Are Roger Zelazny's Amber eBooks at Amazon legit?

JSWolf · 01-03-2020, 05:50 PM

Are the Zelazny Amber books legit at Amazon? The are published by Amber Ltd. and I cannot find any sign of Amber Ltd as a publisher of these book other then Amazon.

The book Courts of Chaos shows two covers when you do a look inside. This is not how a legitimate publisher would publish their eBooks especially such classics.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Courts-Chao.../dp/B077DDJTFL

fjtorres · 01-03-2020, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Are the Zelazny Amber books legit at Amazon? The are published by Amber Ltd. and I cannot find any sign of Amber Ltd as a publisher of these book other then Amazon.

Almost certainly.
If you search for Zelazny rather than just the Amber books, the tag says Amber, ltd on most of the others, too. I'll probably pick up the Amber Anthology myself. It's a typical posthumous release so it's almost certainly legit.
They're not tradpub, though.
Most likely it's the estate doing the publishing through their US Agent.

pwalker8 · 01-03-2020, 06:14 PM

It's absolutely legit. Amber Ltd is the company that the Zelazny estate uses to publish it's eBooks. I've been tracking the various Zelazny eBooks as they come out. It's in the backlist thread in the recommendations forum.

JSWolf · 01-03-2020, 06:20 PM

Well, whoever is behind Amber Ltd is doing a poor job. They do not have enough of a presence to show that these are legit.

fjtorres · 01-04-2020, 07:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Well, whoever is behind Amber Ltd is doing a poor job. They do not have enough of a presence to show that these are legit.

Hard to have much of a presence when it only exists to publish *his* books.

It's not a traditional publisher. Most likely it is a shell LLC established for the estate by their agent to indie publish his ebooks since his contracts predate the tech, which means the estate owns the digital rights, not the pbook publisher. Audio, too. But those tend to be licensed most oftenly.

If the TV series ever materializes there will be enough visibility to do the job.

pwalker8 · 01-04-2020, 07:23 AM

It's a company that was set up purely for this purpose, so it has no other presence. A number of indies have their own personal company set up for that purpose. That way it's easier to release the book in multiple ebook stores (Amazon, Apple, Kobo).

Dr. Drib · 01-04-2020, 11:14 AM

Was there ever an ebook version from Orion Publishing Co. [UK.] of the Fantasy Masterwork Series?

And if not, why not?

pwalker8 · 01-04-2020, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Was there ever an ebook version from Orion Publishing Co. [UK.] of the Fantasy Masterwork Series?

And if not, why not?

I would guess not. The original series was published from 2000-2007, i.e. before eBooks were a major thing. Quite a few of the books in the list are available in eBook format. Like most such things, it all comes down to who has the eBook rights to a particular work and what the contract said.

Dr. Drib · 01-05-2020, 08:47 AM

^ Thanks.

pwalker8 · 01-05-2020, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

^ Thanks.

Frankly, I would love it if it was available, just like I would love it if the old Ballantine Adult Fantasy series was available. There are a number of books from that series that I would love to have as eBooks but just aren't available, specifically Munn's Merlin's Godson and Merlin's Ring. I do have both in paperback. There are so many orphaned works that are in danger of being lost.

Just one of the examples of the contract issues is the Erlic series by Moorcock. As far as I can tell, the Erlic books keep getting rearranged and republished by Moorcock on a regular basis. The only eBook versions currently available in the US kindle store are the graphic novel versions. Fortunately, I actually bought all the Erlic eBooks (non graphic novels) before Moorcock pulled them, so I have them, but the stories are not collected in the same order as the original DAW book series that was published back in the 70's. I do have the original DAW paperback books.

JSWolf · 01-05-2020, 09:53 AM

Gateway has the rights to Elric in the UK. You can always go to Kobo and take a trip to the UK to get them in ePub.

pwalker8 · 01-05-2020, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Gateway has the rights to Elric in the UK. You can always go to Kobo and take a trip to the UK to get them in ePub.

True, but we were discussing why there isn't an ebook version of republished series of fantasy masterworks. I suppose one could create a list with links to the various eBook stores for those works that do have eBooks available, but keeping the links up to date would be a pretty thankless task.

