Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 7:18 pm
Poor SRD, stuck between ranting readers and raving editors...


Official Discussion Forum for the works of Stephen R. Donaldson
https://kevinswatch.com/phpBB3/
Please give your editors a message from us. Being that it will be the third book of the third series of Covenant books, it is very unlikely - unlikely to the point of it ain't gonna happen! - that anyone who reads Book 9 will not have read the previous 8. Meaning nobody is going to pick this book off the shelf and read it for no reason other than the title. That being the case, what you think is an appropriate title is not nearly as important as what Mr. Donaldson thinks is an appropriate title. (That is, as long as Mr. Donaldson thinks Shall Pass Utterly is an appropriate title.) Yes, all of us who have read the first 8 are going to read the damned book regardless. The only question is whether or not you want us - the people who are going to buy it - to be disappointed by the title.
If Linden gets naked at any point in the Last Chronicles, I may be scarred for life.-jayFist and Faith wrote:You know how many naked women would have to be in such a book for me to buy it?
I didn't say it was probable. I just think that that is the mind of publishers - maximize the shelf attraction.Fist and Faith wrote:I can't imagine anyone who had never read 1-8 reading something that says Book 3 of the Final Chronicles of Thomas Covenant on the cover, no matter what the title was.
The purpose of the title change is this. I don't think SRD's publishers are going to change their mind about it. It's just one of those things.Wayfriend wrote:I didn't say it was probable. I just think that that is the mind of publishers - maximize the shelf attraction.Fist and Faith wrote:I can't imagine anyone who had never read 1-8 reading something that says Book 3 of the Final Chronicles of Thomas Covenant on the cover, no matter what the title was.
That's extremely odd, but I think I've heard that kind of thing before, too. So maybe my theory is shot. But I'm gonna tell SRD anyway!! We're his bread & butter, and he'd better listen to us, damnit!!!Wayfriend wrote:On the other hand, there are lots of posts in KW where people said that LFB wasn't the first book that they read in the Chronicles.
Unfortunately, this is the way they think. It might also be that if someone saw the new book and then went back to at least the beginning of the Final Chronicles and started from there. I would be more likely to do something like that than just pick up in the middle.Wayfriend wrote:I didn't say it was probable. I just think that that is the mind of publishers - maximize the shelf attraction.Fist and Faith wrote:I can't imagine anyone who had never read 1-8 reading something that says Book 3 of the Final Chronicles of Thomas Covenant on the cover, no matter what the title was.
It's already happened in TOT and WGW, and apparently you guys survived... though perhaps barely soSeareach wrote:As for a naked Linden Avery. Well....
If Linden bared it all anytime in TOT or WGW, it must have been so horrible that I repressed it, since I sure don't remember anymore.Relayer wrote:It's already happened in TOT and WGW, and apparently you guys survived... though perhaps barely soSeareach wrote:As for a naked Linden Avery. Well....
Indeed, psychological defences have helped me suppress the most appalling and awful events and people that have come into my life; it is truly a blessing.kevinswatch wrote:If Linden bared it all anytime in TOT or WGW, it must have been so horrible that I repressed it, since I sure don't remember anymore.Relayer wrote:It's already happened in TOT and WGW, and apparently you guys survived... though perhaps barely soSeareach wrote:As for a naked Linden Avery. Well....
God bless psychological defenses.-jay