The Gradual Interview

[wayfriend]

Aliantha,

Imagine walking into a bookstore to browse. And their are no sections/categories in the store ... just shelves and shelves without differentiation.

Probably everyone would think that that would be a bit off-putting.

I like it that I can go to a fantasy/sci-fi section to browse. Or a horror section, if that's what I want. I can empathize with a "public" that does as well. People who like westerns will want to zero in on westerns; bodice-rippers on bodice-rippers, true-crime on true-crime, etc.

So I don't entirely blame the publishers. If anything is at fault, it's the rise of the giant bookstores, where it has become nigh on impossible to browse the store's entire catalog. They need catagories, and their too big for the publishers to ignore, so the publishers give them categories. This never was an issue when little, hole-in-the-wall bookstores were predominant.

On-line bookstores take it to the next level.

So what can anyone do? Is anyone for sinking amazon and borders and barnes and nobles?

[aliantha]

Fair enough, Wayfriend. I wouldn't want to walk into a bookstore without *some* help. And I sure don't want to sink Amazon -- buying from them is virtually the only way my kids can be assured of not getting soaked on their textbook costs.

I know that the big-box bookstores have driven many independent bookstores out of business. And their emphasis on all-bestsellers, all-the-time has made it harder for new writers to get noticed. But you seem to be taking it to a new level.

[Relayer]

Is anyone for sinking amazon and borders and barnes and nobles?

Sure! AFTER Amazon ships my copy of FR

[Creator]

The discussion on US as an anti-intellectual society (From a GI question) was great ... I moved it to the tank to preserve it and allow it to be expanded!!

[Zarathustra]

Annie Wood: How did Lord Foul get ahold of fanatics in Thomas Covenant's world? I remember reading how they "invoked" Foul by putting their hands in the bonfire, but don't remember if it was stated how he was able to communicate with them in the first place.

I have enjoyed reading all of the books about Thomas Covenant, (many times over), and am thrilled that there are more to come. I have already read the first book in the Last Chronicles Of Thomas Covenent and can hardly wait for the next one to become available.

Thanks!
Annie Wood

I suppose you could say that "like responds to like": those fanatics were already Despiser-surrogates of a sort, so they were easily influenced. Or I suppose you could say that the barriers between realities are breaking down, thanks to LF's original abuse of Drool and the Staff of Law. Or I suppose you could say that some things are better left to the reader's imagination. <rueful smile>

(09/27/2007)

Very interesting! Notice how he works to maintain the "reality" ambiguity. "Already Despiser-surrogates of a sort" could be used to maintain the Despiser-in-all-of-us interpretation, so that the appearance of the Despiser in the bonfire was just a symbolic representation of something inherent within these people. On the other hand, the "barriers between realities" lends itself to a more literal interpretation. But in the end, he let's us choose which interpretation we impose with "left to the reader's imagination."

[dlbpharmd]

Michael Prince: I've looked and have not found this question asked elsewhere in the GI. But in looking over other questions in the GI, I wondered what might Lord Foul choose if he were confronted with the possibility of actual death.

I realize that his goal is to beat the Creator by breaking free from the Arch of Time. Or is it to break free by overcoming the Creator. Or is that the same thing? Nevermind. That is not my question.

Anyway, I also know Foul is evil and therefore perpetual. So really this is purely a hypothetical question... about a fictional world, I know. But now that the question exists in my mind, and this opportunity to ask you exists, I'll ask. I figure the worst is that you'll tell me not to bother with such a silly notion.

So, hypothetically, if the Despiser was faced with the possibility of actual destruction, death, which would in a way be freedom from the Arch of Time, would he accept it or fight against it? Is that even an answerable question?

(And by the way, since I'm here, I'll add my thanks to those of the vast multitude for the books you have written. Your books, the Chronicles in particular, make my world seem just that much wider.)