Dr. Drib · 01-06-2020, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Frankly, I would love it if it was available, just like I would love it if the old Ballantine Adult Fantasy series was available. There are a number of books from that series that I would love to have as eBooks but just aren't available, specifically Munn's Merlin's Godson and Merlin's Ring. I do have both in paperback. There are so many orphaned works that are in danger of being lost.

Just one of the examples of the contract issues is the Erlic series by Moorcock. As far as I can tell, the Erlic books keep getting rearranged and republished by Moorcock on a regular basis. The only eBook versions currently available in the US kindle store are the graphic novel versions. Fortunately, I actually bought all the Erlic eBooks (non graphic novels) before Moorcock pulled them, so I have them, but the stories are not collected in the same order as the original DAW book series that was published back in the 70's. I do have the original DAW paperback books.

I completely agree with you.

I have an almost complete set of the original Adult Fantasy Series and I would love to see uniform ebook editions of the complete run. Since that's not possible, I've used calibre to place those original covers onto what I do have as ebooks. (I sometimes use those wonderful old pulp covers from Fantastic Novels and Famous Fantastic Mysteries as covers.)

Here's the original Lancer covers for the Elric paperbacks I own, which pre-date the DAW books:

ratinox · 01-06-2020, 10:19 AM

What I would very much love to get is electronic editions of NESFA Press' Zelazny Project books.

https://data.nesfa.org/press/Books/Zelazny-Project.html

fjtorres · 01-06-2020, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ratinox

What I would very much love to get is electronic editions of NESFA Press' Zelazny Project books.

https://data.nesfa.org/press/Books/Zelazny-Project.html

They have an email site for customer suggestions.
Maybe a campaign to inform them?

01-03-2020, 05:50 PM	#1
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,877 Karma: 128597114 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Are Roger Zelazny's Amber eBooks at Amazon legit? Are the Zelazny Amber books legit at Amazon? The are published by Amber Ltd. and I cannot find any sign of Amber Ltd as a publisher of these book other then Amazon. The book Courts of Chaos shows two covers when you do a look inside. This is not how a legitimate publisher would publish their eBooks especially such classics. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Courts-Chao.../dp/B077DDJTFL Last edited by JSWolf; 01-03-2020 at 06:00 PM.

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01-03-2020, 06:14 PM	#3
pwalker8 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,195 Karma: 70314280 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Atlanta, GA Device: iPad Pro, iPad mini, Kobo Aura, Amazon paperwhite, Sony PRS-T2	It's absolutely legit. Amber Ltd is the company that the Zelazny estate uses to publish it's eBooks. I've been tracking the various Zelazny eBooks as they come out. It's in the backlist thread in the recommendations forum.

01-03-2020, 06:20 PM	#4
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,877 Karma: 128597114 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Well, whoever is behind Amber Ltd is doing a poor job. They do not have enough of a presence to show that these are legit.

01-04-2020, 07:23 AM	#6
pwalker8 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,195 Karma: 70314280 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Atlanta, GA Device: iPad Pro, iPad mini, Kobo Aura, Amazon paperwhite, Sony PRS-T2	It's a company that was set up purely for this purpose, so it has no other presence. A number of indies have their own personal company set up for that purpose. That way it's easier to release the book in multiple ebook stores (Amazon, Apple, Kobo).

01-04-2020, 11:14 AM	#7
Dr. Drib Grand Sorcerer Posts: 44,736 Karma: 55645321 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Peru Device: Kindle: Oasis 3, Voyage WiFi; Kobo: Libra 2, Aura One	Was there ever an ebook version from Orion Publishing Co. [UK.] of the Fantasy Masterwork Series? And if not, why not?

01-05-2020, 08:47 AM	#9
Dr. Drib Grand Sorcerer Posts: 44,736 Karma: 55645321 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Peru Device: Kindle: Oasis 3, Voyage WiFi; Kobo: Libra 2, Aura One	^ Thanks.

01-05-2020, 09:53 AM	#11
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,877 Karma: 128597114 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Gateway has the rights to Elric in the UK. You can always go to Kobo and take a trip to the UK to get them in ePub.

01-06-2020, 10:19 AM	#14
ratinox Fanatic Posts: 529 Karma: 5016672 Join Date: Oct 2016 Device: Forma, iPad Air 4	What I would very much love to get is electronic editions of NESFA Press' Zelazny Project books. https://data.nesfa.org/press/Books/Zelazny-Project.html

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