French translation of Epic coming

A French translation of Epic by Danièle Laruelle is to be published by Bayard Jeunesse. As you can see the art for the cover is stylish and different to previous covers.

Conor Kostick Fan Fiction

There are two impressive short pieces of Conor Kostick fan fiction set in the world of Epic over at fanfiction.net. For those who wonder about how authors feel about fanfic I recommend this piece by Charles Stross.

Conor Kostick is looking for a title for the Epic, Saga, Edda series

Conor Kostick writes

Calling all readers of this blog! My publishers want a good title for the Epic, Saga, Edda series. It is quite a challenge to find the right phrase. The Cindella Dragonslayer Trilogy is a bit long and perhaps misleading as although Epic and Edda have a lot of fantasy, Saga has hardly any. The Cyber Worlds Trilogy sounds a bit dated, while the Cloud Wars Trilogy is perhaps a bit cryptic. Avatar Chronicles is good and perhaps the front runner, but a bit too similar to the film Avatar. Multiverse Trilogy isn't bad but other authors, most notably Michael Moorcock, have already written books in a multiverse series. So does anyone have any good suggestions? I'd be very glad to hear them and I'll send a signed copy of the first run of Edda to you as well as my thanks if we use your idea.

If you have ideas then please leave a comment!

New covers for Sony ebook versions of Epic and Saga

A Note from Conor about Treasure Trap

My publishers like to mention in the author blurb that I once worked at Treasure Trap. I can understand why this is a fact worth commenting on, because suggests I might have a kind of insiders view of fantasy games. And perhaps my experiences there did help with Epic. But in any case, Treasure Trap is intrinsically interesting in its own right. It was a live action roleplaying (LARP) company, based at Peckforton Castle, Cheshire. As far as I know, it was the first commercial attempt to establish a live action roleplaying game. The Treasure Trap rules - which were a kind of cross between Runequest and D&D, adapted for real physical combat - have been taken up and have evolved into various LARP games today, especially in the UK.

I was very fortunate to get involved, being only aged 19 at the time. But the people setting up the game came to Chester Wargames group and recruited a group of us to test the rules and offer suggestions. So my friends and I, including Andrew, had a great deal of fun running around dark corridors, jumping out dressed as a luminous skeleton etc. And when the opportunity arose, I gladly moved in to the castle to be there full time.

There is currently a documentary team making a film about a LARP game in Durham and as part of it, they interviewed me and some other former TTers. You can see a taster clip above, with some footage of the castle which arose from a visit by Blue Peter. Hopefully Cosmic Joke will get the funds they need to complete the documentary because it's a story that deserves to be told. From my perspective, it is a story about how although the 1980s in the UK was in general a terrible decade (and I just don't understand the phenomenon of 80s nights, unless it is to mock the clothing and the chart music), there were pockets of wild escapist fun.

Edda is due August 2011

Here is he first picture of the proof cover. The art is once again by the excellent Tony Sahara. The book will have 440 pages making it easily the longest book in the series. It is due for release August 2011.

A letter from Conor about audiobook piracy

Andrew recently drew my attention to the fact that an audio version of Saga was available via pirate hosts based in China and Russia. It is available from the kind of websites that make offer downloads of new films even before they've been officially released. This version of Saga is read by Kristin Allison and here is a clip from it: the preface.

Now I really approve of audio books and was thrilled when Oetinger made absolutely splendid versions of Epic and Saga for the German language. They used professional actors, composed music and created sound effects for the books.

My main reason for liking audiobooks isn't that they generate much by way of royalties, what I really like is the fact that people who have difficulty reading - perhaps because of visual difficulties - can enjoy the books. And that is what has happened in this case. After doing some research Andrew found that the recordings were made for the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS)

So of course I'm pleased that Saga is available to listen to. But there is a problem with the fact that the audio recording has found its way onto the net. And it's the same problem that arises in the music and film industry. If creative works are given away for free to everyone (and not just those with certain special needs for whom the provision of such works is entirely reasonable), how will artists, actors, etc be supported? One of the aspects to this question that clouds the issue is that there is a lot of hypocrisy spoken on it by the big hitters. I don't have a lot of sympathy for the position of the multinationals; for years they kept prices artificially high for records and CDs in the west and their 'home taping is killing music' campaign was risible. But if the artist is to be able to give up their day job and produce more works of art, they should be getting some remuneration from downloads.

With increased use of hand held reading devices, writers are going to have to get to grips with the issue of how they get remunerated from downloads of their text. But lets stick to audio for the moment. If it were up to me, the model I'd choose would be that of relying on the goodwill of the listener to make a modest donation if they enjoyed the book. In other words I'd like the download to be freely available and there be a simple way of making a direct donation to the author. Most people probably won't bother donating, but those that do will understand the need to assist the writer and might actually make a noticeable difference. After all, a writer typically gets about ten percent royalty from a book sale (actually the mean royalty is probably a bit less), i.e. for a $10 book, the writer gets a dollar. If ten people download the audiobook and only one makes a donation of $10, that's generated as much as the conventional route (my friend Oisin McGann has this kind of model in mind over at his website where you can download his terrific ebook for free, with this difference, that he doesn't even bother to have a button you can press to make a donation! It would be an interesting experiment if he did).

In any case, it is not up to me in the sense that while I hold the copyright to my books, my publishers, in this case O'Brien Press, own the license to sell the book world wide (they sublicense to other publishers in territories it is hard for them to distribute to). O'Brien Press are great when it comes to giving permission for audiobooks to be made for free to schools and organisations for the visually impaired. For example, with their permission I've read and recorded Move for St Joseph's school for the visually impaired (and if any similar school or organisation wants a copy, I'm happy to talk to O'Brien about sending them one, just leave a comment or email Andrew).

So my model is impractical for books I've already sold to a publisher and unless I was capable of generating much more direct web interest than I could do at present, it's a pointless one for new books because hardly anyone will notice the new title.

What would I like the publishers to do about commercial audiobooks (as opposed to ones given to certain organisations for private use)? I think the second best model is to learn from the disastrous experience of the music industry and not try to fight the pirates by suppressing illegal distribution, that's a battle which will not be won. Instead I think that publishers should have some sort of collective internet clearing system where for a small fee (not much bigger than the fee the pirates ask for their 'gold' service or whatever they call it) they provide a better, more attractive, service than the pirates can. Fast downloads of high quality productions should be available for the fee payer. And the pool of income generated by these fees should then be distributed to each publisher in proportion to the number of downloads of their work. The writer and the publisher should have an agreement on how to split such a source of income and I've seen contracts with regard to text downloads that suggest a 50-50 split. That seems reasonable to me. Unlike a book, where the publisher deserves a greater slice of the income because they have to print, distribute, publicise etc., a download involves very little outlay by the publisher.

Returning to the audiobook of Saga that has been pirated, overall I feel it's a shame that a very worthy initiative turns out to be the source of the pirate copy. Someone has taken advantage of a legitimate reason to give a recording away for free to try to make money for themselves. And I'm sure the same source of audiobooks is providing pirates with much better sellers than Saga.

Conor