Kosigan
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I was lucky enough to be sent to work in the US for a couple of months back in October 1996, just in time for Memory in hardback and Cetaganda in paperback. You've mentioned before how your UK publisher dropped you after Paladin Of Souls (idiots that they were, in my opinion). I apologise if this has been asked and answered before, but how did Cetaganda not get a UK publication?
Lois McMaster Bujold
No UK publisher chose to offer for it. I can't sell books to publishers who don't want them. What they were thinking, I have no idea, and it is likely too late to ask.
Happily, I now have direct e-publication of all my works in the UK, which has been holding steady and even slowly growing from its inception in 2011, as more readers discover e-books.
Note that when discussing my UK non-career, we are talking about four different publishers over time. Two of the lines, Pan and Earthlight, were discontinued while I was in them, rather like having one's horse shot out from under one, so it wasn't just me affected.
To be fair, the first mistake was mine back in the late 80s, when my (actually Baen's, at that point) then-foreign-rights agent took the VK series from Headline to Pan after book #4 for the sake of a higher advance. We should have stuck with Headline... maybe. It was all downhill from there. Too late, live and learn, etc.
Ta, L.
Happily, I now have direct e-publication of all my works in the UK, which has been holding steady and even slowly growing from its inception in 2011, as more readers discover e-books.
Note that when discussing my UK non-career, we are talking about four different publishers over time. Two of the lines, Pan and Earthlight, were discontinued while I was in them, rather like having one's horse shot out from under one, so it wasn't just me affected.
To be fair, the first mistake was mine back in the late 80s, when my (actually Baen's, at that point) then-foreign-rights agent took the VK series from Headline to Pan after book #4 for the sake of a higher advance. We should have stuck with Headline... maybe. It was all downhill from there. Too late, live and learn, etc.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Ben Newton
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Good morning, Ms. Bujold! I'm a huge fan of your writing, thank you! I'm far from a writer myself, but like many people, I do have to write some for my job. Most writers say the trick is to just get your thoughts on paper, then go back later and make them good, which is pretty much the exact opposite of what I do. Is that how you do it? And if so, do you think it has affected the way you think and talk as well?
Celtic
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Hi Louis. Typos in Knot of Shadows at page 50 of 111, 44%, when Penric meets Learned Retaka: "Olive Street was marginally less crooked and narrow than its surrounding streets, alleys… passages. The dwellings on this southwest side were much cut-up by time and their residents, many to overcrowded chambers for, if not poor, working men and women and their families." Enjoyed it, as ever. Hope this helps?
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