Barbara Hambly and other authors from the 80s

[pwalker8]

Barbara Hambly just hit ebooks in a big way. She was an author who was popular back in the 80's with the Darwath Trilogy and the Sun Wolf and Starhawk series. Many of her books just hit ebooks this week at the Sony book store. I would assume that they will be available on Amazon soon. I just bought Both the Darwath Trilogy and the Sun Wolf and StarHawk series.

I also noticed that a number of the Robotech books by Jack McKinney are available. These are a novelization of the animated Robotech series. Jack McKinney is a a pseudonym for James Luceno and one of my favorite authors from the 80's, the late Brian Daley, who wrote the Coramonde series, A Tapestry of Magic and the Han Solo Adventures, among others. I would love it if his solo books hit ebooks.

I do hope this is a trend.

[covingtoncat73]

Barbara Hambly also wrote an excellent, non-fantasy mystery series set in 19th century New Orleans, her "Free Man of Color" series. It is good, if you like series mysteries that are historically-set and she really did her homework on New Orleans.

[DiapDealer]

$6.99 - $7.99 isn't too bad, but I would think these back titles still need to be slightly cheaper if publishers are interested in much sales volume at all.

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

Barbara Hambly also wrote an excellent, non-fantasy mystery series set in 19th century New Orleans, her "Free Man of Color" series. It is good, if you like series mysteries that are historically-set and she really did her homework on New Orleans.

I second that. It's an excellent series, though a bit gruesome in parts.

Regards, Alex

[ATDrake]

There was a big launch this week because she's Open Road Media's featured frontpage author (link goes to her catalogue page, since the feature bit will eventually die.)

I must say, though I was rather apprehensive when I'd learned they were picking up her backlist*, they seem to have priced Hambly's books more sanely than their other offerings and done a fairly decent job with the formatting and typo-hunting, at least going by the Kindle samples I downloaded to check after the launch announcement.

Incidentally, they're cheapest at Kobo where they're couponable.

But not at Kobo Canada, where the price discrepancy is absolutely insane, as someone tagged the list price at 19.99 before discounts, whereas in the Kobo US store and the Amazon & Sony & B&N for both the Canadian and US versions, the base list price is 9.99 before discounts. I don't think the Canadian dollar is worth half a US one anymore.

Anyway, she's one of my favourite authors and I highly recommend her works.

Though I'd have to say that Search the Seven Hills (ancient Roman amateur sleuth), Dragonsbane (dragons, of course), Bride of the Rat God (20s Hollywood + Manchu demons), Those Who Hunt the Night (Edwardian vampires), and the Darwath Trilogy (parallel world crossover) are probably the best for new readers to start with.

Plus the Benjamin January series which is available via Random House but not couponable in Agency countries (but worth it anyway).

The other series are mostly good too, but I think these are the ones with the best combo of entertaining story and excellent writing to get into first, with settings that have a broader appeal to people who aren't looking for a particular type of story.

Finally, she also writes entirely new novellas in some of her popular worlds and sells them DRM-free (but single format only) at $5 a pop off her website along with some previously printed short stories, if anyone's interested.

Caveat emptor: A Night with the Girls can be had considerably cheaper via the Chicks Ahoy! omnibus at Baen's Webscription. And for less than double the asking price of There Shall Your Heart Be Also, you can get the New Orleans Noir anthology it was originally printed in, and a slew of other stories beside.

* Open Road was the same company which declared that it would like to break Amazon's $9.99 e-book bestseller pricing standard — in favour of $14+ e-books for the mostly midlist authors they'd scooped up — and did just that for all of Alan Dean Foster's old paperback Spellsinger series and most of their other authors.

Though to be fair, some of their backlist authors are fairly high profile acclaimed literary types like Iris Murdoch and Pat Conroy, I believe.

[pwalker8]

For many of these mid-list authors, I'm just happy to have their books available. Price will sort itself out eventually. When I look through my dead tree book collection, a surprising number are available in ebooks. Of course, I have a lot from Baen Books, but most of my favorite authors are at least dabbling in the ebook market. There are still a few favorite authors that I'm waiting for (Zelazny is the biggest name and of course the Harry Potter books), and a number of specific books, but things are definitely looking up.

