News: Gollancz announces major new Michael Moorcock publishing project

[Whiskers]

Gollancz has announced a major two-year publishing project to release the entire science fiction and fantasy back catalogue of Michael Moorcock in both print and eBook editions, as well as a substantial amount of his literary fiction.

Starting in February 2013, the programme will bring back all of Moorcock’s genre works including Hawkmoon, Corum, Von Bek, the Eternal Champion books and, of course, his most famous creation, Elric. At the same time Gollancz will also publish Moorcock’s Jerry Cornelius novels, The Brothel in Rosenstrasse and other non-genre fiction.

The newly published books are definitive editions, carefully prepared with the author and his long-standing friend, bibliographer and editor, John Davey. The new versions will be particularly important to fans as they will present the Elric stories in a consistent internal chronological order together with associational material never previously published.

The books will be published by Gollancz as print omnibus editions with a matching livery. Individual eBooks will be published by SF Gateway, Gollancz’s ground-breaking online SF&F digital library of classic genre fiction. The programme begins with the publication of the last three Elric novels: Daughter of Dreams, Destiny’s Brother and Son of the Wolf.

“I am extremely pleased to be continuing a relationship with Victor Gollancz which began nearly fifty years ago,” said Moorcock. “This new programme will make available many of my books which have been hard to obtain in any form and will now be available in both print and electronic form in newly revised definitive editions prepared by myself and my long-standing friend and editor John Davey.”

[Governor of Rowe Island]

Originally Posted by Whiskers

The programme begins with the publication of the last three Elric novels: Daughter of Dreams, Destiny’s Brother and Son of the Wolf.

[JohnDavey]

Dear all,

Quote (Gov.): "".

Retitles; as simple as that -- you can't say it hasn't happened once or thrice before -- and revisions, to boot...

Best,


John.

[Governor of Rowe Island]

I should have guessed, John.

[Marca]

Welcome news indeed

And more Chaos for Moorcock bibliographers, though you'll have all the inside info John

I'm waiting to see what these will look like. Will they be hardback and paperback releases, like the Orion sets? Will there be anything ultra-obscure for the die-hard Moorcockians?

[JohnDavey]

Dear all,

Quote (Marca): "Will they be hardback and paperback releases, like the Orion sets? Will there be anything ultra-obscure for the die-hard Moorcockians?"

Well, they'll be different from the Millennium/Orion sets, definitely -- and from the White Wolf ones, too -- contentwise. All thoroughly re-copyedited and (wherever necessary) revised. But quite what they'll look like, I don't yet know.

As to "anything ultra-obscure", I suppose it depends on your definition of the term. There'll be one or two small surprises, I would hope...

Best,


John.

[MWalsh]

I need to backfill with Hawkmoon and Corum, so this is weclomed news indeed!

MW

[Guzzlecrank]

Fantastic. This might be a stupid question, but will US purchasers seeking paper copies of the new editions need to order books from London or will there be distribution on this side of the Atlantic?

Also: is there any way to get email alerts about the new editions as they're released?

[David Mosley]

Originally Posted by Guzzlecrank

Also: is there any way to get email alerts about the new editions as they're released?

I'm sure we'll let everyone know about the new editions as soon as we know anything ourselves, but you could try Gollancz's own blog newsletter which you can subscribe to at www.gollancz.co.uk.

@Marca: We're gonna need a bigger Image Hive!

[Octo Seven]

Great news!

[Michael Moorcock]

Sorry, Guz -- technically and legally the books are only for publication in UK & territories but it shouldn't be hard to order them through someone like John Davey.

[Guzzlecrank]

Thanks for the info, Mike: I'll certainly contact John for the ones I'm going to pick up!

[MWalsh]

Originally Posted by Michael Moorcock

Sorry, Guz -- technically and legally the books are only for publication in UK & territories but it shouldn't be hard to order them through someone like John Davey.

Good knowing this!

MW

[GuyLawley]

Originally Posted by Governor of Rowe Island

I'll have to be first - possibly last - to say that I prefer the original titles of the "Albino Underground" trilogy.

Having got that out of the way; what excellent news!
(I've been looking for a good excuse to build a couple of extra bookshelves.)

Some of us heard back at the time of the British Library New Worlds event that something was afoot, at least with e-books, but this surpasseth expectations.

Hats off to John Davey for his sterling work.

[FeAnPi]

Only UK? A good reason to hope EU to remain stable, and my precious amazon.co.uk to ship to Italy without an obnoxious custom tariff.

[JohnDavey]

Dear all,

Quote (Guy): "I prefer the original titles of the 'Albino Underground' trilogy".

I dunno. Always sounded a bit like a resistance movement, to me!

Quote (various): "will US purchasers seeking paper copies of the new editions need to order books from London or will there be distribution on this side of the Atlantic"; "Only UK?"

I can't imagine, in these days of global markets in general, and of Amazondotscum in particular, that it's very hard for anyone to get anything from anywhere, is it?

Best,


John.

[JohnDavey]

Dear all,

Quote (Opaloka): "Odd that if I order a single book from Amazon UK, shipping is about eight pounds".

When much of what they sell is being offered to the public for less than I can buy at trade, how else d'you think they make their money?

Meanwhile, I'm (not surprisingly) being asked for contents and schedule details with regard to the new publishing programme.

I'm not sure how much is being revealed (nor when), but would hope to be able to post something rather more significant here in a week or so's time.

It's pretty astonishing to realise that it's 20 years since the Orion/Millennium omnibuses appeared, and 18 since White Wolf began theirs, so this new and improved retrospective is long overdue.

Best,


John.

[JohnDavey]

Dear all,

That's odd!

Having just posted a reply, at the start of which I refer to a previous posting by Opaloka, am I the only one who can no longer see his/her posting?

It's almost as if mine overwrote it...?

Best,


John.

[opaloka]

Sorry Jiohn, I was adding to my post and got distracted... their domestic shipping is extremely discounted (free in a lot of cases, or very cheap if you are a 'prime' member) so they must only make pennies a sale with those discounts, in many cases selling the product at a loss as well.

The rates are per book no matter what book you are getting, so transatlantic shipping could be based on a sort of 'worst case scenario' of the heaviest table-top tome. I gather that publishers like to have their territories staked out firmly, and there's no way to put region coding on a book - I'm sure they would if they could. So I thought perhaps that high shipping was a gesture to publishers to try and keep the N. American and European markets seperate. They don't seem to be trying to discourage people from ordering internationally in general though, they have a built-in currency converter.

I wonder if the new editions are coming out on the Orion imprint?

[ericrosenfield]

I understand that the books will only be published in print in the UK, but will those of us in the US (and other countries) be able to buy the ebooks? Or will there be some kind of block on the website to prevent it?