Lois McMaster Bujold's Blog, page 41
February 5, 2017
Larry Smith, Bookseller
This came in just before I was leaving town, several days ago, hence the late post.
http://www.locusmag.com/News/2017/01/...
I first met Larry back in the late 60s, when I joined COSFS, the Central Ohio Science Fiction Society; the first meeting I attended was in Ron Miller's parents basement, back in Columbus. I was not yet a writer, and Larry was not yet a bookseller, but we were both avid readers. Our paths crossed with increasing frequency after the mid-80s, when we both found our respective vocations. I had many pleasant chats with Larry and his wife and bookselling partner Sally Kobee, both at conventions and at their home in Columbus that rather resembled a book warehouse, a form of interior decorating that suited all of us just fine.
As I was looking up Larry's link, I also ran across this:
http://www.locusmag.com/News/2017/01/...
I'd only met Peter a couple times at conventions, though we had a nice lunch and talk once. And, of course, I possess some of his artwork.
2017 is not starting off well, I must say.
In much happier news, there's this:
http://www.locusmag.com/News/2017/02/...
Well deserved.
Ta, L.
http://www.locusmag.com/News/2017/01/...
I first met Larry back in the late 60s, when I joined COSFS, the Central Ohio Science Fiction Society; the first meeting I attended was in Ron Miller's parents basement, back in Columbus. I was not yet a writer, and Larry was not yet a bookseller, but we were both avid readers. Our paths crossed with increasing frequency after the mid-80s, when we both found our respective vocations. I had many pleasant chats with Larry and his wife and bookselling partner Sally Kobee, both at conventions and at their home in Columbus that rather resembled a book warehouse, a form of interior decorating that suited all of us just fine.
As I was looking up Larry's link, I also ran across this:
http://www.locusmag.com/News/2017/01/...
I'd only met Peter a couple times at conventions, though we had a nice lunch and talk once. And, of course, I possess some of his artwork.
2017 is not starting off well, I must say.
In much happier news, there's this:
http://www.locusmag.com/News/2017/02/...
Well deserved.
Ta, L.
January 27, 2017
January 20, 2017
Penric's Mission out Feb 7th on audio
The Blackstone/Downpour or Audible release of "Penric's Mission", third novella in what is becoming its own little series, is to be released February 7th; again, Grover Gardner narrates.
http://www.downpour.com/catalog/produ...
http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fant...
Ta, L.
http://www.downpour.com/catalog/produ...
http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fant...
Ta, L.
January 4, 2017
Borders of Infinity now in trade paperback
Next in the series of nice trade paperback reprints of the Vorkosigan saga is now available at all the usual suspects:
https://www.amazon.com/Borders-Infini...
Front:
and back...
Ta, L.
https://www.amazon.com/Borders-Infini...
Front:
and back...
Ta, L.
December 19, 2016
Vorkosigan Wiki help
The dedicated fan who is working on the Vorkosigan Wiki needs some help with the Translations page, in progress:
http://vorkosigan.wikia.com/wiki/Tran...
It also has a Talk page for discussions.
There seem to be a lot of international fans who read this blog, who might be a better resource than I am.
The Wiki master writes:
"I've made a "second draft" of all the web-pages in the Translations project, and I'm hoping you can fill me in on some backstory with them. Here's a list of the worst problems:
Russian has two ebook versions, one for Barrayar (http://lavka.lib.ru/bujold/barr.htm) and one for Cryoburn that both lack ISBNs. For Cryoburn, I have three places where it can be found:
http://loveread.ec/view_global.php?id... &
http://royallib.com/book/budgold_lois... &
https://www.livelib.ru/book/100045713...
For Spanish, I'm getting confused. There seem to be two fairly serious efforts to make epub versions of the Vorkosigan Saga. There are no dates, there are no ISBNs or ASINs or any other identifying markings, though the Saga Vorkosigan ## series gives citations of which book was used to make the epub (the other series doesn't). It seems I've mixed some of those covers into my set of pictures on the site, and I'm not sure whether to keep them or not. I'm definitely planning to redo the Spanish page as soon as I've gotten something more definitive for what was published when.
The sites are:
http://libros-gratis.com/author/ebook...
http://www.lectulandia.com/serie/vork...
And of course there's the Bulgarian ebook Etan ot Aton (Ethan of Athos, 2005)
https://chitanka.info/text/1309-etan-...
What should I make of these books? For later: There are also a very few others where I don't know ISBN (or an equivalent, for Hebrew) or translator, and a lot where I don't know artist. I don't know how much I want to pester you for artist names, though I'm willing to try with ISBN and translator.
Thanks for any help you can give me,"
Chime in, multilingual folks! At the Wiki by preference, to save steps.
Ta, L.
http://vorkosigan.wikia.com/wiki/Tran...
