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Going out of print

  • May. 12th, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Jane Austen
Kind of a bad/good/meh news day.

The hardcover for Valentine's Exile (June, 2006) is being remaindered by the publisher. Such is the nature of the beast. Of course this doesn't interfere with the mass-market, which is selling at a nice rate, so it's not like readers will have a gap in the series (and even if they did that wouldn't be fatal to anyone but completists. I've tried to have each book stand on its own, though reading Wolf would really help anyone new to the series).

On the bad side: Crap! I'm going out of print.

On the good side: Sometimes you pick up new readers with a cheap remainder. That's how I started reading David Gemmell and Bernard Cornwell and a few others.

On the meh side: Happens to everyone. King gets remaindered. Tom Wolfe gets remaindered. And on the counting-your-blessings side, you have to be published in the first place to even go out of print.

I'll just roll with it and order a dozen cheap, so maybe I can help out a few completists in the future.

Comments

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[info]mastadge wrote:
May. 12th, 2008 04:46 pm (UTC)
What'd be really nice is if they'd rebundle the first few in HC so I could have a matching set on the shelf.
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[info]eeknight wrote:
May. 12th, 2008 04:53 pm (UTC)
That could happen in theory. They did it for Butcher. Sadly I don't have his sales track record quite yet.
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[info]newguydave wrote:
May. 12th, 2008 05:43 pm (UTC)
On the good side, I have yet to see any of your books at a used book sale and my wife and I try to hit one or two a week.

Apparently your books are enjoyed by their owners and rarely need new homes. I'm hoping to get to "Wolf" soon, it's on the shelf and getting closer to the top of the "read next" stack.

In addition, your used titles online at Amazon.com are all in double digits. I've posted some books from my library for sale recently and there are triple digits online...sheesh.
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[info]eeknight wrote:
May. 12th, 2008 05:46 pm (UTC)
Never thought to look at used book numbers that way, but I see your point.
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[info]catbyte wrote:
May. 12th, 2008 06:54 pm (UTC)
Guilty. I buy them when they're cheap and give them out to my friends. I like to think I'm increasing the reader base :) I of course buy them all at full price :p
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[info]drjks wrote:
May. 12th, 2008 09:37 pm (UTC)
I recently bought a copy of "Wolf" for my friend and told him to read it. He later informed me that after he finished it he went out and bought all the books in the series to date. One more person who appreciates good fiction.

As an aside, can you define what 'remaindered' means to an author?
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[info]eeknight wrote:
May. 12th, 2008 09:58 pm (UTC)
The publisher doesn't print any more and what inventory that's left is sold at a steep discount to wholesalers and such.
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[info]eeknight wrote:
May. 12th, 2008 11:45 pm (UTC)
(And thanks for shelling out another eight bucks or so to spread the word. I hope your friend returns favors like that.)
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[info]woekitten wrote:
May. 13th, 2008 01:16 am (UTC)
King gets remaindered, all right. I bloody well can't find Cycle of the Werewolf on any store shelf. I don't care what the critics say, that was one of my favourites.

I will make sure to pick up Wolf while I still can! You're absolutely right when you say that going out of print is just a leftover circumstance dwarfed against the thrill of being published in the first place.
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[info]foresthouse wrote:
May. 14th, 2008 01:55 pm (UTC)
And on the counting-your-blessings side, you have to be published in the first place to even go out of print.

It's a good point. :)

*sends cheerful thoughts*
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