Day: November 12, 2008

Variety has reported that a town in Turkey called Batman is suing Warner Bros. and film director Christopher Nolan for what they deem improper use of their town’s name. According to Variety, Mayor Huseyin Kalkan blames the film for an increase in crime and suicide among depressed citizens who are distressed to see their city’s name usurped. Kalkan stated, “There is only one Batman in the world. The American producers used the name of our city without informing us.”

I wonder how he’ll react when he learns his surname was appropriated by pet food manufacturers.

PAD

Variety has reported that a town in Turkey called Batman is suing Warner Bros. and film director Christopher Nolan for what they deem improper use of their town’s name. According to Variety, Mayor Huseyin Kalkan blames the film for an increase in crime and suicide among depressed citizens who are distressed to see their city’s name usurped. Kalkan stated, “There is only one Batman in the world. The American producers used the name of our city without informing us.”

I wonder how he’ll react when he learns his surname was appropriated by pet food manufacturers.

PAD

Over the last year or two I’ve received quite a few inquiries from fans asking why they can’t find “Out of the Darkness,” the third book in the Centauri Prime trilogy “Legions of Fire.” Okay, you CAN find it, but it will run you $35 all the way up to $70.

Welcome to what Max Allan Collins refers to in publishing as the net sales death spiral. It goes as follows:

Let’s say the guys who order the books for Borders and B&N order–just tossing out a number–50,000 copies of the first book in a series. Average sell-through on a book is 50-60%. Let’s be generous and say that book then actually sells 30,000 copies. The next book in the series comes out, they order 30,000 copies. Which means that the book will sell maybe 20,000 copies. So the next book, they’ll order 20,000 copies.

In the case of the three B5 books I wrote, the bookbuyers ordered X for the first one, X-50% for the second, and X-50% of that for the third. Meantime the series only became more popular, not less. In the long term, this isn’t necessarily a problem because the publisher can go back to press as the demand continues to increase. But the licensing agreement ran out, so they were unable to go back to press on the third because they no longer have the rights to the property.

Which is why you can’t find the third book.

PAD