Timewaster's Guide Archive

The line ouside of Best Buy was around the corner since I got into work.

What groups of people do you think each name appeals to Sprig?

The only one that stands out to me as "different" is Grimm's Hatchery which has a darker edge to it.

Thanks, Midnyht.  Robin Hobb is great.  Be aware, however, those books don't follow a traditional 'epic fantasy' plot, which is part of what makes them so great.  They are really just focused on Fitz and a person and his life.  

The more I read by Hobb, the better she gets.

Not to mention she gave you a fantastic cover quote for Mistborn .

Wow, yeah. That would be extremely fast.

[I started to say something about how your much longer books would probably end up being a more complicated editing process, but then I read it over and realized I'm making little sense and should probably try to say it again in the morning.]

But I do think I made sense with this part--

Then you have to account a lot of time for production, design, and all that (to get all that stuff in time for the sales team), especially if you're going to do ARCs. Plus the time for blurbs, reviews, etc. We're getting ARCs done a good 9 months or so before publication date for the first book so that the sales force will have it in time. Not sure how Tor's timeline works on that end, but I'm assuming it's similar from distributor to distributor (given what I know about how it worked when we worked with Tor's distributor).

Building back from publication dates, that ends up being a longer time than most would expect.

I don't know what an "ARC" is (please explain? ) and you, of course, know the industry infinitely better than me.  I did, however, read Tor's "Robert Jordan" FAQ" where they say that it typically takes them six weeks to go from final manuscript to print on his books.  

This led me to believe that for less popular authors the long stretch between final manuscript and publishing had more to do with marketing (i.e. finding an optimal time to release it among other books in the genre) than production time.  Am I wrong?  Is Tor lying about 'six weeks' just to keep fans quiet?

He useally visits NYC at least once a year if not twice.

He mentioned on his forum that he was holding off on an East Coast tour until next year so that he could hit up both Tor and Scholastic.  

I happen to work in NYC so if "hitting up Tor and Scholastic" coincides with an NYC signing, I'll be happy.

I live in New York.  Mistborn is on the shelf of practically every local bookstore I've been to and has been since July 25th (when I bought it).

Utah is a bit far from me but I get the impression that Brandon likes to visit his publishers every few years so I'm holding out hope that I'll eventually get a book signed.

Not quite sure if this belongs here or in the "cool stuff found on the internet thread" but

Liberated Games

Commercial games, new and old, that have been released by the companies for free.  Some are source code releases and will need to be compiled though.

First of all, just because you can track down CD-Keys and cracks on google, download your favorite games via BitTorrent and/or disassemble and edit the executable doesn't mean everyone can.

Secondly, yes, broadband internet, peer-to-peer technology, and mass storage has made it easier to obtain pirated software, but the market is much bigger and less savvy too.  In the old days PC gaming was the pervue of nerds, further, relatively wealthy nerds as obtaining a PC for under $2000 was nearly impossible.  I don't have the exact stats to back it up but I'll wager that the ratio of pirates to customers has remained close to the same over the years.

Finally, many of us who do know how to pirate don't do so on moral grounds.  

I don't deny the impact of piracy on the industry but I do not believe it's suddenly responsible for a decline in the industry.