Radoslav Kirilchev
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
In one of your previous answers, you mention having given up on the UK market years ago. As someone currently living in the UK, I'm curious: Why was that? Was it only due to bad book covers?
Lois McMaster Bujold
Four different UK book publishers over two decades failed to sell my books to their satisfaction (or mine). The last-but-one forgot that they had bought three books from me, and would not have published them at all except that we prodded them as the license was about to expire. Just as the line was dying; the editor brought in to oversee this demise didn't even bother to read them in order to write cover copy, but just cobbled something together from online reviews. Sales (once they bothered to print them) were microscopic. The last publisher dropped my series midway because they failed to sell enough copies, which they phrased as, the book failed to sell enough copies.
That book was Paladin of Souls, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards for best novel, and a NYTimes bestseller. Yeah.
I don't know what's wrong with British publishers versus me, but it was plain by then that it was nothing I could fix by writing better or faster or anything else under my actual control to do.
Happily, my direct-placement e-books have given me a way to route completely around the UK publishers and book distribution and reach readers directly. My e-titles on iTunes and Amazon UK have been selling modestly but steadily since 2011, with no sign of slacking off. As more UK readers get into e-books, I expect that to continue.
Ta, L.
That book was Paladin of Souls, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards for best novel, and a NYTimes bestseller. Yeah.
I don't know what's wrong with British publishers versus me, but it was plain by then that it was nothing I could fix by writing better or faster or anything else under my actual control to do.
Happily, my direct-placement e-books have given me a way to route completely around the UK publishers and book distribution and reach readers directly. My e-titles on iTunes and Amazon UK have been selling modestly but steadily since 2011, with no sign of slacking off. As more UK readers get into e-books, I expect that to continue.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Kate Davenport
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Just finished the Assassins of Thasalon. Thank you! It made me wonder. Pen and Des are remarkably compatible, and in Prisoner of Limnos we saw that Pen can control Des at need, even over her objections. But there must be times that they are at odds. How do you think they handle the fact that they just can't get away from each other?
Katya
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
I've read my way through almost the whole Vorkosigan series in the last couple of weeks, and enjoyed them thoroughly. Have you ever done any "dream casting" of actors/celebrities as your characters? (As someone who has a hard time drawing a mental picture from text, especially when it comes to faces—it's a weird neurological disconnect—I'd love to be able to "see" them as you visualized them.)
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