Charles,
While your intentions seem to be noble, I think you're
overlooking some points and glossing over others. To turn a
profit, any profit, after only a year or so in a niche market
such as this is fantastic. And in order to do this you've
admitted that you have had to select titles you think will
sell and with which you have exclusivity by contract. That
business model seems to automatically exclude works in the
public domain, which is unfortunate since there are a lot of
works in the public domain that deserve reprinting. It is
also unfortunate for the heirs of these writers, who I'm sure
would rather have their deceased fathers or husbands or
grandfathers remembered than receiving small checks from you
every six months.
It seems as though you're doing a greater disservice to Mary
Chaze by not giving "Black Wings" a legitimate paperback
reissue than Moynihan is with his POD reissue. Your reasoning
also sounds somewhat disingenuous. If you were actually to
the point of negotiating a deal with Mary Chaze and you ran
across the Blackmask edition, wouldn't your reaction have
been--A) She's made a deal with someone else or B) It's in
the public domain and I don't want to have to compete with
lots of other potential publishers. Are you telling us that
you got to that point with Mary Chaze and it never came up
that the copyright had lapsed? You still seem to be unsure
about it.
Let me say, Charles, that you are underestimating your
readership. They are a large, but in some ways, a
tightly-knit group, who are shopping not only for certain
writers, but also for certain publishers. You have built up
some brand loyalty and there are a lot of people who are
introduced to writers because you republished them. Given the
choice, most readers on the list, I'm sure, would buy your
paperback of Black Wings, rather than the Blackmask edition,
especially if we knew some of the proceeds were going to the
author's widow and we could get it at our local
bookstore.
I hope you're not ruling out books simply because they're in
the public domain. I for one would like to see more Charles
Williams, for example, and a lot of his early Gold Medal
books are in the PD.
Jeff
> > I don't think anyone is getting rich
> > reprinting old paperback originals.
I
> > don't think Charles Ardai of Hard
Case
> > or Greg Shepard of Stark House is
> > getting rich.
>
> True enough. Last year we turned our first profit, a
staggering four-
> figure sum.
>
> > The authors of Black Wings Has My
Angel,
> > My Flesh Is Sweet, and the various
Gold
> > Medal and Lion Book originals may be
gone,
> > but their families are still here.
Mary
> > Chaze, Elliot's wife, is still
alive.
>
> She is, indeed. I was talking with her last summer
about (among
> other things) the possibility of our reprinting
BLACK WINGS HAS MY
> ANGEL, something she has never allowed anyone to do.
It was looking
> promising -- but then I thought to do a search on
Amazon.com just to
> be safe and discovered the Blackmask.com edition. I
had mixed
> feelings when I saw that; on one hand, I was glad
that the book was
> available again after so long, but on the other I
felt bad that I had
> to go back to Mary and tell her I could no longer
make the offer we'd
> been discussing. But we would never publish an
edition of a book
> that another publisher has just reprinted a few
months earlier -- so
> in this case Blackmask's edition literally was the
direct cause of
> Mary Chaze not getting a check I would otherwise
have written. Of
> course, to be fair to Blackmask, if it's true that
the book really is
> in the public domain, we'd have had no reason other
than a charitable
> impulse to write that check; and hell, if I'm
feeling so charitable,
> nothing's stopping me from writing it now, book or
no book. So I'm
> not trying to paint them in shades of black and
myself in radiant
> white.
>
> But I will say I didn't feel good about the whole
thing.
>
> --Charles
> ------------
> Charles Ardai
> Editor, Hard Case Crime
>
> --- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "George Tuttle"
<noirfiction@...>
> wrote:
> >
> > A question for all: It maybe legal, but is it
ethical?
> >
> > BlackMask.com reprints public domain editions
(they don't pay the
> > author or surviving family for the rights to
publish) of classic
> noir
> > fiction writers like Elliot Chaze, Day Keene,
Wade Miller, John
> > McPartland, Lionel White, Charles Williams,
Charles Willeford, and
> Jim
> > Thompson. It's probably legal (Authors are
often not good about
> doing
> > the paperwork required to extend copyright
protection). But is it
> > ethical? Shouldn't the families get something?
They may not be owed
> > anything, but wouldn't it be nice?
> >
> > It was one thing when BlackMask.com was
reprinting old pulp
> magazines.
> > It seemed more victimless. But this new wave of
reprints does not
> seem
> > right. The authors of Black Wings Has My Angel,
My Flesh Is Sweet,
> and
> > the various Gold Medal and Lion Book originals
maybe gone, but their
> > families are still here. Mary Chaze, Elliot's
wife, is still alive.
> > There were several kids. I met some of them
when I work at the
> public
> > library in Hattiesburg, MS. I assume Al James,
Day Keene's son is
> > still out there. Jim Thompson has two kids:
Michael and Sharon.
> Bruno
> > Fischer also has two: Adam Fischer and Nora
Ernst. John McPartland
> had
> > two wives: the one he was married to when he
died and the one he
> > forgot to divorce. I think Ida was the name of
the later and the
> > estate heir. I think there was also a daughter.
Charles Williams
> has a
> > daughter Alison. Lionel White has a daughter,
January.
> >
> > And then there is Wade Miller(the writing team
of Bill Miller and
> Bob
> > Wade). Bill Miller died many years ago, but
isn't Bob Wade still
> alive?
> >
> > Publishers like Hard Case Crime and Stark House
Press give us an
> > opportunity to say thanks to the authors of
these books. It may be
> too
> > late to thank them while they were living, but
we can thank their
> > kids, in a token way, when we buy a Hard Case
or Stark House
> edition.
> > I don't think anyone is getting rich reprinting
old paperback
> > originals. I don't think Charles Ardai of Hard
Case or Greg Shepard
> of
> > Stark House is getting rich. I doubt if
BlackMask.com is getting
> rich.
> > We are dealing with principles here, and I
don't understand the
> > principle that BlackMask.com is advocating for.
I think they are on
> > the wrong side of this issue. I know David
Moynahan of BlackMask.com
> > has posted on this site before I would welcome
his point of view on
> > this issue or for him to correct any
misconceptions I have. I also
> > welcome others for feedback on this
issue.
> >
RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rara-avis-l/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
to:
rara-avis-l-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 24 Apr 2006 EDT