Today is the release day for Bearers of the Black Staff in the United Kingdom! It is published by Orbit Books.
Therefore, today could also be the release day for Black Staff in Australia as well, since Orbit Books publishes Terry down under. If you are a fan and you live in either of those two geographical areas, definitely call your local bookstore. They may have Bearers of the Black Staff in stock! Happy Reading!
7 responses to “Bearers of the Black Staff Released in UK!”
Looking forward to reading this very much!
Interesting how the Black Staff is crooked on the British cover and straight on the American cover!!
why is that?
Harjinder
http://www.myspace.com/nodefrequency
Fantastic it is now out in the UK…. Just waiting for my e-book version… shame ebook not out at same time as hardback… but another Terry Brooks book is always worth the wait….
Wow, I think the UK cover design is much better!! I also notice that the staff carried by the guy on the cover is different between the UK and US versions.
Unfortunately, Orbit Books did not straighten the black staff, which is how Terry prefers it to be. Right now, the most definitive image we have of a black staff is on the US cover of Bearers of the Black Staff.
I live in Australia and can’t wait for the ebook. Hope it does not take as long as the last book I was waiting for (from another author) paper back was in stores for 6 months before the ebook was available on Amazon.
I’ve been reading Terry Brooks work since the original 1977 release of ‘The Sword of Shannara’ (it’s still there on my bookshelf). Would love to read the new book as an e-Book but not at the rip-off price being charged. For example on the Amazon US website the e-Book is dearer than the hardback edition. Why do you expect your customers to pay the same for a product whose costs are a tiny fraction of that for a physical product?
Some things you should know before you start pointing fingers, Paul:
1) Terry is a writer. He writes books. He has no control over cover price.
2) The publisher has control over cover price, but not at what price that cover price is discounted.
3) Amazon does have the power to set their own prices on Terry’s books, including eBooks. They are the people you need to be writing instead of Terry or his publisher.
Some other things you need to know:
4) Amazon practices a financial risk called “loss-leading.” If you don’t know what that is, please do a Google search. In short, they lose money on every eBook they sell at $9.99.
5) For every $9.99 book that Amazon sells, they have to contractually give the publisher — in this case Random House — $14.00.
6) The “tiny fraction” you allude to is quite wrong. The physical trappings of a book only cost around $3.00. Distribution only takes 40% of the cover price, around $10. Both of those aren’t needed for an eBook. Together that makes $13 of the $27. Where is the rest of that $14 needed? The publisher’s profit is a very small margin. Don’t forget, they have to pay for editing, copyediting, book layout, cover art, cover layout, marketing, publicity, book tour, and many other things you don’t see as a reader. All things that are included and needed in an eBook release. All things that take money used from the majority of that $14.
In short, your issue is with Amazon. Not Terry. And not his publisher. And no matter what you think, Terry is just a writer. Even being a bestselling writer, he has literally no control over how his books are released or the price point they release at–and especially what discount places like Amazon decide to give. Write them.