Nightshade Editions: Whither Complete Corrected Texts?
Posted by:
Keith (IP Logged)
Date: 15 October, 2013 07:37PM
So, in the Nightshade edition of Clark Ashton Smith, you can get complete corrected texts of CAS's works.
Wow!!!
I've been a fan of CAS since junior high, 43 years ago, not long after I discovered Lovecraft. And in 1983, while in Canada, I bought a five volume paperback set from a British Commonwealth press that I assumed was complete.
Then, about a year ago, while perusing a book about the Lovecraft circle, I decided to use my state's (Michigan's) wonderful statewide library instant search-and-interlibrary-loan system to see if there were any good books about Smith. I found mention of Nightshade's End of the Story as the first volume of what I now know of the series. What an epiphany! I went immediately to the Nightshade website to find it, only to find that the first two were out of print. I then did two things: first, contact the publishers about any reprintings, to which I( got a lame, lackadaisical maybe but probably not, and then the used market, where I got the real shock. Okay, I have been dealing with used bookdealers since I was a kid, and I even work at general and SF/F specialty shows for a dealer with a national reputation, and everyone I've talked to thinks that the prices for End of the Story and Door to Saturn are unbelievable and outrageous for out-of-print books just published since 2007. Well over a hundred bucks for a mediocre copy to as much as a thousand for the former, and $450 to over $5000 for the latter on Alibris and/or Amazon. But wait, Nightshade collapsed in a way that scandalized the bookworld and authors, and then was bought by a company called Skyhorse. And on an Amazon review/comment addendum, another disgusted fan tells us that yes, we should be appalled at these exhorbitant prices, but we should be encouraged because he has heard that the series is going to Print-On-Demand release in September 2013.
Comes September 2013. I check out all the likely websites. Nothing. I decide to call Skyhorse Publishing itself, get foisted off on some corporate drone in marketing to whom I tell what I've found out or not found about this Smith series. I mention the prices that volumes 1 & 2 commanding on the used market, and point out that, hey guys, whether or not it would justify a complete reprinting, wouldn't it make sense to either do POD yourselves, or to license these books out to a POD firm, and cash in on the obvious demand? After all, collectors have been buying Smith for over 60 years now, and you've got the goods for the most complete correct editions? The response from him was well, I don't know blah blah blah (the sound of computer generated-like Corporate PR Dronese). I hung up, frustrated.
Ok, I just discovered this website a few weeks ago. Forgive me if this has been hashed out before, and I've missed relevant info. But I have tried to skim older postings, and even as people discuss new collections, it just seems foolish that the most complete and correct edition to date of an author can't be kept in hardcover, especially with today's technologies and many specialty presses and fan presses (please don't tell me about ebooks- I've got a Nook, but I want a REAL hardcover book, not a bunch of g-damned electrons). Does this mean that for the rest of history, the accomplishments and realization of a complete, corrected edition of the works of Clark Ashton Smith is going to be virtually out of reach and unaffordable to most of his fans? This just seems absurd, if not a waste.
I believe that at one point, the two editors who put this magnificent series together have appeared on this website. If they, or their friends or associates can respond to these issues, I would be very grateful. You guys have done something wonderful - can't you take it back from Nightshade/Skyhorse, and get it out somewhere else, even if in POD, through something like Lulu or another? Thanks. - Keith K.