The author is the last to know

[rolanni]

Frequent readers of this journal will recall that The Nice Editor Lady (TNEL) at Ace had back in April given us a schedule for the mass market reissue of the Liaden books. According to that schedule, Agent of Change was to be published in December 2008.

So, over on Amazon.com, Agent is listed as hitting the shelves on November 25.

Bn.com, in the meantime, is positing a publication date of October 28.

The Ace online catalog, which one would think would be the Definitive Source for information of this kind, shows two Lee and Miller titles -- Crystal Soldier and Crystal Dragon.


If anybody sees a copy of Agent on the bookshelves in the next couple weeks, sing out, OK?

Comments

[andpuff.livejournal.com]

About your subject line...Am so happy to know it isn't just me. *g*

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

No, it's all of us, large and small. I was talking to a writer-friend who happens also to be a musician. Her publishing house had told her a Book Release Date, and so she scheduled a tour around it, got all the venues lined up for concerts, contacted bookstores...

You can see where this is going, right?

Not best pleased, though I do believe it all worked out splendidly, after a brief period of swearing and hair-pulling.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Nothing showing on amazon.co.uk yet. I'll let you know when it does (unless it gets to Novenmber 25 in which case I'll order direct from the US one).

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Oh, and the usual Amazon.com confusedness -- if I search for AoC + Sharon Lee I find it (and the others), if I use Steve Miller instead then I don't, if I just use either name without AoC I don't get the new editions at all, and if I tell it to search on publication date I get all of them in totally random order. Someone should really fix their database system (I'd volunteer but (a) they couldn't pay me enough to work that side of the Pond and (b) I don't do databases anyway if I have any choice)...

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I'm told that there is something Very, Very Difficult about having one book pointing to two (or more) authors. LibraryThing has the same problem.

Clearly, I'm clueless as to what causes the problem database-wise, for a database wiz I am not -- maybe the necessity for keeping a double set of records for each book, one under each author's name?

[ckd]

Warning: Completely Pulled-From-Rump Speculation Follows.

It sounds like an underspecification to me, where the database design was done with the assumption that each "book" record just needs a pointer to one "author" record.

One approach is to have three tables: books, authors, and book-author links (where each book can be linked to multiple authors, and multiple books to the same author or authors).

Another would be to have an "author" record which represented a collaboration, and that itself linked to multiple authors.

(I'm not a database designer, but I did take a DB design class in college, and do some relational DB stuff now and then.)

[keristor.livejournal.com]

I don't think, from using it, that they have links at all. From the time it takes and the irrelevance of many of the results I suspect that they just do a search on the whole text (or at least title and author as a string). But why they sometimes can't get a publication date sort right I have no idea (I mean, I'd already done the search, all they had to do was sort the results, right?)...

Not in Baker & Taylor, Ingram or a bunch of smaller wholesalers

[(Anonymous)]

I just checked by various wholesale vendors - nada.
Oh, Bookazine still remembers the 2002 Ace version
and if I specify the ISBN, B&T and Ingram will
admit to the existence of the earlier edition.

No joy otherwise.

If Ace isn't shipping, how will they get it?
Maybe they have their own dramliz....hmn
Lauretta

Re: Not in Baker & Taylor, Ingram or a bunch of smaller wholesalers

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Hmm. If Ace isn't shipping, I wish they'd tell the authors.

Just to be clear, how far into the future are you able to see on the wholesale lists?

Re: Not in Baker & Taylor, Ingram or a bunch of smaller wholesalers

[(Anonymous)]

Usually 6 months ahead...though mistakes happen.
I've been assuming that Ace is NOT re-using the
old ISBNs, right? I'm not sure they can for this
kind of re-print.

Lauretta

Re: Not in Baker & Taylor, Ingram or a bunch of smaller wholesalers

[(Anonymous)]

Ok, I think I see some of what's happening...I apologise for turning into a bookselling geek - time for the readers who don't care to go get a cup of coffee.

amazon.com and banresandnoble.com are using ISBN
9780441009916 for Agent of Change. In ISBN-10 parlance, that's 0441009913, which is the same
number as the old Ace edition from 2002. I was
thinking that a reprint requires a new ISBN, especially 6 years later, but I may be wrong.

If you're getting new ISBNs for these puppies, B&N and Amazon are quoting the wrong numbers.

If you're NOT getting new ISBNs, well, I have no idea then.

Hope this hasn't muddied the waters
Lauretta

Re: Not in Baker & Taylor, Ingram or a bunch of smaller wholesalers

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

It'll be the same ISBN; they're reissuing the books, not creating a new edition. (The Ace edition ISBNs are different from the Meisha Merlin ISBNs; and the MM hardcovers and trade papers had different ISBNs, but! Meisha Merlin went back to press many times for the _Plan B_ trade paper, for instance, all under the same ISBN.

Thanks for looking, by the way. Much appreciated.

Agent of Change from Ace

[(Anonymous)]

I believe a saw a paperback copy of 'Agent of Change' on the shelf at the Borders store in Harrisburg, PA last weekend (10/19-10/20).

SFF Fan in Harrisburg, PA

Okay

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

I'll watch. I saw Duainfey in the store this week.

Re: Okay

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

This is good news. Thanks for keeping an eye out.

Re: Okay

[grassrose.livejournal.com]

I saw one copy in Waldenbooks - I guess you may have already gotten sightings from the big box bookstores.

Heh. I pulled out my "Otherworlds Club" card at Waldenbooks, and had to explain it to the clerk. It's a Waldenbooks science fiction/fantasy discount card that doesn't expire, and is probably older than the clerk. I laminated it :o)

I just wish I had gotten the Romance club card at the same time :-(

[crystalusagi.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to comment and say that this post (http://rolanni.livejournal.com/364971.html) was made of stupid, and I'm glad I did read it, because now I know to steer clear of this author. =) That is all.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Now, see, your delightful and cogent comment is exactly why I was disappointed that the comments on that post could not remain visible. For the most part, it was a good conversation, with people from both sides of the question.

When the Hun started coming in to break up the furniture and call names -- that's when the discussion was locked down.

I doubt that you'd like my books much, anyway.

[crystalusagi.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I wouldn't.