So I've just been at Lynn Viehl's Pback Writer Blog. And YAY! Stay the Night is out, and somehow I'd managed to forget this crucial fact but never mind I'll just pop along to Amazon UK and order it - right?
Right? I ask plaintively.
Well...no...because once again there is a disparity between the US and UK release date. We in the UK are going to have to wait until March. Now whilst this coincides nicely with my birthday I can't help feeling a little p'd off. This is not the worst release date wait. I think when Gollancz in the UK got the Charlaine Harris Sookie series they decided to release all the books in the series first. Fine for those people who hadn't been faithfully following the series, but over a twelve month wait for faithful fans when then latest book in the series was already available in the US?
But Stay the Night is not alone, I'm currently waiting to get my hands on Devil's Due by Jenna Black not available in the UK until 15th January.
I am addicted to books and I don't use that word lightly. This means that for certain series I am not prepared to wait three months, four months, whatever, for a book to be released when I can already get my hands on it, either by ordering direct from the US or from booksellers in the UK who import. I would guess that the fans who realize books are already available in the US are perhaps in the minority and therefore UK publishers aren't bothered by a few lost sales.
But in some cases this has been the tipping point that has stopped me following a series. When the following authors books were taken up by a UK publisher I stopped buying them because it became such a faff to get hold of them. Jim Butcher, Kim Harrison, Charlaine Harris. I'm sure there are others but these are the first three that spring to mind. Where is the logic in having such a large gap between release dates?
And while I'm having a rant. What on Earth is happening to Amazon UK? Books which should be available just aren't. I mentioned Jackie Kessler's Hotter Than Hell in a previous post.
But these books from my wishlist are also showing as not available - surely they aren't out of print already. The Darkest Pleasure by Gena Showalter, Hands of Flame by C.E.Murphy, Black Magic Woman by Justin Gustainis. This situation sometimes occurs when UK publishers acquire the rights and the US version is no longer available. But that doesn't seem to apply in these cases.
Lol - anyway thanks for 'listening', and I will be getting Stay the Night before March, even though it would have been a great birthday present.