[elemenoP]

I've never heard of Open Road Media before but this is a great idea. Why aren't the original publishers putting these books out as ebooks? They don't own the rights? I guess because "ebook" did not exist when they negotiated their contracts? (I think I answered my own question.)

Right now I see a big hole in ebook availability and it's authors who are dead but their books came out after 1923. Like Daphne DuMaurier, Harper Lee, etc. I see Open Road Media has some dead authors so that's hopeful!

eP

[phenomshel]

I love the Benjamin January series! I'm also a big fan of her more recent series written under Barbara Hamilton, about Abigail Adams. This is a positive move toward more backlist ebooks being released, I hope.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

For many of these mid-list authors, I'm just happy to have their books available. Price will sort itself out eventually.

I certainly hope so. $19.99!!!!!

Originally Posted by pwalker8

There are still a few favorite authors that I'm waiting for (Zelazny is the biggest name and of course the Harry Potter books), and a number of specific books, but things are definitely looking up.

I think it depends on whom they were originally published by. I've noticed a distinct push by Random House to get their in-print-as-paperback backlists as e-books for entire series.

Among the ones I've noticed over the past few months are Sharyn McCrumb's Elizabeth MacPherson mysteries which went from having 3 books available to the first 7 or so in a single month, and Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January series, which used to have just the final four RH-published books (she's since been picked up by UK publisher Severn House for new volumes in the series), but now has all of the first 8, added in another monthly catch-up lump.

They even have authors as cult-niche obscure as Barry Hughart's (excellent and recommended) Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox () in e-book format now, at least for the third book. And I bet that's how those Robotech books you mentioned upthread got digitized. I have a few from the used bookstore, and their spines say they're a Del Rey imprint, which RH owns.

And it seems that DAW is starting to get in on the backlist-to-e act, at least for their more popular books. Tanya Huff's Blood Books series (basis of the short-lived TV show which I hope Lifetime is kicking itself about not renewing, what with the popularity of Twilight and True Blood and such these days) is slated to come out in the next few months, according to the author's blog.

On the other hand, Tor and HarperCollins seem mildly lazy about e-publishing their older paperbacks, and look like they're giving a heavy push to the newer books instead. Though older books do seem to be slowly trickling through (at least from Tor; HC, not so much), like one or two more of Steven Brust's Dragaera series and Morgan Llywelyn's Celtic historicals and a few Brian Stableford novels that I don't think were available before when last I checked.

But mostly, their catalogues seem to consist of far more gaps than near-complete series/available works. Of course, I could be wrong and maybe they'll speed up their rate of e-production Real Soon Now.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

I've never heard of Open Road Media before but this is a great idea. Why aren't the original publishers putting these books out as ebooks? They don't own the rights? I guess because "ebook" did not exist when they negotiated their contracts? (I think I answered my own question.)

Right now I see a big hole in ebook availability and it's authors who are dead but their books came out after 1923. Like Daphne DuMaurier, Harper Lee, etc. I see Open Road Media has some dead authors so that's hopeful!

eP

I'm pretty sure that Harper Lee is still alive, but I agree with your sentiment. One of the biggest gaps is the orphaned works, works that are still in copyright but not available because no one is sure who actually owns the rights to them. Many times the original copyright owner has died and the heirs are unaware they own the right, other times the original copyright owner has moved on to another career and is not longer actively pursuing try to publish the work ( there are a lot of mid list authors who fall into this group). I still say that the best solution is that a work should go out of copyright if it's been out of print (i.e. not available) for some set time _and_ the author does not actively renew the copyright, but Disney would never allow that.

[elemenoP]

Oh, my apologies to Harper Lee! I always picture a lot of fighting family members in this situation, but maybe it's not true.

eP

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by elemenoP

Oh, my apologies to Harper Lee! I always picture a lot of fighting family members in this situation, but maybe it's not true.

eP

Yea, the Beatles are probably the most famous example of this. My understanding is that the stumbling block for the Beatles getting on to iTunes was Lennon's widow was opposed to it for some unknown reason. Fortunately, that was finally resolved this year.

I guess in other cases it's feuding family members, a concern about killing the golden goose or simply some idea that the author wouldn't have wanted it to be in ebook format.