Peter S. Beagle

[BWhite]

Originally Posted by BookCat

But alas, no response from them. Maybe you could try. It would demonstrate a demand for Mr Beagle's novels as ebooks.

I think I'll stop flogging that horse, poor thing

Probably a wise move to give up.

I've decided that as Mr. Beagle appears to be active at conventions in the USofA in 2010, and is consequently rubbing shoulders with the iPad/iPod/iPhone generation, then there is a high probability ebooks have been mentioned to his face and he is not interested in going the digital route.

I mean, it looks like he is to be the Principal Speaker at
http://philcon.org/

and was apparently at
http://conventionfansblog.com/2010/0...urn-to-otakon/

[speakingtohe]

I could ask why an author does not get a real job if he need money. Then we would not have all discussions about pirating and so on. Much better that he have to have a real job like the rest of us have to.

Because he is smarter than many of us and has provided many people with pleasure so he shouldn't have to. Hopefully he has Social Security as his grateful readers will probably be not much help (judging only by tompe (who may be partially illitereate so I am being to harsh)).

[ficbot]

Wait a minute, he has given people pleasure so he shouldn't have to have a real job? Whoa. No thanks! If he can't make a living by selling what he makes, he can't make a living and has to work, the same as any person. I have a musician cousin who teaches to supplement his gigs. I know a ton of people who can't make art their full-time jobs, such is life. Being a writer does not make him, inherently, more special than other people.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by ficbot

Wait a minute, he has given people pleasure so he shouldn't have to have a real job? Whoa. No thanks! If he can't make a living by selling what he makes, he can't make a living and has to work, the same as any person. I have a musician cousin who teaches to supplement his gigs. I know a ton of people who can't make art their full-time jobs, such is life. Being a writer does not make him, inherently, more special than other people.

Mr Beagle is 71.

Graham

[astra]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Hopefully he has Social Security as his grateful readers will probably be not much help

If he has Social Security, then he is benefiting from his readers who work every day, even those readers who didn't like his books, like me. I have read The Last Unicorn a month ago and didn't like it.

Note.
I don't begrudge him having Social Security, because all pensioners must have some back up support from the government. They are vulnerable, not the lazy youth who refuse to work. However, I don't see why he has got to have any more benefit/support than a postman/lady of 71 who worked very hard all his/her life. Do you think postman's customers would be of much help to him when he is a wreck of a man (because of hard physical work)? Art is just another job. It is no more honourable and respectful than any other.
My wife is a former artist. After 3 years of trying to make a living off of art, she realised it won't work and became a teacher. She had to study for 2 years in University on PGCE, although she had a degree in something else.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by astra

If he has Social Security, then he is benefiting from his readers who work every day, even those readers who didn't like his books, like me.

As did those Social Security claimants who benefited from the taxes that Mr Beagle paid throughout his life. Looking at his wikipedia entry he appears to have been reasonably productive; it was good to see that he was the screenwriter behind Bakshi's "Lord of the Rings", for example.

Graham

[astra]

Originally Posted by Graham

As did those Social Security claimants who benefited from the taxes that Mr Beagle paid throughout his life

Agree. That's how it should be.

My point is one can blame his readers for not supporting him as much as one can blame people on Blah-blah street for not supporting their postman.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Because he is smarter than many of us and has provided many people with pleasure so he shouldn't have to. Hopefully he has Social Security as his grateful readers will probably be not much help (judging only by tompe

If you refer to the thing about real job in this thread I can say that this was meant as irony or as an example of a stupid question on the same level as the stupid question HarryT posed. It was intended to show that HarryT's point was irrelevant or misguided. I admit it was very badly formulated so I see why this was not clear...

[connorfc]

Originally Posted by tompe

If you refer to the thing about real job in this thread I can say that this was meant as irony or as an example of a stupid question on the same level as the stupid question HarryT posed. It was intended to show that HarryT's point was irrelevant or misguided. I admit it was very badly formulated so I see why this was not clear...

I appreciate your expanding on this, because I confess I'd missed the irony too.

Connor Cochran here -- Peter's business manager, and president of Conlan Press (which is an amusing title, given that the company is still basically just me and some part-time occasional help).

