Archive for May, 2010
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Updated Appearances
Here’s a last minute annoucement. Tomorrow, Monday, May 31, at 3:45 PM Pacific time, I’ll be doing a radio interview with John Batchelor. www.JohnBatchelorShow.com
Also, I’ve just updated my schedule for my upcoming tour of Italy. On the Robinhobb.com site, you will see my schedule to the right of this post. Please don’t think that my dates in Roma were dropped; they just don’t appear right now as my site limits how many dates I can display at once. I WILL still be visiting Roma on the 18th of June. Please come and meet me at Nouova Europa Bookstore at 6 or at the Fanucci Bookstore at 10 PM.
I hope to meet lots of readers!
Robin
UPDATE TO ABOVE POST: We didn’t get to record the interview yesterday. A Mylar balloon apparently drifted into some power lines and caused a large power outage for several hours in Tacoma yesterday. And that knocked out my home phone as well.
So we will tape the interview today, and it will air on FRIDAY, June 4, on Mr. Batchelor’s book segment. I’ll ask today what time that is on, and then I’ll post it here. Sorry for the confusion!
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Frequently Asked Questions
There is a FAQ on this website, of course. But sometimes the frequently asked questions are fairly time sensitive, so they don’t really belong in a permanent or semi-permanent FAQ.
Anyway, here are two I’ve been receiving as comments and in my email.Will there be another Rain Wilds book after Dragon Haven? Or, What are you working on now?
I’m working on a book set in the Rain Wilds. My deadline for the writing is December 2010. It will probably appear in print in May of 2012. It doesn’t have a title yet.
The next book that will be published is a story collection called The Inheritance. It features short works by both Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm. Some of the stories have been previously published and others are new.
I went to a webite to order your (book, e-book, audio book) and it said I couldn’t buy it because I live in the (US, UK, Australia, Other Country). Why?
Publishers buy certain rights or licenses to my works. EOS buys the right to publish my manuscripts as books in the US. Voyager buys the right to publish my manuscripts as books in the UK and Australia. E-books and audio books are published under similar licenses. One side effect of this is that English and sometimes Dutch readers can buy my books months before they are available in the US. And the same thing can happen with audio books. They can be available in one country and not yet (or never) published in another country.
And that is because the (publisher, author, agent) is greedy, right?
No, not really. It is how it has always been done. It’s just a bit more apparent now that the Internet exists. When a publisher or audio book publisher or graphic novel adapter approaches my agent or publisher, they make an offer on what rights they wish to buy. In my experience, no one offers for World Rights for anything because no one is in a position to sell Audio Books or Paper Back Books to the entire world. So they make an offer for the licenses they wish to buy, and if we can agree on a price, they get those rights and then they sell those items in that particular market.
Those sales don’t always or even often go directly through my agent. Usually they are sub rights sold by the publisher. And that is why sometime a reader knows about a situation with an ebook before I do.
The author generally does not have control over whether an e-book is issued in a ‘protected’ form or with ‘spoken voice disabled’. Those are publisher choices. Just as a publisher can decide to make a free Kindle version available, for example. Or offer to bundle books and discount them. Promotional decisions like that don’t belong to the author. If they did, for example, there would be uniform hard cover editions of The Farseer Trilogy in the US!
The surest way to find out what formats the books are in for your region is to check the publisher’s website. Although EOS andVoyager are both ‘HarperCollins’ They are not the same at all.
Although I do not endorse Amazon over any other retailer, checking Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk is another way to find out what forms of a book are available for your region. (Or another Amazon for your particular country.)
I hope that explains a very confusing subject!
As always, thanks for being interested enough to ask!
Robin
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Pat’s Fantasy Blogspot Give Away
Here’s a wonderful goodie for collectors and readers of all sorts.
http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2010/05/win-autographed-copies-of-robin-hobbs.htmlThat link goes to, of course, Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist at Blogspot. He’s well known for the great contests and give-aways that he hosts. This one is for autographed copies of Dragon Keeper AND Dragon Haven AND a dragon figurine!
I’ll refer you to Pat’s for more news on how to win it!
Robin
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Of Book Store People, Author Escorts and other Unsung Heroes of a Book Tour
Well, the book tour is all finished except for the plane ride home tomorrow. The second leg of the tour has been just as much fun as the first half.
Tonight I was warmly welcomed by Morgan at Next Chapter Bookstore. Ann had built a great display, complete with dragon finger puppets, and I had a wonderful audience waiting for me. It was a very nice way to end this book tour.
A number of author escorts helped me on this book tour. There were some stores that I drove to myself, of course, but when I’m in an unfamiliar state, I’m always happy to rely on a knowledgeable escort.
Some of the escorts are old friends. I think Larry Lewis has been my escort every time I’ve arrived in San Diego. He always has good tips on where to eat and things to go see in my down time. And of course, he always gets me where I have to be on time.
Delores and Martha were my guides for San Francisco. They’ve been doing this a long time and are very well organized. Even when we had the location wrong, they still got me to the bookstore on time. That’s pretty amazing.
Isabel got me safely to Uncle Hugos, and made sure I made my lunch date with readers from my newsgroup. And Jennie and Amanda teamed up to get me to all my Wisconsin meetings.
A good author escort can make all the difference to a book tour. They do all sorts of behind the scenes tasks. They get to the airport on time despite highway construction. They find cold water and hot coffee, rest rooms and short cuts past traffic. They ‘flap’ books so they are ready to sign and they pass out post-its so the writer spells each name correctly. They jolly along cranky writers (that is never me, of course!) And they point out scenic places, recommend museums or good places for a walk, and help the writer enjoy all the special amenities of an area. Such as frozen custard.
