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Clark Ashton Smith is also very late. This has not escaped our
notice. There are two reasons for this. The first is that we can never
seem to get a classic out on time. Those of you who have ordered the
Hodgson, Wellman, Dunsany, or Wagner sets are aware of this. No excuse
for it on our part, it just seems to happen every time.

The other reason is timing. Originally we'd intended volume 1 to be
released in October of 2005. We simply didn't receive the manuscript in
time, due to no fault on the part of the editors. The manuscripts
we're working from are coming from a large university special collection,
and that special collection turned out to be stored offsite while they
were doing renovations. It took us forever to get the material we
needed for volume 1, and we're just now getting the material for vols. 2 &
3.

Publishing works on a schedule. Most of our books are geared for the
book market, which is to say the shelves of your local bookstore. We
announce a book, the sales reps go out and solicit orders from the
bookstores. If we don't get the book out on time, those orders cancel, and
we're sitting on a bunch of books that won't make it into the
bookstores. This is a wonderful way to go bankrupt in a very short amount of
time. For classics, this is less important, because the bookstores don't
tend to stock the classics, so we're not relying on their orders to
sell the book.

We have limited resources, like most independent publishers. When
Smith isn't ready on time, our designers and proofreaders and copyeditors
need to move on to the next project. Smith may be late, but there's
always five or ten other books in the pipeline that cannot be late. So
while Smith vol. 1 has been at the proofreader for a few months, we have
to wait until he's got a gap in the schedule before he can get to it.
Had we the manuscript when we were supposed to have it, then he would
have had it in his schedule to do it. Now it's a matter of him getting
to it as soon as he can, without delaying any of the time critical
projects he's working on for us.

Those of you who have suffered through Hodgson, Wellman, and Dunsany
sets with us know that we'll get the books, and when we do it'll have
been worth the wait. Those of you who are just now experiencing the
dreaded "Night Shade can't get a classic out on time to save their lives"
syndrome, please bear with us.

That said, all signs are good for having Smith vol. 1 out very VERY
soon.