Timeline for Why was it so difficult for Dune to find a book publisher?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
13 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 7 at 11:09 | vote | accept | Andrew | ||
| Nov 7 at 3:31 | answer | added | John Boston | timeline score: 7 | |
| Nov 6 at 17:29 | comment | added | Andrew | Fair enough. Thanks | |
| Nov 6 at 16:38 | comment | added | JBH | Speaking as a micro publisher, By the time Herbert was shopping Dune he had exactly one book (previously in Astounding Science Fiction) under his belt and the two Amazing Stories serializations. Then he shows up with this massive book (by the standards of the day). Publishers are the investment arm of the book industry and investing in a large book from a fundamentally unproven author hosting a fairly complex relationship with politics and religion in post WWII/early Cold War America was (IMO) a huge risk. That it took time doesn't surprise me. | |
| Nov 6 at 13:13 | comment | added | Paul D. Waite | People don’t like sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere. | |
| Nov 6 at 11:04 | comment | added | Andrew | Brain glitch -I'll correct | |
| Nov 6 at 11:04 | history | edited | Andrew | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Nov 6 at 4:49 | comment | added | M. A. Golding | @Andrew Your statement that "But the story had been anthologized in Analog and had won a Hugo Award..." is incorrect. It should say "But the story had been serialized in Analog and had won a Hugo Award..." By definition a story can't be anthologized in its first publication. Dune was serialized in Analog as Dune world 1963-64 and Prophet of Dune 1965, then combined and published as a much longer novel. | |
| Nov 6 at 1:20 | comment | added | DavidW | @Buzz carterprinting.com/glossary/what-book-signature For most older mass-market books, it was 32 pages (16 physical leafs). It's why a lot of 1960s paperbacks had 160 or 192 pages. | |
| Nov 6 at 1:01 | comment | added | PatWagnerDenver | About that time, a publisher might prefer that authors whose proposed books were over a certain length, determined in part with the limitations of the presses used by the printer, would divide the content into two or more volumes. Series make more money than a single book. I used to work with mainstream authors; they were pressured to sign multi-volumes contracts - sometimes for one book "chopped up" and sometimes a series, perhaps with the same characters. I know one successful author who refused to sign such a contract - made a lot less money, but less deadline headaches. | |
| Nov 6 at 0:53 | comment | added | Buzz | @DavidW Do you mean quires? I'm not familiar with that sense of signature. | |
| Nov 6 at 0:34 | comment | added | DavidW | Honestly, it's probably entirely down to size. Look at most genre books published in the 60s and 70s, and they're 5 or 6 signatures long. Looks like Dune was 14 signatures long in its initial printing. | |
| Nov 6 at 0:04 | history | asked | Andrew | CC BY-SA 4.0 |