In the bookstores, there are the people who have done all the ground work. Displays are built, podiums set up, microphones tested, ranks of folding chairs set up. Sometimes there are cookies or welcoming cats. Water is offered, coffee is brought. Everything is done to make the guest author comfortable and happy. Even before all that starts, the work starts, with publicity and flyers, books ordered, word of mouth and event space cleared of book displays. It’s a lot of work for bookstores to invite a writer to come in and read and sign. Often it’s done on a Sunday or as an extra, staying open late to accommodate a long reading or an extra busy signing.
So, I think a thank you is due to all of these people who really help me to be ready to read and sign and smile at people. You make these tours a lot of fun. Thanks so much. None of it would happen without you.
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The Joys of Milwaukee
I had an absolutely great day. First, there was the radio interview. And then afterward, I took advantage of Amanda’ s suggestions and visited the Public Market and then went for a stroll on the River walk.My shopping was mostly window shopping, my favorite kind.
Then I came back to the hotel and had some quality time with my characters. I just love rising word counts.
Jennie, my author escort in Milwaukee, successfully navigated us to Boswell Book Company. I have never seen road consruction on the scale they do it here! It is almost as astonishing as the lake!
The Bookstore was delightful. In addition to being stuffed full of books, of course, there was a display of art from local Montessri students. I was particularly struck with the horse figures made from tinfoil and masking tape and yarn. I was amazed that such simple ingredients could yield such cool figurines. And it was a great indication of the connection that Boswell has with the community.
I was warmly welcomed at the bookstore and it had a great set up for readings.
The reading and Q and A went well, with lots of good questions. And afterwards I was able to meet Brad, a long time Internet friend, andalso Rashad, an ambitious young writer. It’s always excitng to talk to someone who stands at the very beginning of a writing career. And it was great to see the enthusiasm
On the way back to the hotel, Jennie introduced me to frozne cstard from Kopps. Oh, my. I cannot believe how good it was. It is definitely something that Milwaukee should be sharing with the rest of theworld. I had the red raspbery.
Jennie, thanks for a unique Milwaukee evening!
Robin
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Milwaukee, WUWM radio and Boswell Book Company
Time to pack up and get ready to move on again. Had a good night of writing!
On to the airport and Milwaukee. Tomorrow I do a public radio interview at 10 AM on WUWM-HD 89.7!
Than I’ll be signing at Boswell Book Company at 7 PM.
Robin -
Anticipation
Isn’t it great to wake up in the morning with something magical to anticipate?
Today is Uncle Hugo’s day!
Uncle Hugo is a rara avis. It’s an indepedent book store. It’s a specialty book store. It’s an SF/fantasy book store! And it’s right next door to Uncle Edgar’s, which shares all of those credentials save that it is for fans of mysteries.
It’s a place of wonderful memories for me. I signed there early in my career as Megan Lindholm, and they made me feel like a Real Writer. I signed there with Steve Brust, my co-conspirator on The Gypsy. And today I will sign there again, meeting new readers. And having a meetup, also, with some wonderful folks from my newsgroup on sff.net. Karen lives in Minneapolis, but Tedrick will drive 11 hours to be there. Cecile is flying in. It will be great, not just to see Karen and Cecile again, and to meet Tedrick for the first time, but to gather them all in such an amazing place.
And who knows who else I might meet today for the first time.
And I even planned ahead. I left room in my suitcase for the books that will somehow leap into my hands while I’m there. And I’ve a notebook to jot down names and authors when my common sense comes to the fore and reminds me that airplanes have a weight limit on luggage.
The staff at Uncle Hugo’s are like personal guardians for my treasure hunt. They will KNOW what I need to read this time. . . .
See you at 1 PM at 2864 Chicago Avenue South, Minneapolis.
Robin
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Book Tour Italy 2010
I am so excited to share these dates with you! As I know more specifics, I will add them here.
Robin Hobb Italian Book Tour 2010
June 12
Parma Festival Del Fantasy 4-7PM Tournament of Creative Writing
June 13
Parma Festival Del Fantasy 11-1PM Book Presentation
June 14
Parma Festival Del Fantasy 6PM Book Presentation
June 15
Pavia Il Delfino Bookstore 6PM Book Presentation
June 16
Milano FNAC Bookstore 5:30 PM Book Presentation
June 17
Firenze Melbookstore 6PM Book Presentation
June 18
Roma Nuova Europa Bookstore 6PM Book Presentation
Fanucci Bookstore 10PM Book signing
But of course, please don’t forget that I have several US stops this month before I depart for Italy in June.
Tomorrow I will be at Eagle Harbor Books on Bainbridge Island here in Washington. 7:30 PM, at 157 Winslow Way E.
Saturday the 22nd, I’ll be at Uncle Hugo’s in Minneapolis at 1PM. That’s at 2864 Chicago Avenue South. It will be good to see old friends.
Monday the 24th of May, I’m off to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to visit Boswell Book Company at 259 North Downer Avenue. I’ll be there at 7PM.
And Tuesday will mark the final stop of my US book stour as I visit Next Chapter Bookstore in Mequon Wisconsin. The time is 7PM and the address is 10976 North Port Washington Road.
I’ve really been enjoying this book tour!
Robin
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Eagle Harbor Books
This will be my next stop, on Thursday at 7:30 PM. Eagle Harbor Books is at 157 Winslow Way East on Bainbridge Island. The drive from here is about an hour but I’m actually looking forward to it, and will probably leave a bit early so I can have light for it. It goes through one of my favorite sections of Washington State.
I’ll be doing a reading from Dragon Haven, and then a question and answer session, followed by signing books. Then coffee and the drive back home!
I hope to see some of you there!
Robin
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Picture worth more than 10,000 words!
Cover art for French Graphic Novel 'Assassin Royal' 4
Wow. Just wow. I think that sums it up. Soleil does it again.
Robin