In general, on this Peter/job thing, for anyone that cares, let me just say that Peter has a job -- he's a writer. And a productive one, too, with over 700,00 words of new fiction and nonfiction plus 53 new songs and poems on the ledger since he and I started working together in late 2001. The reason that his finances are still precarious, despite that output, is that he's been clawing his way out of a hideously deep pit created by decades of cheating publishers and entertainment companies, which was then exacerbated by private family problems stemming from the death of his mother in 2006. To be frank, no one should have to be dealing with these things, let alone a very nice gentleman of 71 years. But he maintains a reasonably good humor about life, he keeps on writing, and me and some other folks are working with him to solve the old problems and pursue new possibilities. There are only a couple of Really Big Issues left (such as Granada Media selling close to 2 millions Last Unicorn DVDs worldwide, but refusing to pay Peter anything) but eventually even those will be behind us, which will be a great relief.

[ProfCrash]

It sounds like Peter would be making some extra money if his work was available for e-readers.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

It sounds like Peter would be making some extra money if his work was available for e-readers.

Personally, I'm waiting for the Broadway production of The Last Unicorn: The Musical.

[connorfc]

Originally Posted by BookCat

Obviously they don't choose to respond. I just asked them if there were any plans to publish Peter Beagle's books in e format, mentioning that many people on this site had expressed an interest in reading his works on their ereaders.

But alas, no response from them. Maybe you could try. It would demonstrate a demand for Mr Beagle's novels as ebooks.

My apologies. Conlan Press is still just me and some occasional part-time help...and since all the profits flow to helping Peter, I still have to do other paying things to support myself and my wife and feed the cat. Between that stuff and CP work and fighting Peter's legal battles for him, my typical work week routinely tops out at over 90 hours, which means I can't always answer inquiry emails as fast as I'd like.

Again, my apologies. I look forward to someday having more staff and more time!

As for the answer to your question...now that I've discovered this forum I'm going to post a general FAQ-style explanation below.

-- Connor Cochran

[connorfc]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Personally, I'm waiting for the Broadway production of The Last Unicorn: The Musical.

Less of a joke than you might think.

1) There's a German stage musical in development right now, scheduled for 80 performances in two cities in Germany next year. (This may or may not go any further: it depends on what Peter thinks of it when it premieres.)

2) Meanwhile there is indeed talk of a Broadway stage musical collaboration between Peter and Jimmy Webb, to be based on a great stage adaptation done last year in Chicago by Ed Rutherford. That's all just early talk, though, so no telling what will actually come of it.

-- Connor Cochran

[connorfc]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Withdrawn from e-reads because they thought they could sell more at Amazon or somewhere?

Because withdrawing from sale completely because you are not selling enough is crazy? They seriously expect Pangborn books (old, dated, just another forgotten author of no particular note) to shift lots of copies? If so, then quite possibly there is some nuttery there.

No...we withdrew the Pangborn titles from e-reads for quite a different reason.

When Peter inherited the literary estates of Edgar Pangborn and Mary Pangborn back in 2003, they came to him in the form of a mountain of manuscripts, correspondence, and assorted papers. (Well, not a mountain, precisely. But the boxes did fill an entire cargo van.) Examination revealed many previously-unpublished works and -- even wilder -- many new drafts and edits of existing works, since apparently Edgar kept tinkering and making changes to please himself after initial publication, even though none of those changes ever made it into any published editions. After some discussion Peter and I decided that to properly honor Edgar and Mary it was necessary to pull together texts that would best reflect what they actually wanted. That work is ongoing in the background and will eventually go public as part of a comprehensive program relaunching them as writers in all formats, including ebooks.

Mary Pangborn will be a big revelation to folks, I think. She published little during her lifetime, but she was every bit as good as Edgar was.

Another revelation will be Edgar the composer. Those familiar with his biography know that he studied music at Harvard and the New England Conservatory of Music when young, but no one ever knew any details, and (aside for playing for his own pleasure) he never did anything publicly with that training. But we found dozens of full orchestral compositions among his papers, and are arranging to have them produced so they can finally be heard.

-- Connor Cochran

[Graham]

Connor - all I can say is "wow"!

Please keep us informed of progress, from time to time!

EDIT: I've just found your newsletter page on the Conlan Press website, and have signed up.

Graham