We've entered a realm of rather abstruse theological speculation. After all, what do *we* know about how gods think or feel? But I'm inclined to believe that benign beings generally are more likely than malign beings to accept the possibility (the necessity?) of their own ending. Benign beings can accomodate the notion that The Greater Good may require their dissolution: malign beings cannot see any Greater Good than themselves.

If any of that is true, the Despiser could never acquiesce in his own destruction: the Creator might conceivably do so. (What? Did you think it was an *accident* that no one appeared to warn Linden before she entered the Land for "The Last Chronicles"? <malign grin>)

(09/28/2007)

[dlbpharmd]

Chris: Stephen, you have referred to sales numbers a few times on the GI. You referred to WGW as being one of the top 10 best sellers of the year it was released and you also referred to the lower sales of The Gap Cycle, Mirror etc. Do you know, or know how to find out what those actual sales are? There is an entire cottage industry around tracking things like move 'sales', record sales, etc. We like to track things, I guess...

I guess I am curious about what it actually takes to be a best seller. You previously described this by saying 'it depends'. A book could sell a lot of copies in one week, make the best seller list and then drop off the planet. Another could have slow and steady sales for years, I guess, and never make a best seller list. How many copies (within a 'best guess') has RotE sold? How about WGW? Or books from the GAP cycle. Does the industry track these things? I'm guessing someone knows, so you can be paid. But that doesn't mean it is public information...

Thanks for your time!

Publishers *do* keep track of sales figures. How else could they know whether or not they owe the author any royalties? or whether they themselves are making a profit? But *how* they keep track resists easy interpretation, especially by a layman (me). (I've discussed this elsewhere in the GI.) Typically years pass before I'm given numbers I can rely upon--assuming that I'm able to extract any meaning at all from my royalty statements.

But I can tell you that WGW sold around 200,000 copies in hardcover, and has sold well over 1,000,000 copies over all. (I'm only talking about US sales here.) So far, TROTE has sold approximately 65,000 hardcovers and about the same number of trade paperbacks.

The GAP books? Maybe 30,000 hardcovers each. 150,000 total copies each.

The numbers--to coin a phrase--speak for themselves.

(09/28/2007)

[matrixman]

Wow, that's the first time I've seen actual sales numbers for (some of) the books.

Yeah, I remember what a big event WGW was for me back in '83. It was the first hardcover book I ever bought on my own.

I'd be curious to know what the other Top 10 bestselling books of that year were. Just want to know what kind of company SRD was rubbing shoulders with up in that exalted sphere.

[dlbpharmd]

Richard: Hi Steve,

One thing that has struck me since reading the Runes of the Earth and then pieces the GI and noticing cover design, etc., that one big difference between US and UK editions is that the US edition appears to be very heavily 'fantasised', whilst the UK edition, in rather more elegant and ambiguous black and gold, stands out as a cover that intrigues. I guess, being a UK citizen, I do wonder why such designs are used more globally. it has, for want of a better term 'fantasy' overtones and yet at the very same time is not bogged down in generic images. I noticed the same, coincidentally, with The Gap covers when I bought the US edition of the final novel when it was yet to arrive in the UK.

Thanks, Richard

I agree with you about my US and UK covers in recent years (decades?)--although the UK mass market paperback of "Runes" is pretty drab, as is the UK omnibus of "Mordant's Need". But every US publisher I've posed this question to has the same answer: "UK-style cover art just doesn't *sell* in the US." And I can't argue. After all, the Ballantine editions of the first six "Covenant" books all started out with cover art that I personally loathe (just my opinion)--and my first huge US bestseller, "The One Tree," had the worst cover of all.

(09/29/2007)

I don't understand SRD's dislike of the Sweet covers - I would take a Sweet cover hands down over anything we've seen from Whelan or Palencar.

[Mortice Root]

I never liked the Sweet covers either. Some were ok, but none of them ever really grabbed me, and One Tree and White Gold Wielder I actively dislike.

[dlbpharmd]

Sweet definitely didn't do his best work with those books, I agree. However, the covers for LFB and TPTP were great, and the cover for TWL is outstanding.

[Mortice Root]

TWL was his best, I'll give you that.

