Katie Guest
asked
Jack Heath:
Are you ever going to make Agent Six of Hearts book 4 available for US buyers?
Jack Heath
That’s a sad story. In 2011, right before that book was supposed to come out, several major bookstore chains collapsed. My Australian publisher predicted (probably correctly) that without those bookshops, a print release would fail. They decided to release the book as an ebook only. They wanted to do it globally but I refused to give them the world rights. I thought no international publisher would buy the print rights if they couldn’t get the ebook rights as well, and that would mean anyone without a device (which was most people, back then) would never get to read it.
This was a bad decision. After the ebook came out in Australia—and sold about six copies—no international publisher wanted the print OR ebook rights, and the Australian publisher was no longer interested in a global release.
At least once a week I get an angry message about Dead Man Running, and how it isn’t available in the reader’s preferred format or country. Technically I could ask for the rights back and self publish it - but self-publishing is time-consuming and expensive (if you want to do it well). And frankly, I don't even like the book that much. I shouldn't have written it in the first place, given that the second and third books in the series sold so badly. I wrote Dead Man Running when I was in a very dark place mentally, which makes it a grim read - and I was still young and inexperienced, so I wasn't a good enough writer to make the story work. I don't want to release it in the US - I'd rather erase it from existence, even in Australia.
Can I recommend a different (much better) book? Perhaps Lifespan of Starlight by Thalia Kalkipsakis, or Impostors by Scott Westerfeld? I know it's frustrating not being able to finish the series. But I so desperately wish that I had quit while I was ahead (or at least, not so far behind). In my mind, book three IS the end of the series. Book four isn't even canon.
By the way, I'm about to make exactly the same mistake with a different series. (I'm writing a fourth book in the Timothy Blake series, even though only the first two were published in the States - the third was rejected.) Let's hope I've learned enough about writing in the meantime that I don't regret it.
This was a bad decision. After the ebook came out in Australia—and sold about six copies—no international publisher wanted the print OR ebook rights, and the Australian publisher was no longer interested in a global release.
At least once a week I get an angry message about Dead Man Running, and how it isn’t available in the reader’s preferred format or country. Technically I could ask for the rights back and self publish it - but self-publishing is time-consuming and expensive (if you want to do it well). And frankly, I don't even like the book that much. I shouldn't have written it in the first place, given that the second and third books in the series sold so badly. I wrote Dead Man Running when I was in a very dark place mentally, which makes it a grim read - and I was still young and inexperienced, so I wasn't a good enough writer to make the story work. I don't want to release it in the US - I'd rather erase it from existence, even in Australia.
Can I recommend a different (much better) book? Perhaps Lifespan of Starlight by Thalia Kalkipsakis, or Impostors by Scott Westerfeld? I know it's frustrating not being able to finish the series. But I so desperately wish that I had quit while I was ahead (or at least, not so far behind). In my mind, book three IS the end of the series. Book four isn't even canon.
By the way, I'm about to make exactly the same mistake with a different series. (I'm writing a fourth book in the Timothy Blake series, even though only the first two were published in the States - the third was rejected.) Let's hope I've learned enough about writing in the meantime that I don't regret it.
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