A Funny Discovery
Oct. 12th, 2006 02:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseI was at my local, independent, science fiction bookstore (Uncle Hugo’s) yesterday because Don needed more Archangel Protocols. I’d forgotten to sign them at home, so I sat down on the floor and started scrawling my name on the cover page. I’m chatting and signing and my fingers fumble and I find myself looking down on the copyright page.
I notice something startling.
Archangel Protocol went into a second printing.
How do I know this? Well, I learned from my friend Bill Henry what all those numbers are that seem kind of random on the copyright page mean. They look like this:
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
You can tell what printing you have in your hand by the last number. In the case above, you’re holding a first printing. I was staring down at:
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
This is not the same as getting a second “edition." All this really means is that the publisher sent out (not necessarily sold, they may still be waiting on returns from bookstores) all of their initial print run of your book and had to go back to the printer to make more to meet demand. Still... this is often the kind of news an editor shares with their author because it’s considered _good_ news. People want your book. Yay.
No one told me.
I have no idea even when it happened.
So now I’m in a very weird place of being really happy about having gone into a second printing on a book that’s out-of-print. Yay! Boo. Is this the sort of moment one says, “Uh, congratulations on the success of your failed book?”
I notice something startling.
Archangel Protocol went into a second printing.
How do I know this? Well, I learned from my friend Bill Henry what all those numbers are that seem kind of random on the copyright page mean. They look like this:
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
You can tell what printing you have in your hand by the last number. In the case above, you’re holding a first printing. I was staring down at:
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
This is not the same as getting a second “edition." All this really means is that the publisher sent out (not necessarily sold, they may still be waiting on returns from bookstores) all of their initial print run of your book and had to go back to the printer to make more to meet demand. Still... this is often the kind of news an editor shares with their author because it’s considered _good_ news. People want your book. Yay.
No one told me.
I have no idea even when it happened.
So now I’m in a very weird place of being really happy about having gone into a second printing on a book that’s out-of-print. Yay! Boo. Is this the sort of moment one says, “Uh, congratulations on the success of your failed book?”
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Not a failed book
Date: 2006-10-12 03:28 pm (UTC)Lots of very good books out-of-print. Your's is in fine company, if that's any comfort at all.
You probably don't need a pep talk, lol, so I won't go on about this. I don't like to waste my pep talks . . .I have a limited supply, and
I have to use an awful lot of them on my own self. :-P
Huh?
Date: 2006-10-12 05:34 pm (UTC)Awesome news though. Good on you, mate.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-13 12:18 am (UTC)