S&L Podcast - #395 - Spider Belmont
/Sandman and Lord of the Rings go back intro production, why publishers shouldn't fear library eBooks, and a call for Sword and Laser book remembering help!
QUICK BURNS
Trike: Neil Gaiman posted on Twitter that shooting for Netflix’s adaptation of Sandman starts in 3 weeks, plague permitting. So just before Halloween. Hmm.
Jan: Tor Books has announced a new epic science fiction trilogy from queer non-binary writer Neon Yang. The Nullvoid Chronicles will be a retelling of the story of Joan of Arc with a "space opera, giant robot twist". The first novel, The Genesis of Misery, is planned for publication in 2022, so we have still some time.
Yang (pronouns: they/them) has won the 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novella for their novella "Black Tides of Heaven" and Tor aquired the global English language rights for the new trilogy
Trike: Amazon has resumed production on the Lord of the Rings prequels
Mark: Coming 2 December 2020, the first issue of a four-issue comic mini-series, The Expanse, set between Season 4 and the upcoming fifth season of the television series. Written by Corinna Bechko with art by Alejandro Aragon
Mark: Publishers Worry as Ebooks Fly off Libraries' Virtual Shelves. "Checkouts of digital books from a popular service are up 52 percent since March. Publishers say their easy availability hurts sales."
Analysis from Rick - Ebooks are not lost sales for publishers. They are not *free* books. Note this from the linked article:
"The result: Libraries typically pay between $20 and $65 per copy—an industry average of $40, according to one recent survey—compared with the $15 an individual might pay to buy the same ebook online. "
So the publisher makes money from the ebook sale to the library - and libraries do not get unlimited downloads for that price.
Also, library loans can act as loss leaders, like the discounts publishers do where a book goes on sale for $1-2 for awhile. Both are ways to get me to try an author with no real risk. What publishers aren't seeing (because it's hard to measure) are the follow-on sales where someone reads a book via the library, then buys other books by that author.
Finally, the reason I grab a book from the library vs buying it is often price. If I know that I'll like a book, I'll buy it for $14. But if not? I'm checking it out of the library. But if ebook loans disappeared, that doesn't translate into a purchase from me, not at $14. Instead, I might just skip that book altogether and if it's a new author to me, that means I might never read that author.
BARE YOUR SWORD
Tamahome @tamahome02000
.@swordandlaser Brandon Sanderson's Spotify playlists
Drake Tungsten @turtleismytotem
@swordandlaser Listening to older podcast episodes. Was listening to episode 105 and couldn't help but laugh when, about 30 minutes in, Veronica yelled, "I'm being attacked by ants!"
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Name: Cheryl H.
Subject: Trying to find name of book
Message: Many years ago, I read a science fiction books about a time when humanity was divided into people who lived in towers in isolation and people who lived a primitive existence in the forest. They had no contact. The book as I remember it was about how the two divided Groups eventually came back together. I just can’t remember the name of the book. I’d like to reread it. Do you know how I can find it or who I could ask? Thanks.
Hi Veronica and Tom,
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I was just listening to one of my other favorite podcasts (Code Switch, an NPR pod focused on race), and they did a great episode called "Battle of the Books" about whether to read escapist literature or go full pandemic right now. If you haven't heard the episode, I suspect you would both enjoy it. They talked about two books that are at least sword adjacent: Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas and Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. And there's a shoutout to Octavia Butler as well. I hope you have the chance to give it a listen!
Best,
Robert S.
BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION
ADDENDUMS
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