It also has a Talk page for discussions.
There seem to be a lot of international fans who read this blog, who might be a better resource than I am.
The Wiki master writes:
"I've made a "second draft" of all the web-pages in the Translations project, and I'm hoping you can fill me in on some backstory with them. Here's a list of the worst problems:
Russian has two ebook versions, one for Barrayar (http://lavka.lib.ru/bujold/barr.htm) and one for Cryoburn that both lack ISBNs. For Cryoburn, I have three places where it can be found:
http://loveread.ec/view_global.php?id... &
http://royallib.com/book/budgold_lois... &
https://www.livelib.ru/book/100045713...
For Spanish, I'm getting confused. There seem to be two fairly serious efforts to make epub versions of the Vorkosigan Saga. There are no dates, there are no ISBNs or ASINs or any other identifying markings, though the Saga Vorkosigan ## series gives citations of which book was used to make the epub (the other series doesn't). It seems I've mixed some of those covers into my set of pictures on the site, and I'm not sure whether to keep them or not. I'm definitely planning to redo the Spanish page as soon as I've gotten something more definitive for what was published when.
The sites are:
http://libros-gratis.com/author/ebook...
http://www.lectulandia.com/serie/vork...
And of course there's the Bulgarian ebook Etan ot Aton (Ethan of Athos, 2005)
https://chitanka.info/text/1309-etan-...
What should I make of these books? For later: There are also a very few others where I don't know ISBN (or an equivalent, for Hebrew) or translator, and a lot where I don't know artist. I don't know how much I want to pester you for artist names, though I'm willing to try with ISBN and translator.
Thanks for any help you can give me,"
Chime in, multilingual folks! At the Wiki by preference, to save steps.
Ta, L.
Five gods Temple music
This has been sloshing around the internet for some time, I'm sure, but it's very like what I imagine some of those World of the Five Gods 5-voiced Temple choirs to sound like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yYcq...
There's another recording of the same piece in a train station with acoustics like a Cedonian stone temple. Minus the PA system and the trains, natch.
I will say this for religious art -- it sometimes allows artists to do work better than it needs to be, that would not be economically permitted in a more utilitarian mode.
Ta, L.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yYcq...
There's another recording of the same piece in a train station with acoustics like a Cedonian stone temple. Minus the PA system and the trains, natch.
I will say this for religious art -- it sometimes allows artists to do work better than it needs to be, that would not be economically permitted in a more utilitarian mode.
Ta, L.
December 12, 2016
new Bujold interview at Baen Free Radio Hour
I did a phone interview last month with the folks at Baen, in honor of the trade paperback reprints of The Vor Game and Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. It went up on Dec. 9th:
http://www.baen.com/podcast
(This link leads/should lead to a menu of podcasts; you'll need to scroll down to Dec 9th's, as it slowly recedes into the past.)
My part starts at around 3:56, and runs for about 40 minutes.
Ta, L.
http://www.baen.com/podcast
(This link leads/should lead to a menu of podcasts; you'll need to scroll down to Dec 9th's, as it slowly recedes into the past.)
My part starts at around 3:56, and runs for about 40 minutes.
Ta, L.
December 5, 2016
Penric and the Shaman audio release
The Blackstone audio version of the novella "Penric and the Shaman", sequel to "Penric's Demon", is out Tuesday Dec. 6th on audio.
At Downpour:
http://www.downpour.com/catalog/produ...
Or Audible:
https://www.amazon.com/Penric-Shaman-...
Oddly, Audible seems to be using our Spectrum cover, while Downpour devised one of their own. Anyway, it will be available shortly as I type this; tomorrow is already today, but later today perhaps.
In related nice news, the Subterranean Press upcoming hardcover (end of February) received a starred review from Publishers Weekly in the 12/2/2016 issue.
Ta, L.
At Downpour:
http://www.downpour.com/catalog/produ...
Or Audible:
https://www.amazon.com/Penric-Shaman-...
Oddly, Audible seems to be using our Spectrum cover, while Downpour devised one of their own. Anyway, it will be available shortly as I type this; tomorrow is already today, but later today perhaps.
In related nice news, the Subterranean Press upcoming hardcover (end of February) received a starred review from Publishers Weekly in the 12/2/2016 issue.
Ta, L.
November 23, 2016
Penric and Shaman signed edition
I thought you might be amused to see a preview of the signature page, or as it was called in an older publishing lexicon, "tip sheet", that will be bound into Subterranean Press signed hardcover edition of their upcoming (at the end of February) "Penric and the Shaman".
To get signed books like this to sell, publishers do not actually send truckloads of printed books for the author to scrawl their name in. (Thankfully.) Instead, they just send a box of the pages, which the author signs and ships back. At the printer's, the pages are "tipped in" or bound into the books, numbered if that is being done, and then shipped off to the vendors or other customers. So I spent last week signing about 500 of these. (There is normally a slight overage, to cover binding errors etc.)
