The signature sheets for Subterranean Press’s limited edition of Swords and Dark Magic came to my door yesterday, a whole box full. Having never been involved with an anthology of this kind before (having never before written a short story, in fact), I’d never participated in one of these group signings, and it’s kind of cool to think that they’d already been across the US, over to Australia, and will be going on around the UK before returning to the states to be bound into the books, presumably along with another set of sheets doing the rounds of the other authors involved:
Already signed, from the top down, are Jonathan Strahan, Steven Erikson, KJ Parker, and Garth Nix, and there’s my illegible scrawl of a John Hancock down there at the bottom. Now I have to send them on to Tanith Lee. They came from Steven Erikson. Which means I now have his address. Ha ha! My Uruk Hai hit squad is already on its way! Though I suppose it means he also has mine. Oh, hold on, there’s someone at the door…
Not sure exactly when the limited edition will be available – not for a little while yet, one presumes, since some of the pages are missing. It’s slated for end of July on amazon. The main US edition is due June 22nd, though. As far as I’m aware, there’s currently no UK publisher for the book, though, so if UK readers want it they will, alas, have to import it, I fear.
Also in the post of late, a veritable cornucopia of foreign editions of my books:
There’s a Polish paperback Blade Itself, a Swedish harcover Before They are Hanged (in two parts), and a Dutch hardcover of Last Argument of Kings. Just think, someone with effortless command of all those three languages could read the entire trilogy with these editions. Unfortunately, that person is not me. Or perhaps fortunately, since I have, in fact, read it before.
Also in the post of late, though there’s no point in showing a picture of this since it is an anonymous plastic box, has been a DVD of the unabridged audiobooks of the First Law, read by Steven Pacey. Which means they should soon be available for download. In fact, they may very well be already.
Now I really must answer the door…
23 comments so far
Excellent, I am going to buy these audiobooks, and make my first born child listen to them once a day, maybe even in their sleep…
The Dutch hardcover looks nice too, unsure who its meant to be on the front however!
Nice work Joe. Take a piece of bannister when you answer that door………………
Man bör förlata!
With handwriting like that, Joe, you sure you aren’t a GP?
Just pre ordered mine from Amazon Uk… here is the link
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1596063114/ref=oss_product It says Delivery Estimate August 5th on my order info. Good Price as well.
Just purchased on amazon! Hooray! Two weeks till I get to go back to the North ( I assume)!! I’m going to savor every word. Now…how about getting started on a ninefingers book?? Seriously Joe, Logen could be as big as Conan. But you have to write about him!
just ordered mine from Itunes very good price was expecting to pay much more. i will be able to get all three books for $60
I pre-ordered two of those Subterranean Press Limited Editions by accident.
Oh well! One for reading, one for keeping.
I’ve been reading up on reviews of your books released so far in my homeland (Russia) and have been most pleased to see just how universally well it has been received.
Frequent mentions of your superiority over GRRM have been made! (I thought you might enjoy some ego-tickling from a foreign language).
I really must get hold of ’em as I quite enjoying seeing how translators have handled things as we have such a culture of quality translation back home.
Well, I’m off to become USNick for a couple of weeks as I go on holiday, so I’m going to try to pick this up while out there – hurrah!
Wow, you’re in excellent company there. This looks epic! Where’s my credit card.
PS: I wouldn’t threaten the Erikson, if I were you. Dude invented dinosaurs with swords for hands.
Of course they had to tranlate it to something stupid. I don’t speak Polish or Dutch, but “Man bör förlata”, means nothing like “before they are hanged”. Joe, if this book is to be tranlated into Norwegian, make sure they don’t call it “man bør tilgi”. That book would’t sell a single copy.
Susanne- Harry Harrison got there way before Erikson.
Oh dear, really letting my geek flag fly.
Chris – Good God, really? Linkage, please? Or names of books of his that have DINOSAURS WITH SWORDS FOR HANDS? I have to know.
Just for Madame!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_of_Eden
I think they were more partiall to guns than swords but I seem to remember the odd chopper poping up. Nearly a quarter of a century since I read them of course.
Mwahahaha, that sounds awesome. I thank you!
Your squiggle (as I call them here in Australia… mate) although nothing but “J A________” is still better than KJ Parkers. I can barely make out anything in that.
Oh and While you’re showing the covers of Overseas Editions of your books, did you know that the German Translation for Best Served Cold is completely different to what the German title of the book is?
Racheklingen = Revengeblades. Or Blades of revenge.
I’m guessing that’s simply because Best Served Cold is a foreign expression to the Deutsch.
Da geht’s.
And to add to that… The first Law trilogy has been renamed…
The Blade itself = Warblades
Before They Are Hanged = Fireblades
Last Argument of Kings = Kingsblades
Your books have been completely renamed in the German Edition.
I’m guessing you got no say over that, and don’t really care since the money is coming in, right? As long as they get Joe Abercrombie right on the cover, Alle ist gut, jah?
Xamir-To be fair KJ Parker isn’t her/his/its real name. So Joe’s had a lot more practise with his signature.
Inger Marie, Xamir,
Very few foreign language publishers have used direct translations of the title. Most of them sat that fragments of quotations of that kind just don’t work in most languages outside of English. In the main I have very little say in this, I’m rarely consulted at all in fact. But if I am I generally leave it up to the relevant publisher to make the decision. If I don’t speak the language it’s very difficult for me to make a judgement on whether a title works or not. You really have to trust them to know what will work for their market.
Elspeth and others,
I worked in a dispatch office for a few months in which I would sign for sometimes dozens of packages an hour, during which time my signature went from a neat, precise, and clearly legible one to the scrawl you see before you. Signing a thousand books in a couple of hours at the warehouse did the rest of the damage.
Very positive comments, regarding your short story in Swords and Dark Magic, at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist website:
“The Fool Jobs” by Joe Abercrombie is the anthology’s pièce de résistance. It’s a story about Craw and a group of Northmen screwing up an assignment and kicking some serious butt. Likely the best short story of the lot.
http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/
Just finished listening to THE BLADE ITSELF it was great I had almost forgot how good the book is and the guy reading is amazingly talented
how in the hell can your first book be that great? your the man JOE.
audio books are a very good way to enjoy your books twice and they really help make the boring things you have to do in life a thousand times more enjoyable.
the only bad part is the people at work giving me weird looks when i burst out laughing for no reason. (everyone always thinks your listing to music when U have headphones on I don’t even have any music on my Iphone)
Downloading BEFORE THEY ARE HANDED now and I just want to thank you for giving me something to help make life a little more entertaining and putting a smile on my face
P.S. what are the chances of me getting to listen to HEROES (preferably read by the same guy that did THE FIRST LAW) some time next year?