Play It Again Sam
If you haven’t checked out the discussion by Wendy and Kassia about Jennifer Crusie’s re-release of Anyone But You at PBR - go check it out. They are funny and smart. They share a love for all things Crusie but manage to find fault. Then there’s the part where they did so well without me…
Since I haven’t read the book but did purchase it, I have some thoughts on the buying process. Taking a second to whine - while I am all for authors making money, including making gobs of money from backlist titles, this propensity to re-release old paperback titles in hardcover form needs to stop. First, it leads to several conversations per month with my mom (sorry mom) that go like this:
Mom: Sandra Brown/Nora Roberts/some other female writer has a new book out called XXXX.
HKD: It’s not new.
Mom: It just came out.
HKD: It’s not new. It’s from the 1980s.
Mom: I don’t think so.
HKD: It’s not new.
Thanks to publishing houses, we have engaged in this discussion, well, let’s just say several times. Then there’s the cost issue. Should a former category romance that cost somewhere around $3.00 when it was first released now cost $14.00? Answer: no.
While I find all of this annoying, there is a publishing phenomenon I like even less: the re-release that has been edited/doctored by the author in some way. To provide extra confusion, sometimes these new versions have new titles. Elizabeth Lowell is famous for this. She takes old category romances, rewrites parts and re-releases with a new hefty price tag.
Again: money for authors=good. Confusing the hell out of readers=bad. Write something new then charge the new price.
January 19th, 2006 at 11:09 am
Oh, yeah, I too hate it when an author has a re-released title in which they’ve made “changes”. My biggest bugaboo was Judith McNaught’s “Whitney, My Love,” in which the new and improved version included the removal of certain aspects that too many readers had found offensive. I’d read the original (and enjoyed it very much, thank you) but felt compelled to check out what was different. And IMO, I think the original was better. Too bad McNaught caved to peer pressure on that one.
January 19th, 2006 at 2:56 pm
I was thinking Elizabeth Lowell as I read this. Especially since she took Tell Me No Lies, which I love and released it into a trade paperback. I wonder if it was changed? And she just re-released Secret Sisters which was formerly published under her Ann Maxwell name. I don’t think it says anywhere on either book that they were previously pubbed. Very sneaky and I dislike that quite a bit. And like you and Lynn, I would prefer that there not be plot changes.
January 19th, 2006 at 10:57 pm
I agree!!!
January 20th, 2006 at 8:20 pm
I agree it seems a trifle unfair, but don’t put a pot to boil waiting for them to stop recycling. It’s the easiest way to make money. Those books land right back on the bestseller lists as if they were brand new because most of the author’s new readership are clueless that it’s recycled material.
At least Nora Roberts marks her *actual* new releases with the NR logo so readers can tell the difference.