[Terez]

PS - I just noticed that Irene Gallo is the art director for Tor. So I'm probably right about Whelan. For those of you who don't remember the conversation we had about this when DKS passed, there is a relevant quote:

Quote

Interview: Nov 14th, 1998
TPOD Signing Report - Matthew Hunter (Paraphrased)

Someone asked how [RJ] chose the cover artist, and we got a nice long spiel with some previously unknown information. Jordan and his wife went through bookstores picking out books based on their (if they liked it) cover art and finding out who did the cover. It came down to two artists, Darrell K. Sweet and Michael Whelan. The deciding factor was that Whelan wants the manuscript to read for a year before he will deliver a cover, and they just couldn't wait that long.

They are apparently considering a later reissue of the entire series with different covers, perhaps by Whelan, once it is complete.

And also, Whelan had already been tagged to be the ebook artist for AMOL. They've been releasing all the ebooks periodically, each with a different artist. So, Whelan needs a year, but since they didn't plan on releasing the ebook with the hardcover, that wasn't a problem. When they all of a sudden needed him to do the hardcover, that made the forecasted release date something of a problem. With all these things converging, they basically couldn't get anyone else to do the cover. It would have been thematically wrong in a lot of ways. At least we know that Whelan was on RJ's shortlist with DKS, and Whelan was already going to do the ebook. So this is perfect. And since Whelan needs more time, well...in this situation, more time comes as a blessing. They worked their asses off to get TOM done in a time that was palatable to fans, and it still had a lot of problems. And this is the last book. In my opinion it's win-win.

This post has been edited by Terez: 25 February 2012 - 06:36 AM

[Cyphon]

Cue fanboy rage on Monday then.

[Terez]

I think the response about this is going to be mostly positive. Even for those paying enough attention to know that Whelan was a factor in the release date (I doubt they'll mention that in the press release), there are a lot of Whelan fanboys and fangirls out there. Most of the people I've seen react to the idea so far are really stoked about it. They were smart to get the release date agony over with before announcing Whelan IMO. Because it would have been agony either way, and at least this way you don't have people insisting they find another artist who will do it quicker.

[a Reindeer]

Is the pre-order option for A Memory of Light on Amazon legitimate? I figured that you would likely know, Terez. I've seen fraudulent things on Amazon before, so I figured that it would be best to just take the time to ask somebody.

Also, I am very, very excited that Michael Whelan is doing the cover art, and for artwork that good, I am content to wait the extra bit.

[Terez]

Yeah, usually you can be sure it's legit after the release date is officially announced. Only before should you worry.

[a Reindeer]

Aaaaaand I'm pre-ordering it now.

[Lugh]

I read that the ebook edition will be purposefully delayed 3 months. Big blunder if you ask me. If there's a group more technically able to pirate the **** out of something than the average fantasy fan, I don't know what it is.

This post has been edited by Lugh: 08 April 2012 - 02:22 PM

[Terez]

Well you have to admit, scanning a book is much more difficult than downloading one from the interwebz. You can probably count on someone to do it for you, but in my experience it usually takes at least a few days after release date to find a scan. And me being OCD, then I have to clean it up, which is also a pain. And I doubt anyone else bothers much, so whatever you get in that 3-month period is bound to be filled with scan errors.

As an aside, I took a picture of an interesting one and posted it on Twitter:



Alanna, to Rand. Of course, she really meant 'bond'.

[Illuyankas]

Then again, it's a week as opposed to three months. And a lot of people are happy to pay for an ebook due to the convenience but will get the scan instead cause the hardback's going to be £20 minimum, and also not gained off the computer.

[Terez]

Right, I get all that. Just saying, our ability to pirate stuff is the reason she's making it more difficult for us. Most people I know wouldn't be happy with a raw scan. Personally I think a week or two would be more reasonable, but Harriet is a little old-fashioned. RJ didn't want to release ebooks at all.

[Illuyankas]

More people would have bought the ebook then would have pirated whatever scanned/hacked version would have been released. What she's making more difficult is the ability for people to actually get the book (oh, and bestseller lists since apparently the ebook one doesn't count for the blah blah blah) but hey, at least Sanderson is all for digital versions.

[Lugh]

She should have taken a look at the games industry. DRM was/is an unmitigated failure. Even something as supposedly airtight as ubisofts alwaysonline had tutorials on how to spoof the server authorization inside what, a week?
This kind of thing doesn't really hurt the pirates, it'll hurt the person who would have genuinely bought the book and are now left with the choice of hardbook, which might not be suitable for a variety of reasons, or pirate it for their ereader.

[Cause]

Lugh, on 08 April 2012 - 04:11 PM, said:

This kind of thing doesn't really hurt the pirates, it'll hurt the person who would have genuinely bought the book and are now left with the choice of hardbook, which might not be suitable for a variety of reasons, or pirate it for their ereader.

I find my self in this position! I pre-ordered the book last night, I misread the date. I thought the kindle version was out on the ninth of january and thought I could wait the day. Now I learn its out on the 9th of April. Ridiculous! I love this series, still I know that I can now either wait a week for the pirated version or spend 60 dollars (which is unusually expensive even for a hardover!) on the hardcover! I don't know why its so expensive here.

I think Ill wait for a pirated version but leave my pre-order so I get billed for it eventually.

[Terez]

Unfortunately for the angry mobs (see Amazon) whatever pirated version shows up is likely to be full of OCR errors. I honestly wonder what effect this will have on sales. In a way I can understand why Harriet put off the ebook; maybe she thinks the lost sales make up for the chaos that would have ensued if there had been an ebook release. All you have to do is look at what craziness there was for the prologue release. All of us wanted to pay for it, but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to reconstruct it from the Google Books searches. I don't understand why the ebook has to be delivered so early; that possibility shouldn't be out there. And this only happened in the first place because Google Books in Canada made the prologue available for sale something like 2-3 weeks early; someone got it and then all the fans had to have it and were looking at whatever opportunities were out there to get it. But why not just wait to deliver the ebook until a certain time on release day? Midnight US Eastern, which is somewhere during release day for everyone else in the world (a little before for the rest of the US). If you're going to delay it, why not do 1-2 weeks or something? Long enough that there's an incentive for most people to buy the hardback, but not so long as to encourage people to pirate it on principle.

[kcf]

Harriet it great, but terribly old-fashioned and out of touch with her stance on WOT ebooks. She may have a point with the whole NYT Bestseller list (I don't know details well enough to know how correct she is or isn't), but she clearly has little understanding on how people younger than about 35 approach the world. Plus, ebooks are higher royalties for the author (in this case Jordan estate), so she'd have made more money if she would let the ebook release happen concurrently with others.

[End of Disc One]

It's my hypothesis that maybe Harriet, like a lot of other old fashioned people, hates the idea of ebooks and is worried that they will bring down brick & mortar stores. Though I read ebooks I can respect this stance.

Edit: Apparently I was wrong and it IS about sales. Or more specifically, this book not hitting #1 and hurting RJ's legacy. See: http://brandonsander...Its-finally-out

This post has been edited by End of Disc One: 09 January 2013 - 07:27 PM