Posted by terryallenuk on 6/1/2005, 5:19 pm You see, Mr. Saffel would like to get more of Howard's stories out in trade paperback editions. However publishing is a business. If the sales are not there it is hard for him to convince his bosses to put the money into it. More on this later. One other matter is the degree he downplays his involvement in getting Howard published. He's quick to praise Rusty Burke and Wandering Star for getting the material put together. Mr. Saffel would like to get more Howard out to us. The problem is that REH produced a large amount of material. So please, think about what you would like to see back in print and reply. It just might help future choices. " TERRY : The sales are disappointing , hopefully the 3rd Conan volume will do better though I imagine Bran will possibly be the least popular . What does this bode for the future ? Well so far we just have the first Del Rey Conan Hardcover announced . That's on my list certainly . I just hope that the sales justify DR carrying on with the others. I hope that , at least , DR do a deal with WS to reprint the Kull book in the same format . My worry is that this will be the final " known " character . If the sales are slipping will DR want to take a risk on other works , especially with books from Bison and Wildside in the market. If DR don't do a deal with WS will that put pressure on WS to look at what they are doing in the future . I'm sure some of the books they have planned won't sell as well as their other books. By the sound of it Steve wants to get more books out there . Perhaps a formal tie-up with WS to come up with an overall strategy for the future planning wise so that DR aren't just tagging along on WS's coat-tails ? What can we do ? Well spread the word everyone . If you've not yet bought any of the books get them now and encourage others to do the same . I'll be copying this to the other forums I'm on . But do DR need to look at the format of the books . I , and I'm sure most here , think they are terrific . But we are the converted . For " Mr Average Fantasy Reader " are they too nice and classy looking ? Would we be better with a more barbaric looking Conan cover ala Frazetta or Nord ? The Gollancz Conan Chronicles covers , although poorly drawn , IMO , are possibly more what readers expect a Conan cover to look like . Should the Solomon Kane cover look more like a rip-off of Jackman/Van Helsing ? Should the books be normal paperback size ? Just a few thoughts , the contents are right of course , is the presentation ? I also think that , however good a job Steve Jones did on the Chronicles , as well as others who helped him at times , that it's about time a deal was struck between CPI , WS , DR and Gollancz to get the DR books on bookshelves _world-wide_. Terry
Link: The Robert E Howard Comics Group
82.37.50.30
Over at Conan.com one of the staff members met up with Steve Saffel of Del Rey at the Marcon convention recently . Part of the conversation , along with my thoughts are posted below , with the permission of , and indeed encouragement of the writer as there is some concern on current sales which of course could have an impact on future books
For the full message you can check out http://tinyurl.com/cvwa3
Terry
QUOTE(Kane @ May 31 2005, 05:55 AM)
" This past weekend I had the chance to spend some time with Mr. Steve Saffel of Del Rey . One of the topics was the sales of the current trades. Seems that while the first Conan book sold very well that cannot be said for the later books. The second Conan and Solomon Kane have sold a 3rd less. So while it sounds clichéd, we do need to do our part to help get the word out.
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