (thanks to Anne editing the books in stages during the writing process, not all at once at the end) so the edit would take days or weeks rather than months. That allowed Voyager (who have much smaller print runs and a faster turn-around) to jump-start Bantam and get ACoK, ASoS and AFFC all out on the shelves months ahead of Bantam in the US (contractually, they can no longer do that from ADWD onwards apparently).



In Scott Lynch's case the rights to The Gentleman Bastard series were bought first by Gollancz and resold to Bantam, so Gollancz edits the book and then gives the edited MS to Bantam in the US to publish. It doesn't matter that Scott is American and living in the States, he sold the rights to Gollancz in the UK first so they are the primary publisher.



With Bakker it's actually more complex, as Penguin had the original rights (IIRC) overall and Simon & Schuster published the first edition of TDTCB. Penguin later gave up the rights when they dropped the Canadian edition and Overlook picked up the rights from S&S after they decided not to proceed. But they are certainly now the ones in the driving seat and Orbit have to wait for them, which given that Orbit is a much bigger, international publisher is kind of galling.


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The glass door reviews on overlook are...um...yeah.

http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Overlook-Press-RVW6966665.htm

Interesting, I've never been to such a site. The sidebar of "Jobs you may be interested in" was certainly humbling for me...

Stylist Job - Mall Park Center

Great Clips – Elizabethtown, KY

Manufacturing Supervisor - Molding

Summit Polymers – Elizabethtown, KY

Store Associate

ALDI – Elizabethtown, KY

Sales Representative — Rural Markets

Platinum Supplemental Insurance – Jeffersonville, IN

Naval Reactors Engineer

US Navy – Louisville, KY

Pizza Hut Server

Pizza Hut – Elizabethtown, KY

So I could be a hair stylist, a super market associate, or perhaps a server at Pizza Hut... on the plus side, Reactors Engineer! :lol:

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Thanks for your insight Wert.



Don't Overlook have an obligation to provide a product/service they've already been paid for though?



I'll send letters to both firms and mention that I'll planning get two copies of TUC anyway I'll buy by air-mail from whatever region releases first, but also I'm keen to buy get matching sets of both complete trilogies if/when they are reprinted for my bookshelf (as my current copies are a dog-eared mash of PB, TPB and HC from different publishers).


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Thanks for your insight Wert.

Don't Overlook have an obligation to provide a product/service they've already been paid for though?

I'll send letters to both firms and mention that I'll planning get two copies of TUC anyway I'll buy by air-mail from whatever region releases first, but also I'm keen to buy get matching sets of both complete trilogies if/when they are reprinted for my bookshelf (as my current copies are a dog-eared mash of PB, TPB and HC from different publishers).

I've given up on having them match. TDTCB is a big paperback while TWP and TTT are smaller paperbacks (not quite trade paperback size but some weird in between) and then TJE and WLW are both hardbacks.

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Don't Overlook have an obligation to provide a product/service they've already been paid for though?

They haven't been paid. This isn't vanity publishing.

Overlook have bought the right to publish this series. Normally this would then provoke them to publish the series in order to recoup their investment. Barring some weird clause in the contract they don't have to though.

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They haven't been paid. This isn't vanity publishing.

Overlook have bought the right to publish this series. Normally this would then provoke them to publish the series in order to recoup their investment. Barring some weird clause in the contract they don't have to though.

Presumably, if they are presented the manuscript and they choose not to publish; the rights would revert to Bakker at some nebulous time in the unforeseeable future. :(

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Oh, I get it - so Orbit don't have ongoing rights and Overlook could simply hand UK printing and distribution rights for TUC to someone else at the drop of a hat?

I wouldn't say that's the case at all. No one can do anything until Overlook acts. However, Orbit has a contract to handle the UK distribution at such time as Overlook completes the manuscript.

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