[Usivius]

I don't understand SRD's dislike of the Sweet covers - I would take a Sweet cover hands down over anything we've seen from Whelan or Palencar.

<cough> <gag!>

Admittedly, when I first bought LFB when I was a teenager, the cover did appeal to me However, year later I loathe them.

[dlbpharmd]

Why? Obviously the depictions aren't exactly correct, but otherwise it's a great scene/cover!

[Avatar]

I just don't like the style of them. *shrug* Not sure I can give a better reason.

My editions are the ones with the circle on the front cover, and I think those are the best as it happens.

--A

[matrixman]

...the covers for LFB and TPTP were great, and the cover for TWL is outstanding.

Agreed! I think Sweet's covers for TPTP and TWL remain the pinnacle of the whole series. Cover art rarely struck me with awe, but those two examples did.

Also, if any of the Sweet covers were somehow made available in poster size, I'd be sorely tempted to get one or all (depending on price, of course).

[Believer]

i recall SRD writing that he had to do a quick re-write of LFB. Apparently at first TC didn't have the robe on or something when he was on Glimmermere, but when the cover art had him in the robe, had to say he put it on, or something like that. Anyone else remember this?

[matrixman]

Yes, I remember SRD mentioning that. He made a small change so that Brinn (I think) ends up putting a robe over Covenant in order to match the scene on the cover. It fits nicely, anyway, given that Covenant was shivering and suffering from blood loss. And Brinn gets extra brownie points for his sympathetic act.

Purists may howl that SRD had to change something in order to match the cover art, but it's not the end of the world that Covenant ends up wearing a robe.

I will concede that the guy kneeling in awe in the background was a tad gratuitous.

[dlbpharmd]

I will concede that the guy kneeling in awe in the background was a tad gratuitous.

I will concede that as well. BTW, it's TWL we're talking about, not LFB.

[dlbpharmd]

Perry Bell: Hello Stephen,
I was wondering about the attitude of the haruchai. It seems to me like they have either decided to act holier than tou or just plain arrogant (which can be interpreted as the same thing I suppose). What I guess I dont understand is, was there any one thing that made them become jerks?
Also, they remember everything, including her good and bad deeds, but after everything she has been through, why are the haruchai so disrespectful towards Linden?
Thanks,
Perry Bell

Since I both like and respect the Haruchai, I find it difficult to think of them as "jerks". In fact, I'm not even confident that "arrogant" is the right word for them. But they do hold themselves to inhumanly high standards. And they do hunger to prove themselves equal to huge challenges, the bigger the better. Sometimes they appear to place more value on the attempt than they do on whether or not the attempt succeeds. At other times, they judge entirely on the basis of success. One way to look at this discrepancy is that when they fail and remain true to themselves, they accept the consequences, but when they fail and do NOT remain true to themselves (Korik, Sill, and Doar with the Illearth Stone v Ravers and Lord Foul; Brinn and Cail v merewives), they judge harshly. (From the view-point of the Masters, Stave falls into this latter category.)

Occasionally, however, I think about the Haruchai from a completely different perspective. One thing has always troubled me about the Elves in LOTR: why haven't they died of boredom? They can live forever, they know virtually everything, and their lives are almost entirely static; so why haven't they collapsed from sheer ennui? OK, OK: maybe there's an explanation hidden away somewhere in their background or nature. That's not my point. My point is that the shared racial memories of the Haruchai pose a similar problem. Individual Haruchai don't live as long as Elves; but since they all know pretty much everything that any Haruchai has ever known, why aren't they bored stupid? Well, because they're driven to take on huge challenges, driven to push themselves past their known limits, driven to *strive*. There's nothing static about the way they look at life. Hence their present role in the story--and the passion (which may seem like arrogance) with which they fill that role.

As for their attitude toward Linden: she undermines the *meaning* of what they're currently striving for. If that didn't anger them--if they were so complacent in their convictions that they couldn't be angered--they really would be arrogant.

(10/03/2007)