The trouble with good ideas is that they are often very obvious. When I started Wizard’s Tower last year one of the things I thought I could do was use ebooks to publish the back lists of authors whose work had fallen out of print. I knew that this would only work if the big publishers felt that such an enterprise was not worth the effort. Little did I know that Gollancz was already working on a similar project. It has taken them a while to go public with it, but the press release came out today and it sounds very impressive.
The real spark of genius, however, is the linking of the ebook catalog to another Gollancz project, the Clute/Langford online version of the SF Encyclopedia. A hat tip to Darren Nash for that one.
The list of authors given in the press release is as follows: Poul Anderson, Barrington J. Bayley, Gregory Benford, Michael Bishop, James P. Blaylock, James Blish, Marion Zimmer Bradley, John Brosnan, Fredric Brown, John Brunner, Algis Budrys, Kenneth Bulmer, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Pat Cadigan, John W. Campbell, Jr, Terry Carr, Arthur C. Clarke, Hal Clement, D.G. Compton, Michael G. Coney, Edmund Cooper, Richard Cowper, John Crowley, L. Sprague de Camp, Samuel R. Delany, Philip K. Dick, Gordon R. Dickson, Christopher Evans, Philip Jose Farmer, John Russell Fearn, Alan Dean Foster, Mary Gentle, Mark S. Geston, Joseph L. Green, Colin Greenland, Nicola Griffith, Joe Haldeman, Harry Harrison, Frank Herbert, Philip E. High, Robert Holdstock, Cecelia Holland, Robert E. Howard, Raymond F. Jones, Leigh Kennedy, Garry Kilworth, Damon Knight, Henry Kuttner, Tanith Lee, Murray Leinster, H.P. Lovecraft, Katherine MacLean, Barry N. Malzberg, Phillip Mann, David I. Masson, C.L. Moore, Ward Moore, Edgar Pangborn, Frederik Pohl, Rachel Pollack, Tim Powers, Mack Reynolds, Keith Roberts, Eric Frank Russell, Josephine Saxton, Bob Shaw, Robert Silverberg, Clifford D. Simak, Dan Simmons, John Sladek, Cordwainer Smith, E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith, Norman Spinrad, Olaf Stapledon, Theodore Sturgeon, William Tenn, Sheri S. Tepper, James Tiptree, Jr, E.C. Tubb, George Turner, Harry Turtledove, Jack Vance, Ian Watson, Ted White, Kate Wilhelm, Connie Willis, Robert Charles Wilson, Gene Wolfe.
Doubtless more will be added in due course. For more information and regular updates, see the official website.
It’s the Night of the Living Backlist! Huzzah!
Thanks Cheryl, but I can’t take credit for the idea of linking the SFE to the site – that was Malcolm Edward’s genius plan.
Please tell me that these ebooks will be available to US customers.
Thanks.
I don’t suppose Gollancz would voluntarily miss out on the US market, but whether they can sell the books there depends on what rights they have been able to purchase. The answer may not be the same for every book.