relievedAs Ms. Kiernan reports tonight, she should see the release in mass market paperback of three of her novels, including the two that went bye-bye from the warehouse back last February, in 2007, what looks like an aggressive reprinting schedule for someone not named Stephen King or Dean Koontz. Now she and her agent -- both on vacations, you'll remember -- are working to confirm this with contracts and other written statements. The breach-of-contract issue is still in the air, because, after all, the publisher breached the contract, but this isn't a nefarious attempt to screw with Caitlin's career. Still, the frelling frell-up, it burns, it burns... (And for those of you who don't know the exact meaning of "frell," you should be able to figure it out from context. Or from reading Caitlin's journal for a bit.)
My own mea culpa-slash-oops is that I forgot that the very basic publishing term "remaindered" means "shipped off to discounted book sellers," not (as I'd assumed when I wrote my entry this morning) being pulped and recycled and otherwise made into Not-Books. Probably throughout the last six months these books have been showing up in the "60% off" or "four books for the cost of three" shelves of stores. They aren't likely to be hunted down and returned to Caitlin, unless her Fan Army starts collecting them and sending them to her as gifts or something, but there's still a chance they can be found by enterprising book searchers. Good: they're beautifully written, and handsomely designed, especially Murder of Angels.
Meanwhile, Caitlin and her partner Kathryn (a.k.a. Spooky, a.k.a.
humglum, and a piece of work in her own right) are now spending some vacation time actually resting and relaxing, which THEY'VE EARNED, DAMN IT. And I'm pondering how many copies of Caitlin's upcoming books I'll get, and for who, besides me. She can still use the support.Edited To Add: Yes,
blubeagle, you have permission to repost this if you'd like to.