We've got an agreement for a deal to have a Russian edition of "Sir Apropos of Nothing" produced. It will be available in Germany as well, and a Spanish publisher is making inquiries.
Meantime, there remains absolutely zero interest in the title from publishers in England. Go figure.
PAD
Posted by Peter David at December 12, 2002 10:51 PM | TrackBack | Other blogs commentingAs the original home of the landed gentry, maybe they just don't appreciate your making light of the feudal system. Or maybe they're just weird--they cancelled "Ultraviolet," after all.
Odd, i live in the UK and love to read more of you books. the only one i managed to get was the Hulk - What savage beast.
I managed to buy Sir Apropos from Borders in London, so obviously some enterprising soul has managed to bring a few copies in. Even better, the price was just a rough dollar conversion, significantly cheaper than it would have been if published in the UK.
I believe I've mentioned my uphill slog in trying to get hold of your novels in bookshops here in the UK before PAD, so I won't go into it again, other than to say that the only ones I've been able to find are the 'Star Trek' books and the 'Spider-Man' movie book. I have seriously considered getting a credit card for the sole reason of being able to purchase your books on the Internet... Is this extreme?
Well, people in the UK can order it from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0441009360/ref=pd_bxgy_text_2_cp/202-3409265-7222222
I think I got my copy from "Forbidden Planet" in London, who do quite a good job of importing American books.
Hi Peter.
Could the spanish publisher be Dolmen Editions, the ones who publish your "But I digress" column?
Thanks for the answer :)
Looking forward to reading your novels
SIR APROPOS in Russia. SIR APROPOS in Germany. Maybe SIR APROPOS in Spain. No SIR APROPOS in England. Hm. Maybe there's a translation problem.
Bill
Even when there were also English edition of Star Trek books, most book shops offered the US versions anyway. Also, most fans I know (including myself) always preferred the original US version. Nowadays there is no difference between them anyway, except for a label with a different bar code on the back.
It is no different with the paperback of the first Apropos book. I have seen it in shops.
Westerns are pretty much dead in the U.S., but popular in the rest of the world; perhaps the equivalent holds for Arthurians and England.
Even if no UK publisher has expressed interest in publishing the book themselves, ought not the export department of your US publisher be able to sell the book reasonably well into international markets? Is it that your contract with your US publisher does not authorize them to export the book into other territories?
Given the wordplay and repartee, jsut how well do translations of these novels do? Obviously the underlying drama woould work equally well, but would the humor?
Maybe the way to pitch Sir Apropos to a British publisher is by saying, "You can tap the market that loves Mervyn Peake and Gormenghast with Sir Apropos." The parallels are there, though Apropos isn't quite the total bastard that Steerpike is, and he at least has some morals, which Steerpike doesn't, but Entipy is loonier than Fuschia, and there's no young Titus to be found. Okay, maybe we should nix that pitch idea--it was total crap.
About the translation of the P.David books, I had to say...
...that is a thankless task. Everybody is nitpicking your errors and forgetting the effort in retain the "voice" of the translated author.
Being the spanish translator of the Spider-Man novelization, I can say that the humor of the "wordplay and repartee" can be translated. With hard work and lots of headaches.
More difficult is to translate slang or cultural references not known in Spain (the “gorgeous george” bit was very frustrating; thank god for Google).
Frankly, I am afraid, very afraid, thinking in my next Peter David job… and I have at least one in my agenda.
All that said, always is a pleasure to translate an author who knows how to write. Even with the extra hard work.
Being from Ireland i had difficulty getting Knight Life and the Sir Apropos books here (never a problem with the trek books though), and always wondered why... now i know.
As for getting a credit card to buy books, well i did (getting book was just part of the reason, but a big one!)
funzo! Funzo!! FUNZO!!!
I'm glad that at last PAD books are going to be translated to spanish. Two years ago i hoped that some trek books would see an spanish version with the rebirth of the line in Spain. i was wrong (they only published 3 books, closing the line after that).
I hope Dolmen Ediciones get the deal. Though Alberto Santos publishes good books, i'm not very satisfied with their editions. They use an awful paper.
Anyway, it's a great book to begin with.