Wednesday, April 8, 2020

The Business: Zahn Abandons OldPub

In case you missed it, veteran Science Fiction author (and the man who single-handedly made the Star Wars Expanded Universe into what it was) Timothy Zahn launched out of the dying OldPub edifice and went wholly independent with his new release- a novella, GHOST RIDERS IN THE SKY.


(Clink on the image to buy the book.)

The leading Hispanic voice in Science Fiction, and the great revivalist in comics, Jon del Arroz had this to say.

Friend of the Retreat (and my editor) Brian Niemeier concurred:

"Newpub authors have been predicting high-profile defections from oldpub for years. The battered spouse mentality engendered by the Big Five publishers kept their exploited talent on the reservation longer than expected, but now their business model's collapse has finally prompted an A+ list author to jump the fence.

You can be sure that Zahn won't be the last."

This on the heels of the announcement that Corona-chan so screwed up the paper production pipeline that OldPub relies upon that their entire business prospects for the year are looking dodgy and as such the collapse of the Big Five into Four or less is all but guaranteed to accelerate at this point.

I'll have to check the accounts, but at $3 this novella is a steal; down here is where ebook pricing should be and not at OldPub's stupid insistence on being comparable to a hardcover copy. And once you're done with that, I've got my own stuff still available to read; more coming soon.

1 comment:

  1. Bradford

    I see tradpub selling off its imprints to stave off bankruptcy.
    And lo and behold like the opening of the Soviet censorship files we'll discover suppressed classics.
    As well as an awesome backlist.

    xavier

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