I had a delivery yesterday, and you can see above what was in the box. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was considering buying some physical ponyfic books, but that I'd have to pick and choose as US-printed books would be both much more expensive and (right now, at least) very slow in getting here. So I restricted my pool to those available on Lulu with UK printing. In the end I chose:
The Celestia Code by iisaw
Fanfare for the Common Mare by Admiral Biscuit
The Mono-Logues by Monochromatic
Tales from the Civil Service by GhostofHeraclitus
That little lot, together with standard postage, set me back £26.81, which I think is good value – though it would have been well over double that if I'd had to factor in Transatlantic shipping. All the books seem to be in very good condition, and apart from slight irritation at Fanfare for the Common Mare's greyish sans serif body-text font, I'm happy with their general layout and presentation.
You'll note that I've indulged my general preference for short stories over novels, and I'm pleased to report that there are literally dozens of them in the three books that take that form. The one exception is The Celestia Code, but a) that's great, b) it was really cheap and c) my name is in it. Well, sort of: it's on the extract from my Ponyfic Roundup review that's on the back cover. :P
Naturally, the moment these books arrive and I start thinking about relaxing with one in the garden, the weather in Worcestershire takes it upon itself to switch from "warm and sunny" to "freezing cold with a howling northeasterly". I have a bone to pick with those weather pegasi...
Ooh... those all look lovely.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to seeing them in person at the next physical Worcester meet.
Well, the next one I attend, which realistically probably won't be the first one after the resumption. But I look forward to it in any case!
DeleteAll great choices! (Modest? Me?)
ReplyDeleteI said in my Royal Canterlot Library interview (Me too!) that "If you’re publishing stories and you aren't at least a little bit vain, you’re a liar." And you have no reason at all to be modest about your book. It's great!
DeleteHow do these ponyfic books manage to get published legally, wouldn't Hasbro normally see these as copyright infringement or something?
ReplyDeleteI suppose Hasbro could crack down if they wanted to, but then they could do so with online fanfic as well. I believe one reason they're not worried is that these books are generally sold at cost, so the authors don't make a profit.
DeleteAnd sometimes they spend 10,000 dollars to get their fanfic legally labelled a parody! :V
DeleteI'm clearly missing some context here...
Delete