Exciting news for Pratchett fans!

[Witty Username]

Twenty stories written under a pseudonym and never before attributed to Pratchett, who died in 2015, will be released this year (October 5th) by Transworld.

Rediscovered Terry Pratchett stories to be published

None of the stories are set in Pratchett’s Discworld ... but according to the publisher they “hint at the world Sir Terry would go on to create”.

Transworld managing director Larry Finlay said Pratchett’s army of fans would “spot nascent characters and settings that were to define his long career as one of the most exciting and inventive writers there has ever been”.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by Witty Username

Twenty stories written under a pseudonym and never before attributed to Pratchett, who died in 2015, will be released this year (October 5th) by Transworld.

Rediscovered Terry Pratchett stories to be published

I wonder if this is actually against his posthumous wishes though... I mean the man did have all his unfinished work run over by a steamroller according to the terms of his will.

[isarl]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I wonder if this is actually against his posthumous wishes though... I mean the man did have all his unfinished work run over by a steamroller according to the terms of his will.

Your point is well made, but these are not unfinished, they are previously published works which were originally published pseudonymously.

[Quoth]

Some people did know that Pratchett wrote them, but no major publisher knew.

I wonder if his daughter has any backups. What experienced writer only has their work on one hard drive? A symbolic PR stunt I quite approve of. See Hooper (C.S. Lewis) and Christopher Tolkien. OTOH it turned out Michael did a reasonable job on Jules Verne's MSS when the originals were found.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by isarl

Your point is well made, but these are not unfinished, they are previously published works which were originally published pseudonymously.

And you'd think that if he wanted them published under his name he would have pursued doing that during the last 40 or 50 years since he wrote them.

It's about the money, not his wishes. Re-releasing them under his name will peak interest, generate sales, and bring in money to other people who are not named Terry.

[isarl]

Originally Posted by haertig

And you'd think that if he wanted them published under his name he would have pursued doing that during the last 40 or 50 years since he wrote them.

It is a pervasive quality of the human experience that not all of it is within our control. Robert Galbraith was unmasked. Richard Bachman died from cancer of the pseudonym. The only way to guarantee total control over his work would have been never to publish it, which he elected not to do.

Originally Posted by haertig

It's about the money, not his wishes. Re-releasing them under his name will peak interest, generate sales, and bring in money to other people who are not named Terry.

This will also result in more people reading his works who might not have been aware of them and make those works more widely available than they otherwise would have been. Sir Terry has passed on and cannot profit from his own works anymore. Why should it be so terrible that other people make money publishing his work? Publishers have to eat just like the rest of us. Even public domain works are often collected, bound, and sold for profit, and this helps to preserve and, in some cases, enrich them, when things like new illustrations get added.

If you can point to any statements Pratchett himself made about how he wanted previously published work, as differentiated from his well-known thoughts about his unfinished work, then I would be curious to read them.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by isarl

If you can point to any statements Pratchett himself made about how he wanted previously published work, as differentiated from his well-known thoughts about his unfinished work, then I would be curious to read them.

No, I don't research into stuff like that. I'm just a little surprised that his heirs and publisher would disregard his wishes. To me, it seems clear that he wanted tight control over the publication of his works. And if they are now saying "well, this stuff was published under a pseudonym half a century ago" ... that just seems like they're playing with words to create a different intent.

That is not something that I would personally support. Obviously, others would. A difference in opinions on how to honor the dead. This is one reason why I have instructed my family that I do not care at all about what they do with me after I'm dead. They can bury me, cremate me, compost me, drop me off in a field of coyotes, sell me to a body parts broker - I don't care. That way they can never feel even a twinge of guilt that they are not honoring my wishes. I don't want anyone to have to choose between money (or something else) and my wishes. So I clearly state that I have no wishes.

But Pratchett did state his wishes.

[isarl]

Originally Posted by haertig

No, I don't research into stuff like that. I'm just a little surprised that his heirs and publisher would disregard his wishes. To me, it seems clear that he wanted tight control over the publication of his works.

I went and reread what I could find concerning his final wishes and they seemed to be pretty specifically about things he was working on at the time that he passed, so your stance on this comes across to me as quite a leap to conclusions. Respectfully, your certainty about his feelings does not seem to be supported by the observable evidence. So, I remain curious if anybody has anything to share that Pratchett himself said about his previously published works, and not his unfinished ones.

[jonathan2022]

its never stopped them from publishing them before. a few singers as well. still havent read whole discoworld series . sort of dont want to end with knowing it wont continue. so holding on

[Witty Username]

Originally Posted by haertig

It's about the money, not his wishes. Re-releasing them under his name will peak interest, generate sales, and bring in money to other people who are not named Terry.

Fortunately Terry was very generous with his creation. Many people who are not named Terry have been making money with his blessing for decades. Stephen Briggs, Paul Kidby, Clarecraft, Bernard & Isabel Pearson, Micro Art Studio, The Mob, Acorn Media, Dave Greenslade and Steeleye Span are just a few of the writers/producers and musicians whose discworld-related merchandise I have.

It is also worth noting that the copyright page on every Pratchett book since around 1990 is
©Terry and Lyn Pratchett.