More Liaden reading

[nlbarber]

Have now read all the Liaden chapbooks my sister-in-law has (though I haven't returned them yet). I set off yesterday on a bookstore run in search of Balance of Trade, but failed to find it--the BN Buckhead store inventory said there was a copy, but "the computer's often wrong when it gets down to one copy". Grrr.... No Borders store in range has it, according to the online store inventory search. Chapter 11's stores are generally too small to have much SF selection--I called one anyway, but no luck.

I did pick up the Ace editions of the four novels I didn't already own, which let me return s-i-l's copy of Pilot's Choice. Must decide if I'm going to order Balance of Trade online, or get a local store to order it. Not going to wait on the again-delayed paperback, no. [Update: have ordered from BN.com...would have gotten it from MM directly, but the sales tax and the shipping overwhelmed my urge to support a small press. Guess I could have called to find out if I could just pick it up somewhere--they're located in Decatur, as am I.]

And then I'm debating the chapbooks. Do I want my own copies? (Yeah, of course I do.) Do I want them all? Well, tougher decision--the price on a full set is really up there, plus I'd probably add a couple of non-Liaden ones to boot. Maybe this will wait until closer to Christmas, when this year's chapbook is available. I think I read somewhere that last year had a special offer if you ordered the whole set (beyond the $3 off that the SRM order form shows now), so perhaps there will be a similar thing this year.

Comments

[sraun]

Check with MM next time - last I knew, Stephe Pagel had a close relationship with some local bookstore. (To be exact about my understanding, for a long time he was working as a clerk at some bookstore for a day job, and running his publishing company outside of that. I think he no longer has to do that.)

There is going to be a new chapbook this Yule - it is going to include a story titled Lord of the Dance, which is set on Surebleak. I'm not certain exactly when...

[nlbarber]

...last I knew, Stephe Pagel had a close relationship with some local bookstore.

That would have been the SF and Mystery Bookstore, which closed this year. My experiences there in recent years had not been great, but I still lament the passing of a specialty store for SF. One reason I made the rounds of a few of the big chain stores was a faint hope that they'd stock a little more of a "local" publisher <slaps face> Silly me!

I've been seeing comments about this year's chapbook on rolanni's journal...just must wait until it can be ordered...

[kd5mdk.livejournal.com]

I wish more groups would offer clear and substantial discounts on "The Complete Works of ...". Would make things much easier on us hopeless fans. Especially Liaden.

[nlbarber]

There's always hope that they will manage to get a "collected Liaden short stories" volume published--kinzel mentioned it recently.

The main problem with chapbooks, of course, is the economics of scale. Small-scale printing and distributing is just expensive no matter what you do, and there's certainly little incentive to sell these as loss-leaders as the publicity value/hook to future sale potential is low.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

I keep wanting to try these Liaden books I hear so much about - but I'm hopelessly confused about chapbooks, regular books, I have no idea where to start.

I may just wait until GaFilk and get Cyn to loan me the first one, I know she has them.

[nlbarber]

You might look at my post for how I finally got hooked--I tried the two major entry points (Agent of Change and Pilot's Choice), and found Pilot's Choice hooked me because (I think) of the echoes of Regency romances mixed in with the feel of space opera.

I'd offer to loan you one at GaFilk, but I don't think I'll be willing to let them out of my hands that long! <g>