Quote:
Originally Posted by speakingtohe
There may be other factors besides wanting to publish. Sometimes it is not clear who has the rights. Sometimes the rights holder may unwilling or unable to publish it themselves and no publishers are interested but they may be reluctant to relinquish the rights because "It could become valuable any day now".
Sometimes they are unaware that here is any value or even interest in these works.
There are small publishing houses who specialise in tracking down out of print books and getting the rights to publish them. Hard Case Crime publishes several books a year by some still living authors some of who are big names still and still writing. They even have a couple of crime novels by Sci-Fi writers. They produce a quality product and hopefully are doing well.
In the case of Doc Smith it seems his literary executer, Verna Smith Trestrail, whose will may still be in probate, died in 1994 and it is quite possible no one was interested in republishing when she was alive and self publishing was not so easy then.
But it is probably not orphaned. Sounds like a good business opportunity for someone who is passionate about this type of fiction  Contact Kim Trestail and make him an offer.I think that the possibilities are high as electronic publishing gains momentum, that someone will do this if they are not in the process already.
Helen |
Not to disagree with anything you said, I will note that the Science Fiction Book Club reprinted omnibus editions of the main 6 Lensman books (and the 4 Skylark books, in the very early 2000's.
(I keep first editions of all the Lensman works...)
(also, a volume of unpublished, non science fiction works was published in 2001 (Have Trenchcoat, Will Travel) )