The signed version is that "limited edition" referred to on the SubPress sales page, of 450 numbered copies.
http://subterraneanpress.com/store/pr...
Ta, L.
To get signed books like this to sell, publishers do not actually send truckloads of printed books for the author to scrawl their name in. (Thankfully.) Instead, they just send a box of the pages, which the author signs and ships back. At the printer's, the pages are "tipped in" or bound into the books, numbered if that is being done, and then shipped off to the vendors or other customers. So I spent last week signing about 500 of these. (There is normally a slight overage, to cover binding errors etc.)
The signed version is that "limited edition" referred to on the SubPress sales page, of 450 numbered copies.
http://subterraneanpress.com/store/pr...
Ta, L.
November 12, 2016
Pen & Des reach #74
So...
One of my guilty time-wasters is checking out my Amazon sales rankings far too often during new-title launch times. Like most things on the internet, it's click-bait of which the primary function is to keep one glued to the internet.
Note that sales rankings are not sales figures, but rather, a floating sort of chimera comparing one book's sales to all other books' sales, and on Amazon only; sort of like grading on the curve, that. But it happens in real time, unlike just about anything else in publishing.
Any hour's, indeed any day's result is basically pointless, which is why I am generally happy to see my actual sales numbers only once a month, collated when my agent sends the month's report. Still, observed over time, it does give a qualitative sense of patterns, especially since Amazon supplies this nifty graph to do so in their Author's Central dashboard. The up-and-down cycling of the ranking graphs (followed, at a couple of months remove, by the up-and-down cycling of one's royalties) over a year or two do absolutely confirm the classic dictum that the best thing a writer can do for their career is write more stuff.
So anyway, in the absence of any frontlist stimulus, my backlist e-books normally slosh around in the 10,000 - 50,000 range. Some PR moment-in-the-sun will push some down into four figures for a while; I rarely see three figures. Two figures is nearly unheard of, even during my launches by major publishers.
I did my own little push for "Penric's Mission" here at the beginning of the month, which has had its nice visible (3-figure!) pop. So why the much louder echo now? There is no Slashdot-effect penetrating from the larger internet that I can see.
Near as I can make out, it must be an effect of Amazon's internal automated advertising, where books that pop upward get picked up on lists of various sorts, and their visibility amplified in a positive feedback loop. Hourly bestseller lists, to be sure, but I expect the more important amplifier is that "people who bought that bought these" trailer on a book's vendor page, which is something I as a customer actually sometimes look at. Amazon's version of "Them what has, gets", I suppose.
Well, everyone needs a hobby... studying the entrails of Amazon's rankings is mine for this weekend. Or I could, y'know, put down the internet and go read an actual book...
Ta, L.
One of my guilty time-wasters is checking out my Amazon sales rankings far too often during new-title launch times. Like most things on the internet, it's click-bait of which the primary function is to keep one glued to the internet.
Note that sales rankings are not sales figures, but rather, a floating sort of chimera comparing one book's sales to all other books' sales, and on Amazon only; sort of like grading on the curve, that. But it happens in real time, unlike just about anything else in publishing.
Any hour's, indeed any day's result is basically pointless, which is why I am generally happy to see my actual sales numbers only once a month, collated when my agent sends the month's report. Still, observed over time, it does give a qualitative sense of patterns, especially since Amazon supplies this nifty graph to do so in their Author's Central dashboard. The up-and-down cycling of the ranking graphs (followed, at a couple of months remove, by the up-and-down cycling of one's royalties) over a year or two do absolutely confirm the classic dictum that the best thing a writer can do for their career is write more stuff.
So anyway, in the absence of any frontlist stimulus, my backlist e-books normally slosh around in the 10,000 - 50,000 range. Some PR moment-in-the-sun will push some down into four figures for a while; I rarely see three figures. Two figures is nearly unheard of, even during my launches by major publishers.
I did my own little push for "Penric's Mission" here at the beginning of the month, which has had its nice visible (3-figure!) pop. So why the much louder echo now? There is no Slashdot-effect penetrating from the larger internet that I can see.
Near as I can make out, it must be an effect of Amazon's internal automated advertising, where books that pop upward get picked up on lists of various sorts, and their visibility amplified in a positive feedback loop. Hourly bestseller lists, to be sure, but I expect the more important amplifier is that "people who bought that bought these" trailer on a book's vendor page, which is something I as a customer actually sometimes look at. Amazon's version of "Them what has, gets", I suppose.
Well, everyone needs a hobby... studying the entrails of Amazon's rankings is mine for this weekend. Or I could, y'know, put down the internet and go read an actual book...
Ta, L.
