To your scattered authors go...

I have upgraded technology sitting here on the desk, and you all know what that means, right? Right! I can play Second Life again. Due to Kit Jimenez's long absence from the game, she has money to burn, and that's what she intends to do. First purchase was a new avatar, that does not have Humongeous SL Tits(R). I feel sooo much better. And I'm sure Kit does, too.

In Real Life, I vacuumed the house, to the consternation of the cats, excepting Hexapuma, who can't seem to actually figure it all out. He doesn't want to ride around on the vacuum cleaner, like Dulsey did, but he doesn't see any real reason to, like, get out of the way, either.

Also, may I just say? The Book of Water Chapter Thirteen -- Almost, almost Perfect.

My copy of Web Mage arrived in yesterday's mail, and it looks positively yummy.

*Wonders if she has time to read a book*

As you may have guessed, all of this unrelated activity means that I'm Working Hard(tm) on Mouse and Dragon. I have regretfully decided that the interview with Samiv's delm happens too deep inside Scout's Progress to make it a reasonable starting point for Mouse.... However! It has likewise occurred me to that (1) Clonak's father adores making mischief, and (2) the Gazette will have published its morning edition.

Downsizing, OR Why I can't tell you whether Fledgling will be published in hardcover

I got a note today from a fan who wanted to know the answer to a very simple question: Was Fledgling going to be published in hardcover? It seems that they only buy Liaden books in hardcover, because of the frequency with which they're re-read.

This is very nice to hear, that people re-read our books not once but many times -- and it's not an unusual thing to hear from Liaden readers. But the note as received contains a fallacy that I feel ought to be addressed.

The assumption implicit in the inquiry above is that all books are published -- sometime -- in hardcover. This is Just Not So. When the first three Liaden books were published by Del Rey -- back when some of our readers were still in middle school -- they were paperback originals. I'm not ashamed of that; in fact, I'm glad of it. People are much more willing to take a chance on a new-to-them author when the price of that chance is under $10.

Meisha Merlin specifically did not want to produce its own mass markets. Mass markets are strippable, which is money down the tubes. As a smallish press, Meisha Merlin wanted returns of whole books that could be re-sold, even if some of them had to be discounted, as hurts. This is why the Liaden Universe® novels from Meisha Merlin were originally published as hardcover-to-preorder, and trade paper for wider distribution. In a word, it was an accident; local custom, not law.

Lately, there's another factor influencing whether or not a book is published as hardcover. Anybody guess?

Right -- the chain bookstores.

The economy, in case anybody has failed to notice, is in the tank, and the bookstores, which had been hurting before October, are scrambling like mad scrambling things to stay in business. This means that they're telling publishers that they're not going to be ordering Certain Things. Re-re-issues of mass market paperbacks, for instance. Hardcovers, for another. Trade papers, for something else.

In order to try to accommodate the bookstores, some publishers are downsizing certain of their offerings. A book scheduled to be published in hardcover, for instance, might be reformatted to trade, so that it has a greater chance of getting into the chains. Another book, at a different rung on the ladder, scheduled to appear as trade paper, is busted back to mass market, for the same reason.

So. That's why I don't know the answer to that so very simple question at the top of this ramble. It may well be that Fledgling will make the hardcover cut. Or, something out of our control and that of our publisher might happen.

And, this, boys and girls, is what makes publishing the Grand Adventure that it is.